Key to Tournament Wins In Florida



The fish will find themselves constantly bombarded by crankbaits, plastic worms, spinnerbaits and jerk baits.

They may fall for these fake fish for the first tournament or two, but they ll wise up pretty fast.

It seems that bass have a six-week memory, said Sam McKinney, fisheries biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission s Ocala office. I think they learn a lot quicker than we give them credit for.

If that s so, the people fishing the 2006 BASS Federation Championship on Jan.11-14 should have the best chance.

Not counting the local tournaments, the 54 federation anglers from BASS chapters around the world will be the toughest opponents these fish have faced.

The federation fishers will be fishing their arms off, since the winner earns $50,000 and the top angler from each of the six federation divisions earns a berth in the 2006 CITGO Bassmaster Classic.

If the weather cooperates, the keys to winning will be crankbaits and canal mouths.

That s their pre-spawn period and if we get a couple of days of warm weather, they could all be staging, hanging around the mouths of the canals.

On the Harris Chain, bass spawn in the maze of canals because the water is warmer and their beds are protected from the cold-front spawned winds.

Last year, in a BASS tournament held during the same time period, Jacksonville pro Peter Thliveros won with a four-day total of 69 pounds, 5 ounces.

The BASS Federation anglers are amateurs and don t fish at the same levels as pros, but you can expect to see the best anglers with four-day totals coming pretty close to the 60-pound mark if a cold front doesn t blast through the area.

Last year, BASS had tournaments on lakes Kissimmee and Tohopekaliga before the Harris Chain tournament, and those tournaments didn t do nearly as well, They did a lot better up here, Benton said. I expect to see the same thing happen this year.

Benton said he s just completed a two-year electro-fishing project covering every lake in the chain from Apopka to Yale.

They used a generator to send electric current into the water to temporarily stun the fish and force them to surface. After being measured and weighed, the fish were released.

Eustis and Harris are the standouts as far as keeper-sized fish, and the fish were healthy looking. The biggest fish was in Lake Apopka, and it weighed 14 pounds.

But you d spend the rest of the day trying to find even medium-sized bass in the polluted lake.

After lakes Harris and Eustis, Griffin usually is the best choice. Specifically the Yale Canal off Lake Griffin.

That s where local pro Jim Bitter caught the 8-pound, 9-ounce bass that was the largest in last February s tournament.

But Benton said the Lake County Water Authority is dredging the canals off the lake, to help raise and lower water levels in the lake.

The dredging will disturb the bottom and could make fishing difficult.

Two overlooked lakes may be Dora and Beauclair. The water quality has improved enough to allow sunlight to reach shallower areas and promote plant growth.

Benton said there are stands of eel grass in these two lakes that should hold bass.

In Lake Eustis, the hydrilla has come on strong and would be the plant of choice to fish.

Eustis and Harris are going to be tops for the abundance of quality fish.

The federation tournament will have daily weigh-ins at the Venetian Gardens park on the north shore of Lake Harris.

Other tournaments will be two FLW Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League contests in February and March, plus eight River City Tournament Trail events from February through October.

To hear all the Pro s talk about tournaments and tactics, tune into Anglers Radio each week on Tuesday and Thursday at www.anglersradio.com where Steve vonBrandt will talk to all the professional anglers about the lakes and tactics on his show Beyond Bass Basics sponsored by Delaware Tackle.

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Key to Tournament Wins In Florida