We had our Consolidated Bassmasters Club Tourny at Seminole and to say the wind was blowing would be an understatement. Had just started fishing when my phone rang and another club member was in trouble, up the Flint River with his boat taking on water, motor would not crank. I was about 6 miles away but told him he's in a Ranger and they won't sink but I'm on my way, but it would take while because of conditions. I called Allen Duke, another club member to also head that way. When I finally got into the Flint River, these waves were 4 - 5 feet tall (seriously) and it took 45 min to go 5 miles and in the process the winshield broke off my Ranger and I was soaked from head to toe in 45 deg weather wearing a million layers of cloths. Bottom lines, it all worked out good no one hurt. But, we could not go back the way we came, so Allen D. called David Wells to meet us at Wingates and take us back to our trucks/trailers at Seminole Lodge and then we came back and got our boats, had breakfast at Wingates, then back to Seminole Lodge and started the day over again at around 10:00. I found a small bay that had 4 bedded bass in it and managed to get 3 of them. Than went to another area, just trying to get out of the wind and hooked up on a bigen' and while trying to put her in the net she took off under the boat and I'm thinking the line was rubbing the bottom of the boat and snap the 6-7 pounder was gone and so was the win and lunker and $350. My 3 keepers weighed 5.5 lbs. Steve Gross took the win with 4 at 9 plus lbs and Mike Batiski took 2nd with 7 plus lbs. Lunker was Steve McLemore with a 5.5 pounder. Heading back up there this Thursday - Sunday for the Florida Bass Federation State Qualifier.

Hey at least some of yall turned that horrible day into something somewhat productive. Were the fish you caught on beds males or females? The only fish I've seen on bed in deer point so far have all been males.

The 3 that I caught were (I'm assuming) males. The big one that got away would have been a female. She was probably on a bed that just did not see. I had flipped back into some reeds when she bit.

Allen You guys were really Lucky to get out of that mess OK.
Sometime back in the late 80's or early 90's we had a club tournament & Family Cook Our _ out of Sem lodge and the day before there were several of us over there. Well the wind was blowing stright up the Hooche when I went out in the AM .. It got worse thru the day ... 1 - 17' Dawson Swamped, Another 15' Boat missed the entrance to Sem Lodge and when he turned around a wave hit him and the cap of the boat came off Lucky he & his wife were near shore, there were a couple of others on the lake not with us that went down but the worse was we had a new member with his daughter_They were in the sloughs south of the 4' ditch .. they started across on a small boat and he saw that he was in trouble and turned to go back and the boat swamped ... make a long story short though they had life jackets on the daughter (about 12 years old) did not make it, he managed to make it all the way across in that cold water, bad memories for all. I was in the 4' ditch as were 2 other boats, one boat had 2 kids in it I went and picked up one of the kids to ride back with me and all 3 of us started out together .. well when you got out of the ditch there was no turning back and was really a nerve racking job to get back .. a coast guard boat got in front of the other 2 and broke water for them I was some distance ahead and to one side. I know this was long .. but belive me Sem can get really rough.
JSC

Glad you all helped each other out on a rough Seminole day Allen and made it back in safely. Got home from NM late Friday night - midnight or so and decided I'd forego the Hub City tourney Saturday - glad I did after reading this. Fished Sunday with Miracle Strip. Caught just two keepers going 5.52. Our winner had 3 going 12.09 with 7.58 kicker. Heading back over Thursday after work. Staying at Wingates for FBF qualifier. Hope I can find something Friday or it will be a long weekend.

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Yea, don't want to go through that ever again, but would do it if I had to. Swede, I'm leaving in the morning, see ya on the water or at Wingates for supper.