St. Johns River event has NCAA hoops feel
PALATKA, Fla. — It’s NCAA basketball March Madness time, and for the majority of the 110-man field, there’s a common theme between the two: Survive and advance.
For the Bassmaster Elite Series anglers, it’s mostly about surviving at the St. Johns River, in other words, finishing in the Top 50 and earning a check. The usual sight-fishing spawning bed bite will be in play, but not as much as in the past when the four-day Bassmaster Elite at the St. Johns River presented by Dick Cepek Tires & Wheels begins Thursday. There’s more potential for a disastrous start to the 2016 Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. So it’s all about survive the St. Johns and advance to fish another event with your hopes still intact.
“I think there’s going to be about 100 guys here who are just trying to survive and get a check,” Skeet Reese said. “There’s not but a handful of guys that feel like they have something they can win with that’s different from what everybody else is doing.”
Two factors are literally clouding the sight-fishing pattern: 1) a strong westerly wind that has blown all week and muddied the east bank of the river where some prime spawning beds are located, and 2) a weather forecast of mostly cloudy skies the next four days.
“I’m encouraged by everything but the weather forecast,” said Alton Jones, who won the Elite event here in 2012 with a 75 pounds, 9 ounces. “In practice I noticed that even on some of the shallow beds, if you were right on top of them, when a cloud came over you couldn’t see them.
“Sight-fishing isn’t sight-fishing when you can’t see them. I think consistency is going to be a little more challenging here than it has in the past because of that. I think it’s going to open the door for some other techniques to come into play.
“I would love to know what Terry Scroggins knows about this place – the cranking and Carolina-rigging and different things he does.”
If there’s a Kansas Jayhawks No. 1 pre-NCAA tournament seed equivalent in this bass tournament, it’s Scroggins, who has lived nearby and fished this river for over 40 years. He’ll accept that top seed.
“I feel like I’ve got an advantage when the other guys aren’t looking at them so much,” Scroggins said. “I found four or five big schools off of shell bars – pre-spawn fish that haven’t moved up yet. And there’s a good topwater bite going on, which is excellent for the (weather) conditions we’re supposed to have.
“It’s still going to take about 20 pounds a day to win this. You’re going to see a guy catch over 30 pounds one day, but he’s not going to be able to back it up.”
The last time the Elite Series visited in the St. Johns River (2014), Chris Lane put together a monster bag of 37-9 on Day 2 in his four-day total of 90-13. In March 2011, Edwin Evers won here with 77-1.
Reese, for one, believes you could make the Top 12 and be fishing on Sunday this week with considerably less than 20 pounds a day.
“I think if you can catch 15 to 17 pounds a day you’ll have a strong finish here,” he said. “I’m still trying to figure out what is a Top 10 game plan. I’m not sure I know that yet.”