LEESBURG, Fla. — The Harris Chain of Lakes set up great for the anglers fishing Suzuki Marine Stage 2 Presented by YETI, with big bass up shallow to spawn and the two lakes furthest from takeoff producing the best bites, thus putting a premium on strategy. The top baits ran the gamut, including plenty of time-honored staples that always seem to shine in the Sunshine State. Here’s a deeper look at how and where the Bass Pro Tour’s best caught ’em at Stage 2.
1. Bobby Lane — 56-5 (19)
Bobby Lane and his brother Chris were both favorites heading into the event, and Bobby delivered by earning the biggest home-state win of his career. The fishery and timing of the event set up perfectly for the elder Lane, who’s well known for his flipping and pitching skills.
“It was all about the flipping stick for me, man,” he said. “I couldn’t catch anything in practice on topwater, wacky rigs or any winding baits. The only way I could get a bite was by keeping my bait on the bottom.”
Although he started the first day in Lake Harris, he made the run to Apopka midday and fished what became the winning area.
“I know that lock only holds three boats at a time, so if you have a bad boat number like I did, you’re gonna sit waiting for the lock instead of fishing, so I waited a little while before heading there,” he said. “That area on Apopka is one of the only places on the chain with a harder bottom, which is great for them to spawn around scattered reeds. Every fish I caught was on a 6-inch Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General in black and blue with a blue tip fished on a 5/16-ounce Epic Tungsten weight and 5/0 Berkley Fusion19 flipping hook.“
Lane’s rod and reel were a 7-6 heavy Abu Garcia Fantasista X and Abu Garcia Revo Premiere LP spooled with 50-pound SpiderWire DuraBraid.
2. Mark Davis — 38-13 (14)
For the second time on the Bass Pro Tour, Arkansas pro Mark Davis finished second to one of the Lane brothers in Florida. Although he didn’t win, old-school fishing fans everywhere were cheering him on. He nearly pulled off the victory in Lake Apopka, but strong winds on the final day hampered his slow and methodical approach.
“I was fishing maidencane where a lot of the guys were fishing buggy whips,” he said. “If you could find those clumped and away from a hard line, several fish would be on each clump. I had a lot of fish found but had two primary areas, and I had them all to myself. It was the perfect scenario, because fish kept coming in.”
Every one of his fish was caught with a 6-inch Yamamoto Senko in either black and blue or junebug with a light tungsten weight (1/16-ounce), and he rigged it on a 5/O round-bend hook.
3. Matt Becker — 36-15 (15)
Matt Becker won the award for most lakes fished during the week among the Top 10, spending time in nearly all of them. He fished Eustis, Dora, Beauclair, Carlton, Apopka and even made the trek to Horseshoe late in the Championship Round.
“I fished a bunch of different lakes, but the primary way to catch them was flipping either pads or reeds,” he said. “The last day, I got on a shad spawn pattern with a lipless crankbait and vibrating jig in Apopka, but flipping a 5-inch Yamamoto Fat Senko in bruised shin was what I caught the bulk of my weight on for the week.”
Becker had multiple setups with his Senko with different weights for the cover.
“I had one with a 3/16-ounce Epic Tungsten weight and another with a 1/2-ounce weight. The hook I used was a 3/O TroKar TK135 flipping hook.”
4. Terry Scroggins — 36-7 (13)
Florida native Terry Scroggins matched his best BPT finish at the Harris Chain, keeping it simple and venturing to Lake Apopka. The decision to go there on the second day of practice was a good one, and he was all in from there.
“I went over there to fish the spring because the whole chain was fishing tough, and I thought the clear water there would be where the bulk of the fish would be with the recent fish kill,” he said. “I got bit in that area and ended up staying around there the rest of the week, flipping reeds, lily pads and flat reeds.”
He kept his bait selection simple, using a Zoom Magnum Finesse Worm in various colors fished on a 7/16-ounce weight.
“I used redbug, junebug and a straight black one,” he said. “It was whatever I could get my hands on, because none of the stores around there had any left. But the darker colors were the best.”
5. Fletcher Shryock — 27-15 (11)
Fishing a trolling motor-only marsh off Lake Griffin, Fletcher Shryock did what he loves most – punching matted vegetation.
“It was typical mat fishing, and you could rotate through different areas and there’d be certain sections and certain mats that were good,” he said. “There were also many dead areas, so you had to keep experimenting and trying different mats.”
His main weapon was a soon-to-be-released Big Bite Baits FAFO (Flip Around and Find Out) creature bait in several dark colors. He fished it on a 1.5-ounce weight and 4/O TroKar TK135 Monster flipping hook.
“I was on my trolling motor hard all day, every day of the tournament, and my Lowrance Ghost trolling motor and MillerTech lithium batteries were crucial, and they didn’t let me down,” he said.
6. Jacob Wheeler — 26-9 (8)
Jacob Wheeler added another Top-10 finish to his résumé, doing so almost exclusively without turning on his forward-facing sonar. He skipped the Knockout Round because of his performance during the first two days and only opted to turn on his forward-facing sonar for the final period of the Championship Round at the mouth of a canal as a Hail Mary to try and catch the leaders.
“I committed to Apopka and never made a cast anywhere else,” he said. “My best area was a group of isolated pencil reeds and cattails in 2 to 5 feet of water. The other key was slowing down in those key areas, and Apopka was my choice because it has big fish. The males tend to run bigger there, which is important in a spring tournament with our format.”
His top bait was a Rapala CrushCity Bronco Bug with a 1/2-ounce VMC tungsten weight and 4/O VMC Redline flipping hook.
“Around the heavier stuff, I’d use a 5/8-ounce weight,” said Wheeler. “I used a few different colors, including candy bug and green pumpkin blue pearl, and that bait seemed to generate bigger bites. I caught one fish on a frog, but every other fish came on the Bronco Bug.”
7. Jacob Wall — 16-10 (7)
With another Top-10 finish, Jacob Wall is the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year points leader early in the season. As he did on Lake Conroe, Wall mixed it up with a pile of different lures and approaches.
“I’ve got like 14 rods on my front deck and caught them on various things,” he said. “It was a bunch of stuff: a Zoom Magnum Speed Worm, Carolina rig, 3-inch Duckett Subtle Tail swimbait, a jerkbait, lipless crankbait and a vibrating jig. But the 1/2-ounce vibrating jig in a golden shiner color and a lipless crankbait stood out for me.”
The lipless bait was an out-of-production 3/4-ounce Megabass Vibration-X, which also helped him secure a 12th place at an FLW Tour event on the Harris Chain in 2020. His primary area was at the mouth of the Ocklawaha River at the top of Lake Griffin.
“The mouth was the key, and I found a little hard spot on the edge of a grass line,” he said. “I caught some fish there in practice, and every day, I started to understand the nuances more and more to get it dialed in. The other key was my 10-foot Power-Pole Blades; having the longer blades was key to my success, and I could lock down and make repeated casts to areas between 4 and 8 feet deep.”
8. James Elam — 10-3 (5)
Although he considered making the trek to Apopka, James Elam had a good practice in Lake Griffin and decided to stay and expand on his pattern. A solid history on that lake bolstered his confidence heading into the tournament’s first day, and he rode it to his first Championship Round appearance since 2022.
“I was covering water on cleaner areas with grass; there wasn’t a bunch of good hydrilla offshore, and the better stuff was shallow and growing a foot or two off the bottom closer to the bank,” he said. “If you could find any little holes in the grass, there were fish chasing bait in them. Covering ground, I found about eight areas like this in practice. They left most of them, but one area was good for me and got me to the final day.”
Elam’s three key lures were a jerkbait and a gold-and-black, 1/2-ounce LIVETARGET Golden Shiner Rattlebait with #2 Mustad KVD inline short shank trebles. He also slowed down at times with a LIVETARGET ICT 6.5-inch Finesse Worm in blue purple rigged on a drop-shot with a Mustad Tactical Bass Alpha Grip 3/0 flipping hook and 1/4-ounce Mustad TitanX drop-shot weight.
“I was pitching and flipping that drop-shot,” he said. “It was a power-shot rig, so I fished it on a baitcast rod with 15-pound fluorocarbon.”
9. Andy Morgan — 7-6 (4)
Flipping and pitching master Andy Morgan got to fish his strengths all week and stuck to Lake Apopka all four days of the event. He targeted spawning bass that he couldn’t see due to the water color, but he knew where to look.
“I had a pretty good-size area and caught them in holes in the grass, but it was a mix of different stuff,” he said. “Any hole was good, whether in the reeds, pads or cattails; it just had to be a clean hole with a hard bottom. The problem was I wasn’t getting any new fish coming in to spawn by the last day.”
His top lure was a Zoom Zlinky in junebug, which he fished with a 5/0 straight shank hook and Strike King Tour Grade tungsten weight.
“I used 1/4-ounce as long as I could when the wind was bearable but had to go heavier on the last day,” he shared.
10. Keith Poche — 2-2 (1)
Although he spent the first three days in Apopka, Poche gambled and switched lakes on the final day due to the wind forecast. It didn’t pan out, but he still secured another Top-10 finish.
“My main stretch was a reed line with some scattered clumps, and you also had a little bit of eelgrass and lily pads in there,” he said. “I knew the final day it’d be tough to fish there with the wind, so I had to try somewhere new.”
His top bait was a black-and-blue Berkley PowerBait MaxScent The General with a 3/8-ounce weight and 5/O straight-shank flipping hook.
“You had to fish slow and pick apart the areas,” he said. “I’d put my Power-Poles down and fish, fish, fish, then pick them up and move a little further down.”