OCALA, Fla. — Orange Lake proved to be a perfect venue for Kubota Heavy Hitters Presented by Bass Pro Shops, with massive bass caught every day of the event. Several different approaches produced bass amid the ample vegetation, with frogs, punching, vibrating jigs, and other Florida staples like swimming worms all playing a role in the outcome.
Here’s a closer look at how the top finishers caught ’em at Heavy Hitters.
1. Dave Lefebre – 31-3 (7)
Fishing what may be the last professional-level event of his career, Pennsylvania’s Dave Lefebre went out with style. He took home the overall win and doubled his earnings with a 9-pound, 3-ounce bass during the Championship Round to earn an additional $100,000. All week long, he stayed in two key stretches and caught nearly every one of his fish on a vibrating jig.
“I found these places in practice and feel like they were the two best spots on the lake, but I just didn’t catch them the first day. I screwed up,” he said. “The area was right outside of the takeoff area where the lake opened up out of the boat channel, and there was a little ditch where the water was 3 feet deep and 2 and a half feet on the sides. They were just little straight stretches of hydrilla and the perfect place for all of those fish coming out of the bays. Just a perfect scenario for a place to reload.”
Each of his stretches was about 200 yards long, and he methodically worked them with a 3/8-ounce black-and-blue Z-Man Evergreen JackHammer ChatterBait with a sapphire-blue trailer. He started the event with a Zoom Speed Craw but shifted to whatever trailer he could find after he ran out of those.
“I ran out of the Speed Craws and had to run to Bass Pro Shops to buy anything I could find in that color,” he said. “I did catch one fish on a white swim jig the first morning of the event – the first fish anyone caught – so I was leading there for a moment. Besides that, everything came on the ChatterBait. One more change I made was going from 16-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon at first to 20-pound, just because those fish were pulling so hard and digging into the grass, and I was losing some of them the first day.”
2. Ron Nelson – 27-7 (5)
Ron Nelson made a charge on the final afternoon, and while he fell just short of his first Bass Pro Tour win, he was able to secure a runner-up finish with a variety of techniques. He caught fish with swim jigs, frogs, and punching mats, and did his best trying to throw something different than everyone else.
“I kind of stayed away from the ChatterBait because I knew a bunch of people were doing that, so I had a little more confidence throwing something different,” he said. “The first few days, I was catching them on a swim jig, but on the final day, those fish didn’t want to chase as much. I went to a frog, because it was something you could stall out and keep in place when you saw a big wake coming out towards it.”
His frog of choice was a black SPRO Flappin Frog 65, which he fished on 50-pound Sunline Xplasma Asegai. For his swim jig fishing, he went with a bluegill-colored 1/4-ounce jig with a sungill Reaction Innovations Skinny Dipper on the back and fished it on 30-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon.
3. Jake Lawrence – 24-2 (4)
Tennessee’s Jake Lawrence had a great week on Orange Lake, winning the Knockout Round and cashing $30,000 for his 9-8 that day. On the final day, he only caught four scoreable bass, but they were solid fish, and he led for a good portion of the day.
“It was the same Florida recipe: You need to find good, clean water and good vegetation,” Lawrence began. “I had one zone with a good mix of grass – sparse stuff and extremely thick vegetation – on the east side of the lake. There were two long mats, and behind them was a trough, and those mats helped to keep the dirty water from the main lake, and I was fishing clumps of hydrilla back there.”
In practice and at the very beginning of the event, a 3/8-ounce, gold-bladed Buckeye Buzzerk buzzbait with a black soft-plastic toad in lieu of the skirt did most of his work. Then he switched to a Z-Man Evergreen JackHammer ChatterBait in dirty shad with a gizzard shad-colored, 5-inch Yamamoto Hinge Minnow on the back and started getting even more fish to bite.
“In Florida, it’s typically black and blue and bluegill-colored baits, but the tilapia I saw were glowing white colored,” he said. “I think that’s why the brighter color seemed to generate so many more bites.”
4. Mark Davis – 21-1 (5)
Florida has been good to Mark Davis on the Bass Pro Tour with two runner-up finishes and now a fourth-place showing at Heavy Hitters. He stuck to the same general area each day of the event and fished with his trademark slow and methodical approach.
“It was real basic fishing, just swimming a swim jig and vibrating jig in openings of the grass,” he said. “I tried really hard not to overfish the area during the week and would let the areas rest. The water was dirty, and you couldn’t see the holes in the grass easily, so you had to fan cast around and try to hit those openings blindly.”
His baits were both black and blue and 3/8-ounce, and he used a swimbait-style trailer on both his vibrating jig and swim jig.
“If you could get the bait in front of them, they would bite it,” he said. “I was around a good amount of fish and caught quite a few every day, but that 3-pound minimum on the final day was a major hurdle for the fish I was around.”
5. Marshall Hughes – 18-7 (3)
Texas pro Marshall Hughes caught better-than-average fish throughout the week, including 8-pounders on each of the final two days. His primary weapon was a vibrating jig, which he found to be the best approach after trying multiple baits.
“I tried everything as far as presentations, but that seemed to be the best way to get those fish to react,” said Hughes. “I was fishing the grass – places where it was broken up and clumpy, not a solid carpet of it. I had about a half-mile stretch on the east side of the lake that was really good. I had found a few other similar areas, but every time I looked over, I saw boats fishing them.”
His bait of choice was a 3/8-ounce Z-Man JackHammer ChatterBait with a matching Yamamoto Zako on the back. The color was perfect for the water clarity he was fishing.
“It wasn’t clear and wasn’t dirty; it was more of a greenish color,” he said. “Those areas didn’t get as beat up as the cleaner places, and I think that’s why the fish were still biting some on the last day.”
6. Alton Jones Jr. – 10-2 (3)
Alton Jones Jr. has made a good amount of money at Heavy Hitters over the years and added another solid finish at Orange Lake. While most of the field headed south from takeoff, he went the other way and was alone for the final two days.
“I was essentially the only guy fishing the northern half of the lake and felt like I was around more fish than anyone else, but there just weren’t the giants on that end of the lake,” he said. “I had two big bites in four days and didn’t land either of them. I was mainly fishing the dirtier water on the outside edges of the grass on the main lake, just going around and around on that grass and making casts with different angles.”
While he caught fish with a frog, a buzzbait and flipping, the vibrating jig was his top performer. He went with a chartreuse and white 3/8-ounce Z-Man JackHammer ChatterBait with a matching Geecrack Bellows Vibe on the back.
Jones fished it on a 7.2:1 KastKing MegaJaws Elite reel and 755C glass Reese Fishing Next 2 rod and 30-pound Cortland Master Braid.
“I don’t normally fish a ChatterBait on braid, but I needed it for the thick grass,” he said. “I still had the standard rod I use for them with a soft tip, but it would really load up well when you hooked them on braid. You could get them out of the grass easier.”
7. Brent Ehrler – 7-2 (2)
Brent Ehrler spent his week on Orange Lake fishing in cleaner water and around isolated grass. It worked well enough for him to make it to yet another Championship Round, but the dropping water affected his bite.
“I stayed in the clean water and looked for patchy grass, but those areas were getting shallower every day,” he said. “I started the week throwing a ChatterBait, but by the final day, the only thing I could get through the grass was a Yamamoto Swimming Senko.”
He fished the swimming worm – a green pumpkin red flake version – with a 3/16-ounce Ark tungsten weight and 5/0 offset Gamakatsu worm hook. Earlier in the week, he leaned on a 3/8-ounce Z-Man Evergreen JackHammer ChatterBait in green pumpkin white with a Yamamoto Zako on the back. He also caught two key fish during the week with a Lucky Craft G-Splash topwater during slick, calm conditions.
8. Bobby Lane – 6-3 (1)
Bobby Lane, the consummate Florida pro, had surprisingly never fished Orange Lake until this week. Still, he used his vast knowledge of Sunshine State bass fishing to break down the vegetation. While he only landed one scorable bass on the final day, it was a 6-pounder. He rotated between a handful of Florida staples but found a frog was the best way to trick bigger fish.
“The first few days, I caught some flipping mats and a few on moving baits like a swim jig and vibrating jig, but the Berkley Swamp Lord popping frog in burnt bone got most of my bigger bites during the week,” he said. “It was much easier to get that through the grass. I did most of my damage in the cleaner areas on the lake, but in hindsight, I should have spent more time in the stained water further into the lake where most of the great big ones seemed to come from.”
Lane fished his frog on a 7-6 heavy Abu Garcia Fantasista X rod, an 8.3:1 Abu Garcia Zenon X reel, and 50-pound SpiderWire DuraBraid.
“It was all braid on everything this week,” he added.
9. Cole Floyd – 3-1 (1)
All week, Cole Floyd spent his time in a backwater area with clean water that produced big fish for several anglers. He was the only one of that crew to make it to the final day, so he was excited to have it all to himself, but it didn’t pan out because fishing pressure had gotten to the area.
“I basically pitched my tent and called it home,” he said. “For the places where the grass was topped out, I was flipping a green pumpkin Strike King Rage Bug with a 5/0 Hayabusa FPP Straight and a 3/4-ounce Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten weight. Anytime it was slicked off calm, I was fishing the mats, and if there was any wind, I’d fish the open area with a Strike King Thunder Cricket or a bone Strike King Sexy Dawg topwater.”
His flipping setup accounted for most of his biggest fish, including a 9-7 during the Knockout Round. He fished it on a 7-6, medium-heavy Lew’s Custom Lite flipping rod, an 8.3:1 Lew’s Custom Pro reel and 50-pound Strike King Contra braided line.
10. Jeff Sprague – 3-0 (1)
Another pro with plenty of past Heavy Hitters success, Jeff Sprague made a Top 10 on the strength of soft plastics in cleaner water.
“I was fishing the cleanest water I could find, and that’s what got me to the final day, but the bite just went away the final day,” he said. “It wasn’t the fishing pressure in those areas; it was the water receding, and that’s what hurt those fish. As the water was falling, the fish just left or went into the thick grass where you couldn’t find them easily.”
When fishing with any breeze, Sprague swam a honey craw-colored Lake Fork Lure Co. Hyper Worm with a 3/16-ounce weight and a 5/0 hook. During calm conditions, he went with a weightless, blue bruiser Lake Fork Hyper Stick and cast it to holes and depressions in the grass. Sprague fished the swimming worm on 50-pound P-Line EndurX braid and turned to 20-pound P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon for the stick worm.