Unique Rule Levels Playing Field For New Kissimmee Bass Series Out Of Camp Mack
With a select few anglers dominating tournaments on Kissimmee entries began to fall in recent years as other anglers felt they had little or no chance of winning, said Charlie Wynperle, who has started a new tournament trail – the Kissimmee Bass Series – out of Camp Mack’s River Resort.
Wynperle launched the series, which kicks off Sunday, after Ted and Maxine Meyer decided to end the Camp Mack Tournament Series last year. He and his partner decided they needed to come up with a new wrinkle to get more anglers involved in their new series.
“The weights had got out of hand,” Wynperle said. “I saw a guy weigh in 33 pounds in a tournament last year and he did not get a check. All of a sudden the tournaments were going down.”
The premise they came up with was a five-fish limit – but only one can be over 22 inches long – which he believes will level the playing field considerably. No longer will a few anglers dominate the tournaments because they are the best in the area at locating and catching huge bass.
“Now you are really going to have to bring your A-game to bring in a 25-pound sack of fish,” Wynperle said. “And it’s going to help conservation. Now you won’t have to keep a lot of big fish alive. Now you will have just one big fish to keep alive.”
After posting the tournament rules on Facebook, Wynperle said the response has been “phenomenal.”
“I suggested we have a minimum of 50 boats,” he said, “but I won’t be surprised if we have closer to 80 boats.”
There was, however, the expected griping from the consistent winners of past tournaments.
“I’ve already heard from some top-notch fishermen. They say, ‘You can’t let us bring in just one big fish.’ But we wanted to make it fair for everybody,” he said.
“Now, if you come to the scales with 20 pounds I am going to send you home with a check. The same guys who won tournament after tournament – you are not going to see that anymore.”
Anglers will pay a one-time registration fee, then $50 per boat for each tournament with an optional $20 Big Bass Pot for a 100 percent payback. The schedule includes: Jan 25; Feb 22; Mar 22, the Kissimmee Bass Series SPRING FLING Apr 25-26; May 31; Jun 28; Jul 26; Aug 23; and Sept 27; with the Kissimmee Bass Series CLASSIC Oct 24-25; all out of Camp Mack’s River Resort on the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes.
“I told everybody we are going to put the fun back into fishing,” Wynperle said
Kissimmee Bass Series
Sun, Jan 25, 2015
Kissimmee Chain of Lakes
Camp Mack’s River Resort
Charlie Wynperle, 813-382-2187
