
All captions: Craig Lamb




Scott Canterbury rotated through soft plastic stickbaits and topwaters. A top choice was a Bagley Twin Spin.



Cory Johnston flipped and pitched to bedding fish with a 6-inch Yamamoto Senko rigged with 4/0 straight shank worm hook and 3/8-ounce weight.

Clifford Pirchâs primary bait was an 8- or 6-inch Big Bite Finesse Worm, rigged wacky style on a Hayabusa WRM962 Power Wacky Hook with a nail weight.


Lee Livesay rotated through stick baits and a bladed jig. That choice was a 3/8-ounce Finch Nasty Bait Co. Glade Bait, a weedless vibrating jig, with a 3.5-inch Reaction Innovations Little Dipper trailer.


âFlipping a straight bait seems to be a huge deal during the spawn in Florida.â And with that John Crews went to work with a Missile Baits Fuse 4.4. He rigged the slender June Bug crawfish bait to a 4/0 Gamakatsu Heavy Cover Flippinâ Hook and 1/8-ounce sinker. Making a Neko rig with a No. 1 Gamakatsu Octopus Hook and nail weight using the Fuse 4.4 produced bedding bass. He also chose a 7-inch Missile Baits Destroyer, green pumpkin flash, on 5/0 Gamakatsu Hook and 3/16-ounce tungsten weight.

Patrick Walters rotated through a finesse worm, trick worm, prop bait and spinnerbait. That choice was a 3/8-ounce Zorro Baits Bango Blade. A Rapala X-Rap jerkbait was another choice. For plastics he chose a 5-inch Zoom Magnum Finesse Worm on 4/0 VMC Flippinâ Hook with 3/8-ounce VMC Tungsten Worm Weight. Another choice was a 7-inch Zoom Magnum Trick Worm with 5/0 VMC Wide Gap Hook and 3/16-ounce VMC Tungsten Worm Weight.

Mark Menendez fished around docks with soft plastic craw, worm and spinnerbait. âThe spinnerbait was a go-to deal because I could cover water while dialing into specific cover.â The choice was a 3/8-ounce Strike King Premier Spinnerbait with a small piece of chartreuse soft plastic on the hook shank for strike appeal.

âI pitched a worm, easing it through pencil reeds trying to drag it across a spawning bed.â Chris Johnston used a 5.5-inch Zoom Speed Worm on 3/0 Gamakatsu Heavy Cover Flippinâ Hook and 1/8-ounce tungsten weight. He also used a 5-inch soft plastic stickbait rigged on 5/0 straight shank hook and 3/8-ounce sinker.

Legend Rick Clunn again found patterns that beat the rest of the Bassmaster Elite Series field on the St. Johns.

