When the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech kicks off, Kennie Steverson will be sleeping in his own bed and looking for the first fish of the season on home waters. One of the past winners in the field for Stop 1 Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches on the Harris Chain, he’s looking forward to the event, but there are outside factors that will make it far from plug-and-play for the locals.
After making the trip down to Okeechobee for the start of the Toyota Series season, Steverson is ready to do it up big at the Harris Chain. With cold weather and the lock to Lake Griffin closed, the fishery should challenge the pros, and Steverson was happy to lay out the variables.
The lock situation might matter a lot
One of the notable situations heading into this event is the fact that the lock into Lake Griffin will be closed. That obviously cuts down the available water, the impacts of which could ripple across the other lakes.
“In my head, if you’re going to go and salvage the tournament, that would be where I would have gone,” Steverson said. “That is where I would go to catch a competitive bag for check range. Since we can’t go there now, I think it’s going to make it a little tougher on weights.
“Usually, Griffin would have 20 to 50 boats; if they aren’t scared to lock, where do you think they’re going to go now? They might lock down to Apopka,” he added. “That’s going to put another wrench into that lock.”
If 50 boats locked into Apopka, it could take four hours to get everyone through and fishing. The small lock naturally limits how many people choose to gamble and go there, but Steverson thinks that the cold weather this week might also make folks less likely to gamble on Apopka.
“Knowing it is going to be cold, the bite down there is going to be super, super tough. I think a lot of people will cancel it out,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to get as much pressure as it would if we were on a warming trend, when you go down there and they’re chewing. Not saying you can’t catch them, but I don’t think you’ll see the numbers of people going down as in years past.”
Cold weather and sonar rules won’t make it easy
So far this season in BFL and Toyota Series competition, we’ve seen some anglers do well while catching some of their five bass during their three-hour forward-facing sonar period, but as of yet, nobody has won an event in just three hours of fishing. At the Harris Chain, Steverson expects forward-facing sonar to be key for many but reckons that winning with all your fish caught on it will be very hard.
“I’ve fished here my whole life, I know where to set up, and I’m not much of a ‘Scoper on this lake,” Steverson said. “I’ll use it for sure, but I was glad I went down to Okeechobee. I felt obligated to use it for my three hours, and then go fish the lake. And looking back, I never should have turned it on. Now that I went down there and stunk it up, I learned that in those three hours, I don’t have to use it for three hours.
“Certainly, there will be some people who utilize it and make big moves with it,” he said. “There will be guys who catch a giant with it in their three hours. But, I don’t think many people will be able to catch a big bag in just three hours with it.”
Of course, due to the cold weather, which really isn’t headed for a warming trend at all, Steverson doesn’t expect the fishing to be gangbusters. The Harris Chain used to be a standout cold-weather destination in Florida, but with less submerged grass than it used to have, that is less the case now.
“It isn’t going to be like how it went down on Toho,” Steverson said. “There, they have plenty of grass to get those fish stacked up. It’s going to be a grinder – not as tough as Okeechobee, but it’s going to be tough. Right now, we have a big bass tournament going on out there, and I was looking at the weights, and there were a couple of hours when 2-pounders were cutting checks. There are still some big ones being weighed, but the weather is going to get worse.”
Given the cold, Steverson thinks every bite will matter, and expects that a couple of decent days could have a pro cashing a check and fishing the first Day 3 of the year.
“There’s going to be someone who finds some staging fish and cracks a good bag,” he said. “But, I would think 13 pounds a day might be fishing Day 3.”
Follow along
You can follow the action at Stop 1 Presented by B&W Trailer Hitches on the Harris Chain during all three days of competition, Feb. 6-8, on MLFNOW! from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET, and stay locked to MajorLeagueFishing.com for on-the-water galleries, daily stories and more.