By the time you are reading this our 15th Annual Central Florida Shad and Crappie Derby will have already begun! We had a decent turn-out for our early registration meeting on October 26th hosted at Celery City Craft, in Sanford. Our hard-core group of anglers that want to be ready to fish on November 1st already have their new token and will start up-loading their catch trying to get a leg up on the other anglers. Usually, the biggest crappie is caught in the month of November from Sanford’s Lake Monroe.
To our knowledge this “Free to Enter” photo/catch/release Derby is the longest running event of its kind in our Central Florida Area. In the last three seasons over 1200 anglers have registered to fish with us each year. You can fish as much as you want, upload as many fish catches as you can until the last day in February at midnight. We have both youth (15 and under) and adult divisions. One good thing this year is that our current defending youth champ was a youth division winner last season and yes, his crappie beat all the adult entries last season. Brandon is now 16 and is required by the state to buy a fishing license and is now an adult division competitor. He has already won the youth division several times, it helps that his grandfather, Rick Hacker won the adult division crappie and shad last year and is on the water almost every day until our event is over.
With over 25 locations for you to register in Orange, Lake, Seminole and Osceola Counties, there is sure to be one close to where you live or fish. Our presenting sponsor is Academy Sports and Outdoors. They have 5 locations in our 4 counties and are all sign-up locations.
The newest location to be added this season is in St. Cloud at Dumont’s Bait and Tackle located just west of Narcoossee Rd., south of US 1-92 behind the Culvers Fast food restaurant at 1001 Exchange Pl. Unit 105, St. Cloud, FL 34769. Stop in and see the owner, Clayton. He has been open since early spring and has all you will need for a productive day on the water. They carry live bait including worms, crickets, minnows, and shiners. He also has a nice inventory of gear, soft and hard plastic baits, and lots of big swim baits to help catch that monster bass of a lifetime. Clayton would love to know that you read about his new store in our magazine, he said he will give a special discount if you mention Coastal Angler Magazine Orlando.
With 8 monthly prizes for longest shad or crappie each month and 4 Grand Champion prizes, 2 for youth and 2 for adult divisions with a total of over $5000 in prizes are up for grabs. Find a place close to you to register and start catching! It only takes 1 fish to win!
