Lefebre Wins Heavy Hitters on Orange Lake; Burn Bans Spread Across Central Florida

Dave Lefebre, the veteran pro from Erie, Pennsylvania, won the MLF Kubota Heavy Hitters final round on Orange Lake on May 23, closing out the six-day event in Marion County with a $200,000 check.

Results

MLF Bass Pro Tour — Kubota Heavy Hitters, Orange Lake Dave Lefebre took the title in the final round on May 23. The event ran six days in Marion County and included a $30,000 big bass award.

No Central Florida club or divisional series posted results in the past two weeks.

On the Water

Shellcracker and bluegill are holding around bedding flats on Lake Kissimmee, and crappie are still coming off deeper hydrilla edges. Bass on the Kissimmee Chain are post-spawn, with fish reported on the hydrilla mats.

Winter Haven Chain levels remain low. The canal stretches connecting the southern lakes — Shipp, Eloise and Summit — are running shallow.

Coming Up

American Fishing Tour Division 21 Season Finale — Kissimmee Chain, June 6–7. Two-day finale launching from Kissimmee.

Worth Knowing

Burn bans are active across multiple Central Florida counties as of May 21, with Orange and Seminole on the list and Polk operating under the SWFWMD Modified Phase III Extreme Water Shortage order through July 1. Polk County Utilities customers remain on the once-per-week irrigation schedule with shortened watering hours. Lakefront irrigation systems pulling from private wells fall under the same one-day-per-week rule.

No new blue-green algae advisories have been posted in the coverage area since the Northwest Recreation Pond alert in Apopka earlier this month. That advisory has not been lifted, and visible bloom areas there remain under a no-contact recommendation.