The 2025 District 12 Championship Day one on the Winter Haven Chain proved to be a slugfest! The Championship meeting was held on Thursday, October 16th, 2025, at longtime Ministry Partner, Advent Health Field House. Miss Raelyn Dessart ensured our venue was top notch as usual and catered the meal for the anglers and their families to enjoy. The anglers arrived at 5:15PM for check in and registration and fellowshipped with one another while others were checking in. Florida District helper Jase Moyer, prayed over the food and the anglers enjoyed a nice catered meal of BBQ Chicken, pulled Pork, Green beans and hushpuppies. The Lord blessed us with a great meal and great guest speaker in Mr. Mike Henry, long time Fishers of Men friend and previous Director who allowed the Lord to speak through him and the Lord ministered to us all. We could not be more grateful for Mr. Henry’s willingness to humbly serve the Lord with Gladness. Thank you, Sir! After the message, we conducted a quick rules review, discussed the local laws pertaining to the event location and did our Ministry Partner spotlight giveaways and raffle draw. Once completed, the anglers departed to their respective places for the night to prepare for the next days blastoff.

Friday, October 17th, 2025, the anglers descended upon William G. Roe ramp, greeted by calm skies and 65-degree temperatures. 0530 live well checks were conducted by Director Joe and the anglers launched their boats into the Lake shipp waters in to await further instructions. After prayer and a few reminders and the arrival of safe light, approximately 0700, the anglers blasted off to see who would take the early lead to see who would be crowned this year’s District Champions and earn a berth into the 2025 National Championships. 17 teams took to the waters but only one would return to the top of the class. Who would prevail? Only time would tell. The Lord blessed the anglers with clear blue skies all day and the temperatures topped out at 80 degrees for the day.  As the first flight of anglers arrived at 3PM, we waited to see what the bags would look like, who would jump out to an early lead or would it be a grinder overall?, Nine teams were able to break the double-digit mark and were all within a pound and a half of each other with the team of Terry and Kim Mullis standing at the top with 12.27 pounds. But wait, we still had flight 2 to go… 9 teams were left to weigh in, would they hold on to the top spot? One by one they came to the scales, but no one could eclipse the ten-pound mark. Enter the team of Mike and Jeff Robinson…. The brother duo came to the scales with smiles on their faces as usual. What would they have, would they dethrone the husband-and-wife duo? Indeed, they would dropping the biggest bag of the day with 14.79 anchored by a 4.53 big fish that would go on to be the Realtree Fishing Big fish of the day! Congratulations gentlemen! Coming in second place for the day was the team of Terry and Kim Mullis with a bag weighing in at 12.27 pounds. Rounding out third place and hot on their heels would be the team of Ben and Dan Smith with a bag weighing in at 12.22 pounds edging out the fourth-place team of Dave Austin and Tim Stewart with a bag weighing in at 11.89 pounds. With everyone weighed in, the story remains…. Will the Robinson brothers hold on to be crowned the 2025 District 12 Champions? Or will someone else drop a big bag on the scales tomorrow and shake things up? Stay tuned only God knows!

The day two blast off will be held on the 18^th of October, 2025…. Stay tuned to see who will emerge victorious and earn a berth into the 2025 National Championship!

Fishers of Men would like to thank all our National Sponsors and Advertisers for their support and encourage you to look at their products:  Bass Cat Boats, Berkley, Abu Garcia, Mercury, Fenwick, Realtree Fishing, Power-Pole, T&H Marine, Frogg Toggs, & Fish 419.