‘Relay for Life’ set to help fight cancer

The Relay for Life initiative of the American Cancer Society is the largest peer-to-peer fundraising event in the world dedicated to saving lives from cancer. Communities worldwide have come together for more than 35 years to celebrate and remember loved ones and take action for lifesaving change.

Over the next couple of months, Relay for Life will be hosting socially distanced events throughout Broward County to raise money and take action.

On March 20, Relay for Life is hosting “Relay’s Got Talent” at Parkland Amphitheater https://tinyurl.com/relaysgottalent2021. School of Rock is sponsoring this event. From 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., all different types of talent are invited to perform on stage. The performances will be streamed via Facebook for people to watch and enjoy. Whichever performer raises the most money for American Cancer Society wins. For contestants performing at the amphitheater, the event is socially distanced.

Event lead for Relay for Life of Parkland, Coral Springs, Margate, and Coconut Creek 2021, Megan Mila, said, “This is the first year we have had this event, and it won’t be the last. Many people are excited about this because their kids will have a platform to perform. There are so many people with brilliant talents that really deserve to be displayed and shown to the public.”

On April 24, Relay for Life is hosting a Reinvented Survivor Ceremony https://www.relayforlife.org/parklandfl. From 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Parkland Equestrian Center, this drive-up event will be surrounded by all the survivors. As attendees drive in, the top sponsors and top teams will be displayed on sponsor row. Once parked, Relay for Life will have a screen and a stage to display MSD JROTC performing the color guard. Mayors of the cities will be speaking, and the performances from the virtual talent show will be on screen. According to Mila, the most important part of the ceremony is their dedication video for those they have lost and those suffering from cancer. If interested in attending, please sign up on their website.

Last but not least, on May 22, Relay for Life is hosting a golf tournament http://www.swingforacure.com. The tournament will be held at the Country Club of Coral Springs. This event will have food, drinks, prizes, and more. At 11 a.m., registration begins. All attendees will receive a swag bag and lunch. Following the tournament, attendees will enjoy hors d’oeuvres and drinks as prizes are being awarded. Prizes include a seven-night resort stay package, and hole-in-one prizes for $10,000 cash.

To sign up, email rflgolfevent@gmail.com. “We are really excited to be working with Chris Fletcher and Mike Fiorello to organize the event,” Mila said.

 

Cold fronts slow down 2 largemouth bass

The cold fronts that sweep through South Florida in February have a dramatic effect on the fishing for largemouth bass.

Like locals who stay indoors when temperatures drop to the 40s and 50s, bass slow down and move as little as possible in chilly water. That’s when Team Yo-Zuri bass pro Mike Surman of Boca Raton said anglers have two choices.

“One is to flip heavy cover,” Surman said. “Two is to try to get
some type of reaction bite.

“That’s essentially the only way you can catch them in Florida,
They’re so used to warm weather, they just shut down. The
water is so shallow, it can cool down 10 degrees overnight.”

Over the past 30 years, Surman has been one of the most successful tournament pros in South Florida and won countless
tournaments.

He won the very first FLW Tour tournament in 1996, which was held on Lake Okeechobee during cold front conditions.

Back then, Surman flipped heavy mats of vegetation and that is still a productive cold front tactic. He especially likes to flip in hydrilla, an exotic aquatic plant that offers bass food and shelter.

“During a cold front, the hydrilla stays warm and they feel secure,” said Surman, who flips the middle of a hydrilla mat during a cold front. “They don’t have to go anywhere if they want to eat, but they also don’t have to move. They’re not afraid of predators, they’re holed up in their home, so to speak.

“Hyacinths are my second favorite. There’s a canopy over the top and it’s open underneath. When the bass are a little more active, they can move around.”

Flipping involves dropping a soft-plastic creature bait through the vegetation and, hopefully, right in front of a fish’s mouth. Even if they’re cold and not hungry, bass can’t help but grab the lure. It’s like putting a fudge brownie in front of a person who is cold and doesn’t feel like eating. That brownie is going to disappear.

Back in the 1990s, bass anglers used 1-ounce weights to punch through thick vegetation. Now they can use 2-ounce weights.

“In the old days we didn’t even have a fishing rod that could hold a 2-ounce weight. Now the rods are so good,” Surman said. “I always try to get by with the lightest weight I can use to get through the cover.

“If it’s totally canopied and there are hyacinths on top of hydrilla, that’s when I use a 2-ounce weight.”

Surman, who flips with 65-pound Yo-Zuri braided fishing line, explained that he likes a slower fall for his lure instead of having it plummet in front of a fish.

His “all-time favorite” flipping lure is a Gambler Crawdaddy, which looks like a crawfish. In severe cold front conditions, he’ll use the smaller Gambler BB Cricket.

“Sometimes that little cricket is easier to get into that real thick cover where they are,” Surman said. “There are all kinds of little grass shrimp and crawdads in there, so downsizing is definitely a good thing to try. But if I can get them to bite the Crawdaddy, I’ll use that.”

In the Everglades, Surman said there is not a lot of vegetation to flip, so he uses a square bill crankbait, which he reels so it hits rocks, downed trees, and other structures.

“That works all over the country,” said Surman, who uses Yo-Zuri Hardcore Crank crankbaits. “It bangs into the rocks, then goes up on its side until it starts tracking again. That’s usually when you’re going to get a bite.”

He fishes the crankbait on a 12-pound Yo-Zuri fluorocarbon line to help the lure get down and uses a Witch Doctor 50G crankbait rod that he helped design. It’s half fiberglass and half graphite, so it’s lighter than the old all-fiberglass crankbait rods.

Surman added that fishing is usually much better two or three days after a cold front because the water is warming and bass start feeding.

By then, the fish have moved out of the thick stuff and Surman locates them by making long casts with a Gambler Big EZ swimbait.

Once he finds the fish, he’ll pitch a Texas-rigged Fat Ace into holes in the grass or fish a wacky rigged plastic worm in open water.

In cold front conditions and after cold fronts, the chances of catching a big bass are excellent. Bass in southern Florida spawn during the winter months, so it’s common to catch female bass filled with eggs. If you catch a big female, handle her carefully and release her quickly so she can pass on her good genetics.

Warming weather conditions after a strong cold front resulted in a record-breaking professional bass tournament catch a little more than 20 years ago. A Bassmaster tournament was being held at Lake Toho in Kissimmee, where the water temperatures had been frigid for several days.

By the time the tournament started, the water had warmed for a couple of days and the bass moved onto the spawning beds in
the shallow creeks and canals feeding into the lake.

Dean Rojas of Arizona was one of the few fishermen who saw that the bass had moved onto their beds. On the first day, he set a Bassmaster record that still stands by catching five fish weighing a total of 45 pounds, 2 ounces. His catch included fish weighing 10 pounds, 13 ounces, 10-0, 9-0, 8-2, and 7-3, and he went on to win the four-day tournament.

Young Coral Springs golfer already a veteran

A veteran player on South Florida’s golf courses and winner of an impressive array of trophies and honors, including Gold Coast Golf Association’s 2020 Player of the Year award, Elijah Ritchie says the game still has a lot to teach him.

And at just 11 years old, the Coral Springs sixth-grader already has the skills, focus, and work ethic to meet the challenges.

Among his most recent tests? On a recent weekend outing at Crandon Golf Course, competing in a U.S. Kids Golf tournament in what was only his fourth time playing a full 18 holes, Ritchie had to come to grips with what to do about lunch.

“I was hungry, but mostly I was thirsty,” Ritchie said after that Saturday’s brutally hot and humid round in Key Biscayne, where hesat in fifth place after Round 1.

His dad, Jeremiah Ritchie, said he keeps Pedialyte handy for Elijah during tournament play. Over a 9-hole round, that’s enough to keep his son hydrated and strong both physically and mentally.

Elijah Ritchie, at five years old, carries his bag at City of Lauderhill Golf Course, where he was part of the city’s Fore Life youth golf program.

Ritchie started playing golf at four years old. His dad, a veteran coach who has worked with many area youth teams, said he got Elijah some lessons “so we could have something to do as a family, something to do when I get older.”

Elijah, it turned out, had something of a knack for golf.

“He’s so resilient and very focused,” Jeremiah Ritchie said.

Ritchie enrolled Elijah in a local youth golf program in Lauderhill, Fore Life, founded and run by Paula Pearson-Tucker, the city’s lead golf pro and an LPGA Teaching and Club Professional.

“I think I learned as much about the game from Coach Tucker as Elijah did,” Jeremiah Ritchie said.

Youth golf in South Florida can be a dizzying sprint across three counties as kids play as part of numerous leagues and loosely affiliated teams. Elijah currently is among the 18 11-year-olds playing for a Boca Raton Local Tour team that also features Charlie Woods, Tiger Woods’ son.

Boca Local, affiliated with U.S. Kids Golf, plays a six-tournament schedule from Sept. 19 through Oct. 25. Elijah also plays Junior Golf Association of Broward County tournaments, competing against kids as old as 14. He captured his first JGA tourney win at age 10 and since then has finished in the top three six times, with two victories — one of them in the three-day JGA Championship. He finished the JGA’s most recent season, from June 22 through July 27, atop the Boys B division, making him eligible to move up to Division A next season.

Of Gold Coast Golf Association’s nine- tournament schedule, which opens in September and runs through the next August, Elijah came away with three wins, four runner-up finishes, and one third-place finish in the Boys 9-10 division.

Elijah Ritchie, at age six, asleep after winning third place at the 2015 Junior Golf Association of Broward County tournament.

“It was a long season,” Elijah told the Sun Sentinel’s Gary Curreri after winning Player of the Year. The honor, he said, “didn’t really surprise me because I trained for it. I had it in my head when I was practicing.”

Elijah practices at least two hours a day, whether at Coral Springs Country Club’s course, Osprey Point Golf Course in Boca, or at home, in the backyard.

“He’s surprisingly disciplined, and already has a good work ethic,” his dad says, explaining Elijah gets in strength training in the morning before school, then is ready to hit the links after his classwork is done in the afternoon.

What Elijah loves most about the game is shaping his shots, and drawing and fading his shots. But after the rainout in Key Biscayne, he was perfectly zeroed in and content to get right with putting, getting to Coral Springs CC’s practice green in the afternoon that Sunday and playing the greens on the first few holes until the skies began to purple and the groundskeeper rousted everyone still on the course out.

“We don’t know how far he’ll go (with golf),” his dad said. “But for right now, he loves the game. He’s pretty good, and is still hungry to learn more.”