LEESBURG, Fla. – The Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Southern Division event at the Harris Chain will likely not include any big surprises. Not because the fishing won’t be good or interesting, but simply because the Harris Chain is one of the most well-trod tournament fisheries in the country – if it can be done, it’s probably been done.
This week, coming off a pair of Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine events on the fishery, there are plenty of complicating factors in play for the anglers. Of course, an increased degree of difficulty is part of the charm of the Harris Chain – with a ton of lakes and difficult time management decisions, it’s been a long time since a win came easy.
Wrapping up the BFL events
Last weekend’s Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine Gator Division events offered a good look at the current status of the fishery, what is possible, and what is more common. Winning on Saturday, Dylan Quilatan, popped 27 pounds, 1 ounce. On Sunday, Joey Bloom caught 24-14.
In both events, bags in the low-20s did the trick to make the top five (Kennie Steverson was the most consistent angler on the weekend, topping 20 pounds both days), and Quilitan and Bloom both flip-flopped their big days with 19-pound bags – proof that it is probably unreasonable to expect a nonstop smashfest.
In both events, about half the field caught better than 10 pounds. Curiously, on Sunday, the Big Bass was only 6-15, while Nathan Vick brought an 8-14 to the scale on Saturday.
Sunday’s event also featured the Abu Garcia “Fishing 4 FREE!” promotion, in which every angler competing Sunday in the fourth Gator Division event of the season received an Abu Garcia gift pack valued at $230 for boaters and $180 for co-anglers – a value that exceeded the entry for the tournament. Anglers received their Abu Garcia gift boxes at the event, and in addition also received a code for 25% off an order at AbuGarcia.com.
Shad spawn should be a player
In 2018, Chris Johnston won the FLW Tour event on the Harris Chain on a shad spawn pattern, fishing along a hydrilla edge offshore on Harris. Though shad spawn patterns might get a little more national tournament play in the South than in Florida, it’s still a major factor when the time is right, which could be now.
“There’s definitely some fish on bed still, and there’s definitely a shad spawn going on,” Bloom said. “That’s how I ended up catching my fish was in a shad spawn. Just looking for the white birds. If you find the white birds, there’s a lot of shad coming up first thing in the morning. I was able to get those better bites first thing in the morning.”
Of course, a shad spawn is usually a short-lived thing – and considering travel times on the Harris Chain, it’s hard to depend on. According to Bloom, the name of the game is to stay on the goods.
“First thing in the morning, obviously, is your best bet – that’s when the shad are active and the bass are eating them and the birds are everywhere,” he said. “But after the sun comes up, it gets really tough. I don’t believe the shad leave the areas. I believe they stay there. And what I keyed in on was all the areas that I got bit in the morning – there should be no reason why the fish leave.
“I just really hunkered down and just really focused on those areas and just flipped and flipped and flipped and threw a swim jig,” he said. “Instead of roaming around flipping, I would just focus on those areas, and it seemed to work out pretty good for me.”
Shad spawn not the only thing on the table
According to Mikey Keyso, the winner of last year’s Harris Chain event, the shad spawn is not nearly the only thing going, with a veritable smorgasbord of options on deck.
“There are still bass spawning; I caught one that was 8 or 9 pounds off bed the first day I got here,” he said. “Apopka is the lake – it’s the best lake on the chain right now for sure – but you can catch bass on any lake, anywhere, doing anything. It’s crazy. But the big ones are game-changers, but they’re hard to get.”
While Keyso freely admits that the shad spawn is underway, the potential of the bluegill spawn is perhaps more exciting for him.
“There’s a giant shad spawn in big areas, but it just started,” he said. “So the bass haven’t even found a lot of it yet. You know they’re going to find it, whether it’s Friday, Saturday, or tomorrow. On Apopka, the bluegill are coming in.”
Fishing bream beds is a thing everywhere, but it can result in some really big bags in Florida – big, shallow bait and big bass that like to be shallow are a potent combination.
“It’s a Florida thing, when the bluegill come in to spawn a lot of the bass are postspawn and they’re there to eat – and they eat those big bluegill, and they’re big. I mean, really big,” Keyso said. “So, if someone can figure out that, they’ll run away with it. But I haven’t totally seen it yet. I started to see them come today – like, really show up – but they’re not on beds yet really good. But it could happen during the tournament.”
How much does Apopka matter?
While it is not the only such lake on the chain, Apopka is the hardest to get to by a long shot – it’s a long run, and the lock into it is very small and very slow. So, getting there and back is a big time commitment. In the Bass Pro Tour event that Bobby Lane won this spring, Apopka was the dominant lake, but the pros had much more time to fish there than is typical in a tournament with a weigh-in. If all 154 boats in the field attempted to lock down to Apoka this morning, boat 150 would get through the lock around midnight.
So, it’s an open question: Do you need to be in Apopka to win? Do you need at least one day there?
“You definitely have to have a good boat number to get to Apopka,” Bloom said. “And I know that Apopka is definitely still producing a lot of fish, a lot of big fish. I don’t know if there’s necessarily a hot lake right now, considering that we’re in such a mix. You’ve got the fish that are still spawning and the fish that have left and the fish that are still moving up to spawn, and I think that it’s all over the place. I know, for me, I had to run around to a bunch of lakes.”
Keyso is probably higher on Apopka than Bloom, but, even he doesn’t want to base his entire event on the gamble.
“I think that the best case scenario for somebody to do it would be to be, like, boat 50, where they stop, they catch 15 pounds somewhere, and then they get through to Apopka and actually can fish it,” he said. “If you’re a really early boat number, it’s scary because you’ve got to be back so early, and you don’t know who’s coming the other way. So, it’s really tricky.
“There’s a lot of variables for Apopka, but it’s definitely the best lake on the chain for big ones,” he said. “If everything feels right, I mean, you almost have to go there if you can, because the fish are just so much bigger. There’s fish everywhere, but the average bite in Apopka is just better. It’s just it’s not a 1-pounder or a 2-pounder. It’s 2 1/2 to 10.”
Regardless of the hot lake, we’re probably in for a good event. The weather looks ideal, and the fishing should be pretty solid and very interesting.