# Tale Of Two Patterns At The Bass Open



## CaptainSolo (Jan 22, 2017)

Wrapped up the very first event of the year at the Bassmaster Open on the Harris Chain.  It was quite the event with quite a few 20+lb bags brought to the scales.  It turned out to be one of the most challenging events I have fished in Florida, and most of that was due to the fact that the weather has been so consistently warm- which has been highly abnormal for this time of year.  This caused the fish to be in all phases of the spawn, which made it an event where all kinds of anglers could succeed- including both shallow and offshore fishermen.  

I ended up settling for patterns on both sides of the spectrum.....one strictly a spawning pattern, and the other was a post-spawn offshore grass pattern.  The final day of practice was when everything started to fall into place for me, and I found a group of big fish moving into a stretch of Kissimmee Grass, which was adjacent to some prime spawning habitat.  Those fish I had found flipping the outside edge of the grass, but I knew they would soon disappear to the inside edge to take post on their beds.  The second area that I really knew had potential was an isolated patch of hydrilla that was outside of a spawning bay.  I caught a 5lber that gave me confidence in the small 150'x150' grass patch, and I knew that more fish were likely to show up.  

The first day of the tournament I got the right kind of bites, but I struggled to get them in the boat.  The flipping bite started to get much tougher, but the offshore bite was really what brought me through.  I had some great luck throwing a small lipless crankbait, as well as slowly crawling a Chatterbait through the grass, and that accounted for the majority of my day-1 catch.  Unfortunately, the lost fish cost me dearly and I brought a sub 10-lb limit to the scales.  The second day I started on my offshore spot and immediately started getting the big bites in the boat, with a 4, 5 and a 3 going in the livewell.  I ended up letting the spot rest and went to my shallow fish, but after awhile of flipping I realized that the fish just werent on the outside edge anymore, so I started casting a swimbait to the very shallow arrowhead grass where they were likely spawning.  I immediately lost an aggressive female that was likely over 6lbs and a few casts later caught one just over 6lbs.  After running out of prime spawning areas to fish, and needing to cull a smaller fish, I headed back to the offshore spot and was able to pick up another quality fish to fill out my limit.  My limit weighed in at just under 20lbs and shot me back up into the check cut.  Although I had higher expectations from this event, I was happy to cut a check after such a tough day-1.


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## Lukikus2 (Jan 23, 2017)

Good info. I was following along on the computer. There were some nice strings of fish weighed. Good thing y'all were done Saturday because we had 30 mph winds all day yesterday with gusts to 50 or so. Did you fish Griffin?


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## 61BelAir (Jan 23, 2017)

I've never fished down there, but I wouldn't have guessed they would be on the bed already.   I wonder how the spawn will be this year with so many warm days and I'm sure a few cold snaps left.


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## ErikD (Jan 23, 2017)

Are you fishing Chickamauga also?


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