SANFORD, Fla. – Building clouds muted the sunrise and a light breeze had the American flag rustling during the national anthem, but teams fishing the FLW National Guard College Fishing Series Southeastern Regional Championship on Lake Monroe should find favorable conditions to start the event.
A cold front creeping across the south won’t reach Central Florida until Monday, but showers and possibly thunderstorms may enter the picture as early as tomorrow afternoon. That being said, days one and two will benefit from the approaching weather.
Fall finds bass feeding heavily to pack on the weight they’ll need to survive winter. No one needs to tell them to eat, but the fish know when a cold front is headed their way and they’ll work overtime to fill their bellies before they’re limited by changing weather and the resulting high pressure on the backside of a front.
Cloudy skies will extend the topwater bite throughout the day, but the lack of sunshine could limit other patterns. Bright, warm conditions push bass into cover like docks, grass and wood. When skies are dim, the fish tend to roam more, so anglers will have to cover more water and locate the fish.
Prior to takeoff, Tom Frink of Kennesaw State University was tying on a Carolina rig with a Jackal flick shake worm. He and teammate Jake Akin will keep this and other bottom contact rigs handy for what he predicts will be day of patient fishing.
“I don’t throw a Carolina rig a lot, but you have to slow down in Florida,” Frink said. “We’ll be Carolina rigging shell beds and flipping Sweet Beavers in (shoreline vegetation).
“The biggest thing – just typical Florida – is slowing down, picking stuff apart, getting in an area where there’s fish and sticking it out. I don’t think it’s going to take a lot of bites, but you definitely need to capitalize on the bites you get.”
Phillip Hopper from the University of Tennessee will start out with flukes and trick worms in the morning and then transition to flipping cover in the afternoon. If the wind increases later in the day, Hopper said he’ll stay on the trolling motor to maintain optimal boat positioning and speed.
“I’m not going to let the conditions affect me,” Hopper said. “I’m just going to fish real slow.”
Some will start today with a good plan based on practice success. Others may need more time to dial in their patterns. Monroe’s 9,400 acres provides ample room for the 19-boat field to spread out, but prudent time management will allow teams to fish as far as they want within tournament boundaries.
The hometown team from the University of Central Florida – Matt Norman and Dustin Lauer – will be working mostly shoreline structure with worms. Lauer predicts that many teams will end up fishing fairly close to one another.
“On this lake, you need to find some grass or bottom cover,” Lauer said. “You have not that big of a lake and not that many fish. They’re in a little bit of water and they’re in a couple of key areas. It won’t be too hard for so to see where all the boats are. It’s just going to be about landing the fish you get. If you get a bite, set the hook and you’d better bring him in.”
Tournament logistics
The top five FLW College Fishing teams from each of the four regular-season Southeastern Division tournaments gained automatic entry into the 2009 Southeastern Regional Championship at the University of Central Florida. During the three-day regional event, 20 two-man collegiate angling teams will compete for a top award of $50,000, which includes a 177TR Ranger wrapped in school colors and powered by an Evinrude or Yamaha outboard engine.
Daily takeoffs are at 7 a.m. at the public boat ramp at Monroe Harbour, located at 531 N. Palmetto Avenue in Sanford. Day one weigh-ins start at 5:30 p.m. at the University of Central Florida’s IOA Plaza. Weigh-ins start at 4 p.m. on days two and three.
University of Central Florida will also host the Reel Life Festival in conjunction with the Southeast Regional Championship. The free festival, located at the University of Central Florida’s IOA Plaza, will feature a Battle of the Bands, the National Guard Warrior Challenge ropes course, rock-climbing wall, paintball range, geocaching plus a variety of other activities that will kick-off Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. On Sunday, the Reel Life Festival continues from noon to 4 p.m. Monday, the Reel Life Festival will run in conjunction with the tournament weigh-in from 4 to 7 p.m. Reel Life Festival visitors can register to win iPod Nanos, which will be given away Saturday-Sunday, and a MacBook Air, which will be given away Nov. 23.
The top five teams from each of the five National Guard regional championships (Western, Central, Northern, Texas and Southeast) will advance to the National Guard National Championship April 10-12, 2010, in Knoxville, Tenn. The winning team at the national championship will qualify for the prestigious 2010 Forrest Wood Cup.
Saturday’s conditions:
Sunrise: 6:56 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 64 degrees
Expected high temperature: 81 degrees
Water temperature: 60-61 degrees
Wind: from the NE at 5-8 mph
Max. Humidity: 76 percent
Day’s outlook: Partly cloudy