Chris Lane won the opening Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Southern Open of the year on Florida’s Harris Chain of Lakes in Tavares, Fla. Find out how he and the rest of the Top 12 finalists found and caught their fish over the course of the event.
Photo: James Overstreet
12th place: Keith Poche
Keith Poche worked a Strike King 5XD in the Tennessee Shad color for prespawn bass to amass the heaviest bag on Day Two. “I was throwing up on a flat and they were sitting on a little 2-foot drop,” Poche said. “All the pressure with everyone running around kept them on that drop.”
Photo: Rob Russow
Poche finished the tournament in 12th with a total of 38 pounds, 4 ounces, including his 25-3 on Day Two. Unfortunately, the big bite he experienced Friday didn’t work out on the first and final days and Poche was only able to crank up four fish. “If one bites it, it’s a big one, but I don’t get many bites,” Poche said. “That second day I went there and caught a good one early and stuck with it for the rest of the day.”
Photo: James Overstreet
11th place: Marty Brown
Marty Brown targeted bass that were staging around reeds, docks and eelgrass. He used a junebug 8-inch Zoom Magnum Lizard and a junebug Zoom Brush Hog. Both were rigged on Bass Pro Shops tungsten weights and a 5/0 Trokar flipping hook.
Photo: Rob Russow
Brown ended up 11th with a catch of 39 pounds, 8 ounces of bass by flipping the Brush Hog around reeds in areas where fish were staging and flipping the lizard around boat docks and eelgrass in another area. He went with slightly lighter weight, 3/16-ounce, with the lizard than he did with the Brush Hog (1/2 ounce).
Photo: James Overstreet
10th place: Robert Grosso
Robert Grosso landed in 10th after catching 41 pounds, 13 ounces on the Harris Chain using a black/blue flake Jethro Baits Waldo, a soft plastic stickbait, and a black Zoom Fluke both rigged on a 1/4-ounce Jethro tungsten weight. Grosso flipped buggy whips, essentially alternating between the two baits, although he did note his biggest, a 7-pounder, came on the Waldo.
Photo: Rob Russow
9th place: Will Evans
Will Evans caught all his fish sight fishing using a green pumpkin/chartreuse tail Yamamoto Senko with a 1/2-ounce weight. “I liked the chartreuse tail so I could see it in the water,” Evans said.
Photo: Rob Russow
Evans boated 43 pounds, 3 ounces by sight fishing on the north side of one of the lakes. “The biggest thing is the water is down, so the fish didn’t go into the canals,” Evans said. “Unfortunately, the wind ended up dirtying up my water too much as the tournament went on.” The results showed in his 6-pound, 8-ounce final day catch, dropping Evans into ninth place.
Photo: James Overstreet
8th place: Luke Gritter
Luke Gritter used a red bug Zoom U-Vibe Speed Worm rigged with a 3/16-ounce tungsten weight, a junebug Garneau Baits Gen X Bug with a 3/4-ounce weight and a junebug Gambler Lures Flapp’n Shad on a 5/0 Trokar hook and 1/16-ounce tungsten weight.
Photo: Rob Russow
Gritter’s 44-pound, 13-ounce three-day total put him in eighth place for the tournament. He focused exclusively on Lake Dora, deadsticking the Speed Worm around bulrushes, flipping the Gen X Bug into Kissimmee grass and twitching the Flapp’n Shad through scattered grass.
Photo: James Overstreet
7th place: Daniel Lanier
Daniel Lanier finished the Open in seventh place with 45 pounds. His primary pattern was flipping isolated clumps of lily pads and he did so very slowly and methodically. “I was basically throwing it in and letting it sit,” Lanier said. In the morning, Lanier would target eelgrass patches with a lipless crankbait.
Photo: James Overstreet
The two baits that produced for Lanier were a junebug Culprit 4-inch craw and a 1/2-ounce aurora black Jackall TN60 lipless crankbait. For flipping the craw, Lanier used a 3/8-ounce weight and a 3/0 BMF flipping hook rigged on 25-pound Seaguar fluorocarbon.
Photo: Rob Russow
4th place: Kevin Hawk
Kevin Hawk used a Zoom Trick Worm in both black and junebug on the Harris Chain. He used the junebug worm on a drop shot with a 3/0 Roboworm ReBarb straight-shank hook. The black worm was Texas rigged on a 5/0 Gamakatsu straight-shank hook.
Photo: Rob Russow
Hawk’s fourth-place finish came after finishing the tournament strong with two bags in the 20-pound class, giving him 53 pounds, 10 ounces. The bigger fish tended to be in certain spots in the dirtier water, where Hawk would use the black worm on the Texas rig. In clearer water, he would use the drop shot.
Photo: James Overstreet
3rd place: Keith Carson
Keith Carson covered water with a 1/4-ounce Strike King Red Eye Shad and then flipped both a watermelon seed Zoom Speed Worm and a Zoom Speed Craw on a 3/8-ounce weight. The primary cover in the areas he was fishing was a mixture of pencil reeds and mother-in-law’s tongue.
Photo: Rob Russow
One secret that helped put Carson over the top was to use an aluminum boat to access shallow backwater ponds. To assist with entering the pond, Carson used these long wooden poles. “I was using these because they are cheap push poles,” Carson said. “I was jumping a sandbar to access a small pond. With the low water, it was a real benefit to have an aluminum boat.”
Photo: Rob Russow
Carson finished third with 55 pounds, 13 ounces including this nearly 10-pound largemouth, his biggest in any tournament, that hit the Zoom Speed Craw he was flipping. “The big one bit at 1:30 and I had to leave there at 2:00.”
Photo: James Overstreet
2nd place: Clifford Pirch
Clifford Pirch landed 58 pounds, 1 ounce of bass and finished in the runner-up spot, his highest in B.A.S.S. competition. Pirch spent the entire practice and tournament sight fishing in clear water. “My whole game was looking at them,” Pirch said.
Photo: James Overstreet
Pirch rotated through a variety of soft plastics: (from left to right) a watermelon creature bait, a Roboworm in the Marten’s Madness color and a green pumpkin or watermelon Yamamoto Senko.
Photo: Rob Russow
As visibility was key, Pirch used high-quality sunglasses and changed them based on the conditions. He used Typhoon Polarized Optics; yellow lenses when the water was really clear and Copper Rose when the water was more stained.
Photo: Rob Russow
1st place: Chris Lane
Chris Lane claimed his third B.A.S.S. victory with 72 pounds, 11 ounces, a margin over 14 pounds greater than second place. He was focused on bass staging to spawn around lily pads, catching fish on the drop outside of the pads and up in the pads themselves.
Photo: James Overstreet
Earlier in the tournament, Lane caught some keepers on a black Gambler Cane Toad. He also used the Luck “E” Strike RC2 crankbait as a search bait and when the bass were more active. The money bait for Lane, especially as the tournament wore, on was a black Gambler Sweebo worm.
Photo: Rob Russow
