PALATKA, Fla. — Rick Clunn, of all people, doesn’t like fishing the St. Johns River. Steve Kennedy, on the other hand, loves this place. For Mark Menendez, some days he loves it, some days he doesn’t. Greg Hackney loves the St. Johns for both its scenic beauty and its bass fishing, but at the same time it scares him.
“This is probably one of the most beautiful places in Florida because it still looks like old Florida,” said Hackney. “It’s rustic. It’s always been really good to me.”
The 50-year-old Hackney grew up in south Arkansas and now lives in Gonzales, La. He finished second at the St. Johns in 2016 and second again in 2021. He starts Day 2 of the MAXAM Tire Bassmaster Elite in 10th place after catching a five-bass limit weighing 19 pounds, 5 ounces Thursday.
“I grew up on the Arkansas River, which as a river may be similar,” he said. “But I also grew up fishing a lake in south Arkansas, Lake Chico, and it reminds me more of (the St. Johns). There’s a lot of similarities here to the way I grew up fishing, and I like that. It’s got big bass. I always like that.”
Hackney laughed and added, “I’m pretty simple.”
The scary part of the St. Johns for Hackney and maybe every other angler in the tournament is its tidal influence. That’s a factor rarely dealt with on the Elite Series tour.
“I’ve had a lot of success here, but it scares me,” Hackney said. “It’s a scary place. There are those dead periods when you’re ‘missing’ the tide.”
Steve Kennedy, who celebrates his 55th birthday today, April 19th, lives in Auburn, Ala. He didn’t grow up here, but it feels like he did.
“I do, I really do love this place,” he said. “I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid. My dad came down here and stayed in those old dilapidated hotels at Astor. We used to come to Salt Springs. It was all grass back then and crystal clear. You were able to see fish swimming everywhere.
“I caught my first tilapia there. I thought I had a world record bluegill. It weighed at least five, maybe eight pounds. Every time we come here there’s something different in the springs. Some years the blue crabs are in there. We had tarpon in there one year. The lady fish and jack crevalle were in there this year.”
Steve and Julia Kennedy almost always travel as a family with their now-teenage kids/young adults, Sophia and S.J. The St. Johns River has been a family affair with Steve Kennedy since he was a kid, and he has passed it on to his next generation.
Kennedy starts Day 2 of this tournament in 12th place after weighing 19-4 Thursday. This marks his 199th B.A.S.S. tournament, and he’s won over $2 million on the tour. His best finish on the St. Johns was fifth place in 2011.
“I do love this place,” he said. “It’s got moving water. It’s hard to figure out the tides. It’s a challenge, but I always do well on rivers. Moving water helps a bunch in the way I like to fish. It positions the fish.”
Mark Menendez starts Day 2 in seventh place after weighing 20-13 Thursday. The 59-year-old Paducah, Ky., angler fished his first professional level tournament in 1987, at the St. Johns River.
“Some days I love it and some days I don’t,” said Menendez. “I landed on them real good (Thursday) morning, and I lost more than I caught in a very short order. It was quick, it was fast and it was crazy, crazy, crazy.”
Menendez finished third at the St. Johns in 2019 when Clunn won. He was fifth here in 2021.
“I just get along with it,” he said of the river. “It changes. It’s always in flux. You just have to roll with those changes. It can be monumentally rewarding, and it can be absolutely bone-jarring tough in the same day.”
Rick Clunn’s Hall of Fame bass fishing career includes 16 wins. The most recent of those – in 2016 and 2019 – came on the St. Johns River. To hear his dislike for the river was, therefore, a surprise. However, his answer pertains strictly to his style of fishing, not any other aspect of the river or its surroundings.
“I don’t like it,” said Clunn on Thursday, after weighing 12-12, which left him in 63rd place. “The St. Johns kicks my tail a lot more than I do well here. I’ve never made any money here except in the tournaments I’ve won.
“We normally come here in February, when they’re around the beds and the fish aren’t chasing (bait). Both times when I won here, we caught them when they were still chasing.”
Clunn spent Day 1 of his 500th Bassmaster tournament in Rodman Reservoir, a canal channel away from the St. Johns River.
“I had to stay in Rodman today because I can’t catch them on that river,” he said. “(Rodman) is a lake, and most of them are post-spawn. They’re willing to chase a little bit. If they’re willing to chase, I can catch a few.”
