Quilatan, Rust win BassMaster High School Tournament

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Hello Folks,

We had a busy last week with all the tournaments here in town. We had BassMaster and MLF as well. The BassMaster High School Tournament was held last week and congrats to Dylan Quilatan and Tommy Rust on their win last week. They hit the scales with 5 bass that weighed in at 21 pounds, 10 ounces. There were 167 boats in the tournament and they won by a 3-1/2- pound margin.

Their win will qualify them to fish the High School National Championship later this year. They practiced for two weeks leading up to this tournament. They caught their winning stringer in Lake Dora, and Lake Beauclair. Those were the two lakes that were more consistent durin’ the tournament. The reason they chose those two lakes was because they had the most eelgrass flats. They were catchin’ their bass on swim-baits with either a 1/2-ounce or a 1/8-ounce jig-head. They used Head Hunter Lures PT ringer or 7” No Live Bait Needed K-Tail on their jigs. Congrats again to Dylan and Tommy on their win on the Harris Chain.

Also last week, BassMaster held their two-day college tournament on the Harris Chain. They had to cancel the first day of the tournament due to high winds, rain and bad weather. Congrats to the team of Jake Peck and Luke Wyle from Auburn University who won the tournament. They had 5 bass that hit the scales at 23 pounds and 2 ounces. They caught their winnin’ stringer in Lake Beauclair. They chose Lake Beauclair because they caught a seven-pounder in that lake durin’ practice. They caught their bass around shell bars amid sparse grass. They also caught the big bass of the tournament with an eight-pound, 14-ounce bass to secure their win.

Jake and Luke caught all their bass on Neko-rigged green pumpkin Berkley MaxScent Hit worms. They had a lot of company fishin’ in Lake Beauclair, and the key to their win was fishin’ slow. They said that it took them about five minutes per cast to get those big bass to bite. They had used up all their patience by the end of the day.

The second-place team of Syler Prince and Parker Stalvey of St. Johns River State College fished all day in Lake Griffin. They caught all their bass on Rat-L-Traps and 1/2 ounce Chatter-baits. They used the 3.5-inch Bass Assassin Lit’l Boss Trailers to catch all their bass. They only had one keeper in the boat at 10 a.m. They had a ten-minute flurry and that helped them catch all their weight. They were makin’ a drift through the grass and they ran into the bass and were able to finish out a limit.

Kyle at Bitter’s Bait & Tackle reports that the specks are still bitin’ in Lake Monroe and Lake Jesup. They are catchin’ some specks in Lake Kissimmee, too. Most of the specks are bein’ caught on minners.

  Well, I hope y’all have a great week and I’ll see ya next time.

Tip of the week: Bass are bitin’.

Save a few and good luck!