“The temperature is in the 90s. It was up to 99 one day, but it’s like the Dog Days of Summer because of the humidity,” said Ted Meyer with Accent Marine which will hold the sixth of nine qualifying tournaments in the dealership’s tournament trail Sunday out of Capt. Mack’s River Resort on the lakes.

“Adding to that, the water is low. Okeechobee is about dried up. There’s some open water back in Kissimmee – a little bit – but they are letting that out also,” Meyer said. “What we need is a hurricane to bring the lakes back up – not the hurricane itself, but the rain that comes with it.”

But, the bass apparently are not letting the heat and the extremely low water bother them at all.

“They have been catching some good weights,” said Meyer who predicted it will take 26 to 28 pounds to win Sunday. “It took 31 pounds a couple of weeks ago, so we will see what happens this weekend.”

Meyer said anglers are catching the bass in the deeper water on brushpiles and other structure.

“They are also catching some off the grasslines, but not that much. They are mostly casting regular plastics worms and some are flipping jigs and crawfish.”

He expects 65 to 70 boats to enter Sunday’s tournament, down slightly from the average of 75 to 80 boats that have participated in the series so far.

“When it starts getting hot that is when the true fisherman stays out there and the rest of them go home. The next three months are going to be tough. We go through September and the Classic will be in October. We have three left after Sunday and anglers have to fish seven of the nine tournament to qualify for the Classic.”

The series includes tournaments July 31, August 28 and September 25 with the Classic scheduled Oct. 30. Entry fee for the tournaments is $65 and teams that qualify do not pay an entry fee to fish in the classic.

Entry fees must be received by 5 p.m. On the Friday before a tournament; no entries are accepted after that deadline. The tournament payback is 75 percent, with 20 percent held for the classic purse.

Accent Marine, a Stratos dealership owned by Ted and Maxine Meyer, is located on Highway 92 East at Tampa, Fla. The dealership is also a full-service provider for Evinrude.

“If a team is fishing out of a 2009 or newer Stratos, Stratos will match the win pot up to $10,000 so they will double the purse for first place in out tournaments,” Meyer said.

For details on the Accent Marine tournaments, call (813) 620-1042 or (813) 620-1309, or email: [email protected] or [email protected].

 

Accent Marine Tournament Trail

Sun, Jun 26, 2011

Kissimmee Chain of Lakes

Camp Mack’s River Resort

Call (813) 620-1042

www.accentmarine.com