Double-Barrel Tour Action

Looking forward to gettin the @bass_nation #basselite season underway and to try and find some big Florida girls like this one! Only a week out... #bassfishing #largemouthbass #bassmaster #floridabassfishing #floridafishing @toyotausa @triton_boats_official @yamahaoutboards @carhartt @teamtoyota @lews_fishing @afwhiseas @_duckett_fishing_ @yum_baits @booyah_baits @minnkotamotors @humminbirdfishing

A photo posted by Terry Scroggins (@bigshowscroggins) on Mar 11, 2016 at 10:33am PST

A big weekend for pro bass fishing kicks off in about an hour. The B.A.S.S. Elite Series begins their season this morning on the St. Johns River while the FLW Tour starts tour stop number two on Lake Hartwell. Each has its own intrigue to me, so I'll be paying attention to both through the weekend, although I'm driving to Louisiana on Sunday, and I can't deny that I'm apt to be distracted by some seriously good Cajun cooking at Bourgeois Fishing Charters that evening! Off topic, I know. I guess I'm distracted already.

Anyway, the St. Johns tourney is more interesting than many both because it's the season opener, where this year's story lines begin being written. Plus, I was just in Florida, fishing the St. Johns, and I know how many big fish are apt to be on the flats. The water was off-colored for the area, and I don't know if it has settled, and I haven't looked at the forecast. Even if conditions turn out to be tough, though, I suspect some seriously big bags will be brought to the scales.

Meanwhile, the FLW event at Hartwell carries extra interest for me because it is so close to home. The launch they are using is about an hour from here, and parts of the lake are much closer. I haven't spent loads of time on Hartwell, but it's still pretty familiar, and it's always fun when a big event is happening so close to home. The weather has been warm, and I've seen photos of a lot of good practice fish posted by pros, so I suspect they are going to catch 'em well. Of course, every FLW Tour event is important to the points story line because there are only six events. By the end of the weekend, the season will be 1/3 over.

Both organizations do a good job of providing live coverage of their events. For FLW, I tend to like their Twitter feed best. For B.A.S.S., I go straight to their website and follow the event's blog and/or BASStrakk results. Look for yourself, though, to see which feeds suit you best.

Florida Fishing

When I spoke with Tim Mann and Chris Holleman about possibly getting together to fish later this spring and they both said they could make something work just a few days later, I couldn't pass on that chance, so a few days later I was in my car and had it pointed south. I fished Lake George one day, sight-fishing for largemouths, and spent two days chasing redfish and speckled trout in the Jacksonville area.

Sight-fishing with Tim is always fun and a learning experienced, and while the wind chased us around some in the afternoon, conditions, plentiful fish on beds and Tim's direction allowed even my untrained eyes to see several fish and catch a few. While we didn't land any real giants, we caught a lot of good fish, and our best limit would have easily weighed more than 20 pounds. Hard to say how big a bag Tim would have caught if he had just been fishing instead of mostly trying to help me! It's not uncommon for he and tournament to bring 30 pounds to the scales this time of year.

The saltwater days were extra fun for me because I haven't done a lot of that recently. In fact, my species list from last year didn't include any saltwater species because I never made it to the coast. This year's list now includes both specks and reds, and I hope to keep adding to that. I was actually supposed to be saltwater fishing in Texas this week, but the weather blew out that trip. However, my next two trips are to Louisiana and Florida, and plans for both include some saltwater fishing.

Naturally, I like the way a redfish crushes a lure and the fight that follows. Beyond that, though, I simply enjoy being out in the marsh, smelling the salt air, and watching the changes brought by rising and falling tides.

Chris Lane's Astounding Day

Chris Lane weighed-in an astounding 37 pounds, 9 ounces of St. Johns River bass
yesterday to take a 9-pound lead halfway home. B.A.S.S. photo by Seigo Saito.

I mostly avoid re-hashing reports that you can read in various other places. Some things are tough to ignore, though, and a 37-pound, 9-ounce bass limit in a major tournament clearly is one such thing. That's what Chris Lane brought to the scales yesterday on Day 2 of the Bassmaster Elite on the St. Johns River.

Looking at the numbers, Lane would be in 10th place after two days if he had zeroed on Day 1! He actually had a solid 18-11 on the first day, though, so yesterday's giant bag put him nearly 9 pounds ahead of Day 1 leader Randy Howell.

The good news for Chris Lane is that he is in a great position, and because he is not sight-fishing in a crowd, he is not watching his fish supply dwindle. The bad news is that if he could do it yesterday, someone else could do it today or tomorrow. Twenty anglers had 20-pound-plus bags yesterday, and the St. Johns River holds enough big fish that someone else could surge into the spotlight with a giant bag tomorrow. In fact, although the cut-line was 28-14, barely more than half of Lane's two-day total, I'd go as far as to say that no one who made the cut is out of contention halfway home. Lane's bag today could change that story and all but seal the deal, but he was the first to say that he might catch 10 pounds or another giant bag. Not surprisingly, he did not plan to alter his approach of flippin' shallow lily pads