CLEWISTON, FL – Imagine it’s tournament day and the bite is on fire. You’re catching them on top, flipping, casting — they’re eating everything. You’re culling 4 and 5 pounders and you’re picturing your name on the big check. You take your bag to the stage and it tips the scales at almost 30 pounds. Usually that’s cause for celebration. Wait. That doesn’t even crack the top 20? What?! That was the story of the day on Lake Okeechobee for the first qualifier of the 2023 Roland Martin Marine Center Series presented by HUK on May 6, 2023.
One monster bag after another hit the stage in Clewiston. A recent tournament on Lake Okeechobee posted a top 11 weighing in over 30 pounds. Impressive, but the leaderboard on Saturday afternoon passed that after only a third of the 177 teams had weighed in. Another one. Another one. Somebody get the Guinness people on the phone.
Weights that would win most tournaments received nothing more than a ‘thanks for playing’ as the top-heavy leaderboard kept going. When the last team weighed in, the top-20 teams had weighed in limits over 30 pounds. 20 teams! An even more ridiculous number is that 66 teams had 20-pound plus limits. A Florida record for sure and a mark that hasn’t been hit in a very long time in the tournament fishing world.
Why stop there? Let’s give this unbelievable story and an even more surprising hero. Let’s celebrate the youngest competitor in the field, 11-year-old Tavyn Heisler that shared the boat with his dad and the winning check for $6,500.
The father and son team of Preston and Tavyn Heisler out weighed all the heavy weights with a winning weight of 36.82 pounds.
“It was an amazing day,” said the proud father after sharing the day with his son. “I’m still shaking and I couldn’t ask for anything better.”
“I was netting at the start,” said the younger Heisler. “But toward the end I caught an 8-pounder.”
Since Tevyn hasn’t been doing this long enough and probably told not to lie, he had no problem sharing his bait of choice — a black and blue Chatterbait. Their success came from the North and the reward was the Champion’s check.
The 2nd place team featured a familiar duo that came just ounces from the winner’s circle. Gary Milicevic and Barrett Ringstaff weighed in 36.19 pounds that earned them $3,250 for 2nd place finish.
“We had so many big fish on today that we lost,” admitted Milicevic when asked if they ever had the winning fish on. “I broke a rod. Barrett broke a rod. We probably culled 25 pounds today.”
In third place was another familiar team to the series leaderboard. Jeff Kaulbars and Donny Bass weighed in 35.36 pounds to round out the top three and earned $2,150.
“We were throwing back 5 and 6 pounders,” said Bass. “I’ve been fishing this lake for many, many years and this was probably one of the top three or four days I’ve ever had here.”
That was a constant theme coming from the stage as angler after angler threw out superlatives, expletives, best-day-ever, etc. They may not have come out on top, but they were part of a day that doesn’t come around too often.
As the highest paying team tournament trail in Florida, the payouts continued deep into the 177 team field to make the day even more memorable.
The U.S. Sugar Big Bass and $500 went to Steve Broughton with 8.69 pound bass while the 2nd Big Bass of 8.48 earned the team of Ray Ruiz and Ryan Tran $100 Gambler Bucks. The highest finishers crossing the stage in HUK Gear earned the winning Heisler team an additional $250 on top of the Champion’s check. Bruiser Baits added another $150 to Team Heisler as the top team. Jenna Vlaar received $100 from Mary Ann Martin as the highest fishing Female Angler. Gilbert Chevrolet presented the Ron Veale $250 as the highest finishing Gilbert Chevrolet owner. And representing the upside down (smile), the team of John Tavano and Ernie Johnson turned the smallest limit of 4.92 pounds into $300 from AV Inspection.
It was quite a day on Lake Okeechobee that will be talked about (no lying necessary) for a long time. You might want to print out the leaderboard and frame it since days like this don’t come around very often. But then again, Qualifier #2 of the 2023 Season is June 10th. Stranger things have happened. We’ll see you then.
