While the Harris Chain of Lakes is known for producing many 25 to 30-pound bags of largemouth, there are plenty of smaller bass trying to eat enough to reach the size of their mommas and daddies.
The St. Croix Bassmaster Opens field discovered that on Day 1 of the final event of the 2023 season. Plenty of limits were caught, 147 to be exact, but almost all of those limits measured between 13 and 9 pounds. And it’s not even easy to get the little ones to bite as dirty water conditions have been present all week long.
Only two anglers, leader Matt Messer (24-6) and Ben Milliken (20-13), crossed the 20-pound threshold on Friday and to land in the Top 15, Louis Monetti only needed 15-3.
“It is all about the big bites,” Milliken said. “There aren’t a lot of 3-5-pound bites it doesn’t seem like. They are either small or they are 5 or 6 pounds and above. If I can get two big bites tomorrow, I will feel really good about it.”
Severe thunderstorms moved through the area on Thursday, forcing the postponement of Day 1, and with dirty water conditions across the lake already, no one was sure what the strong winds and rain did to their areas.
Overall, anglers reported the lake being relatively unaffected, although certain areas took more of a battering than others.
“Some of the stuff I started on was a little messed up,” Messer said. “I think I could have caught them better, but I’m glad I didn’t. It really helped me out because it got tough and I went to do what I do in Florida when it does get tough. And that was really good.”
On top of everything, many anglers traveling to Apopka were delayed getting to their starting spots when the lock temporarily malfunctioned.
Here’s what we learned on Day 1 at the Harris Chain.
A different take on Florida
Messer’s home state of Kentucky doesn’t have a grass fishery quite like the Harris Chain of Lakes, but the 21-year-old has excelled on this body of water anyway. Why?
“Everybody comes down here and fishes grass, but I come down here and try to never fish grass,” he explained. “I look for anything they will set up on other than grass, because I know I’m not as good as these dudes fishing in the grass. I’m not going to let them beat me doing that.”
Last year, Messer and his brother Lafe Messer won the Bassmaster College Series event at Harris Chain for Kentucky Christian University with a two-day total of 61-13 that included monster bags of 25-6 and 36-7, a College Series single-day record. That tournament, and other trips he’s made prior to this event, helped him out greatly on Day 1 when his starting spot didn’t pan out how he thought.
“I started catching them early, but I really junk fished my way into it,” Messer said. “Both big ones came around noon. They were really close to each other. I fished Harris, Eustis and Griffin today. I have a lot of history here, so I was running around checking stuff.”
In his first trip to the Harris Chain, Tyler Williams has taken a similar approach and sits in 16th with 15-3, which has greatly helped his EQ standing. The 21-year-old from Belgrade, Maine put over 38 hours on his Yamaha motor during practice searching for isolated pieces of cover.
“I’m just fishing how I like to,” Williams said. “I told myself that I didn’t want to do anything Florida related. So I scanned that long to find 20 of my own spots. If I was going to bomb, I would rather not throw a Senko at lily pads. I’d rather be offshore.”
Fishing the conditions
Tornado warnings, high winds and the rain beating on the tops of campers kept many anglers awake in the overnight and early morning hours of Thursday, but on Friday they awoke to calm, muggy conditions.
Each angler has a different take on what these conditions did to the fishery on Day 1. Louis Monetti has spent his entire week fishing isolated grass clumps in Lake Griffin and has generated bites by dragging a Speed Worm through that grass extremely slowly.
That pattern produced 15-4 on Day 1 and has the 2022 College Classic Bracket champion in 15th place.
“I have no idea what my ideal conditions are. There were times when it was slick and I got bit and there were times when the wind blew and I got bit,” Monetti said. “The biggest key to keeping my bite going are the warm nights. I think that is what helped me out today and it is supposed to be warm tonight.”
Others like Tyler Lubbat were hoping for a little more wind in their areas than what they got. While Lubbat is fifth after catching 18-2, including a 7-1 largemouth, he feels he could get even more bites with his ChatterBait if there was a little chop.
“The wind is key for me. My starting area, which I thought was my big fish place, was slick calm and I couldn’t really get bit,” he explained. “It is so dirty and when I drag something, I don’t think they can find it. I found some more wind later in the day and when I got some chop, I started catching them. I just need something to break the surface up. Tomorrow will hopefully be better. I’m fishing off the bank so it won’t get as blown out.”
Messer, on the other hand, initially thought the lack of wind was going to hurt him, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise as he changed tactics and caught the biggest bag of the day. Even though his starting spot was tougher to get a bite on than expected, Wesley Gore (4th-place, 18-15) would prefer it to stay calm and tough.
“(Elsewhere)The calm conditions help me,” he said. “I have three or four different patterns going and none of them are great. I just pieced together a bag doing all of them. One off shell, one off brush, one flipping, one swimming and one frogging. It is all in different areas and the calm conditions set up for the bass to bite better. The high skies keep things tough, which may help me stay up there.”
Yet another weather change is expected on the final day, as winds are expected to pick back up from the WNW ahead of a cool down. Partly sunny skies are expected.
A hodgepodge of patterns
As Gore mentioned, there isn’t necessarily one pattern that is particularly dominant this week. Lubbat and Monetti are committed to fishing grass, while Messer, Gore and many others are running from lake to lake and jumping back and forth from deep to shallow. Milliken, meanwhile, has stayed in the mid-depth range.
“I caught one flipping, one in eelgrass, some on shell. I just went fishing,” Messer remarked.
Anglers reported catching bass out of a variety of different covers including Kissimmee grass, hydrilla, eelgrass, shellbeds and brushpiles. Anything from creature baits to dragging baits caught bass on Day 1 while glidebaits, jerkbaits and buzzbaits have been mentioned as top lures.
The big bag potential
Lubbat proved on Friday that big bites can come at any time. After moving lakes, his second cast to a particular patch of hydrilla produced his biggest bite.
“I pulled up and on my second cast, that bass stopped it right at that boat. I set the hook and it came up and jumped immediately,” Lubbat said. “It was pulling drag under the boat and thankfully my coangler went down and grabbed him for me. Once I caught that big one, I knew I was going to be towards the top.”
With plenty of bass even bigger than that swimming around, it is hard to rule anyone out of contention. Blake Sylvester may have caught a 7-pounder, which anchored his 15-14 11th place bag, but he has seen the potential for much bigger bags.
“I got lucky to get one big bite, but I had two other big bites that I didn’t catch,” he said. “I only had two days of practice and I spent both days in that same lake. I think you could catch a 30-pound bag down there from what I saw in practice. I had two big ones today that pulled off. With a long day, I think I can make it interesting.”
Lubbat and EQ points leader JT Thompkins both mentioned losing big bass that would have significantly increased their weight on Day 1 as well.
If an angler can find a way to keep those big bass pegged, they can make a big move up the leaderboard on the final day.
