Dock Talk at Harris Chain

Welcome back to Dock Talk, the 2022 edition, where we ask the Bassmaster Elite Series pros a question about their practice time, and you decide whether or not the answers are fact or fake, and thus the reason why we call this Dock Talk.
All captions: Craig Lamb

It’s the final day of practice for the SiteOne Bassmaster Elite at Harris Chain, and myself and photographer Andy Crawford are set up at Tavares Recreation Park, which is on Lake Eustis, between the Dora Canal and Dead River.

The winds are gusting out of the southwest at 13 mph. The forecast calls for winds to increase throughout the tournament. The temperature is 77 degrees and the warmup will continue through the weekend.

That all begs the question: Which lakes in the chain will be in play, and how will the wind affect the bite?

First up was Drew Cook, intending to put his boat on the trailer and move to another lake. “I’m hopping around from lake to lake.” Why? “For me, it’s about looking for the clearest water because I am going to sight fish. For other people, they might want grass, but Lake Harris was recently sprayed and there’s no more grass there, which hurts because it used to be you could just go down the bank and sight fish, but now you can’t see the beds anymore without the filtration effect of the grass.”

Drew Cook: “I’m going around checking on females that I have already found, making sure everything is still there, how many new females have moved up,” Cook said. “My goal for the remainder of the day is to just go around and figure out where I am going to start in the morning, as in where I can go and catch two good females, like two 8 pounders, and then just go put the trolling motor down and look for more like them.”

Chad Morgenthaler: “Things are changing so fast right now. There is a full moon and you can catch them doing just about anything, from offshore to the shoreline. It’s all about being in the right area that has the right quality of females coming into them,” Morgenthaler said. “There are fish on the beds, out in the lake. It’s any man’s game.”

“I think Griffin and Harris will be key players,” Morgenthaler said. “Griffin has such good history with a lot of good options. It’s not been sprayed as badly recently. Harris has been wiped out but there are several areas that have vegetation and good fish are there.”

Hank Cherry: “It’s quite literally all over the place. That can be good for some, bad for others. There isn’t one lake is fishing any better than the other, from what I have seen. There are bass on beds, others have left beds.”

“The offshore bite is on, but it’s unpredictable,” Cherry said. “Water temperatures in the morning are in the 50s, so it doesn’t really have a chance to stay warm before the temperature drops into the 40s at night. I think there was a spawn two, three months ago when they had an extended warm spell. The first real cold these fish have experienced happened the last two weeks. The fish are healthy, it’s just not knowing when you will catch one is the challenge.”

Derek Hudnall arrived and was in a hurry to get his boat back on the trailer. “Yeah, I’m a lake hopper. I’m going around to different spots that I have been to the last two days and check to see if the females are still on the beds.”

Derek Hudnall: “In some places there are only small fish, males, and any time a big female could pull up, so I want to be there when they do,” Hudnall said. “I’m trying to cover as much water as I can, because with this being Florida, the water temperature continuing to go up, and the full moon, this place can change by the hour. The females can show up anywhere, anytime.”

John Cox: Next up, we run into another lake hopper. “It’s messed up, I mean everyone is fishing the canals. There’s not one boat fishing on the lake.” Is that a bad thing, I asked? “I like fishing the canals and usually there’s not usually that many people in them. Someone is going to win casting to lily pads. I haven’t found any lakes that are any better than the others.”

“I’m actually now going to some spots where I caught good fish over 25 years ago when I was in the jon boat club, where I haven’t been since,” said Cox. “I’m going to go try them because maybe I’ll have them to myself. I just want to get away from everyone.”

Skylar Hamilton: “It’s finally warm, finally warmed up after the cold spell. The bass are biting, just not big ones where I’ve been. Mostly males and I’m catching them on every lake I’ve been on.”

Ray Hanselman: “I spent my practice in Eustis and Harris. Both fished similar early in the week before the front. Yesterday with bluebird skies it was tough, but that’s to be expected. In both lakes, everyone was looking for what little offshore grass remains in the lakes.”

“I don’t know if the bass are post frontal or moving in. It wasn’t difficult to pattern, typical prespawn, before the front,” Hanselman said. “I did see some good size females in the canals. So, there was a break in the migration that is making me reset where to go looking for them.”

Marc Frazier: “This is my first time here. I looked into the history of Griffin, which is good, but I didn’t go there. I mainly focused on Harris, Eustis and Dora. There is more vegetation here than the St. Johns River.”

“I’m on fish, but not the winning fish. I’ve been looking shallow and deep, and there are good fish in both areas,” Frazier said.

Jake Whitaker: “Everything is going to be in play, all the lakes. For me it’s my first time so I spent my time in one or two of the lakes just to break them down. Getting that big bite to anchor a limit will be key. I’ve had success catching smaller males, and where they are leads me to believe the females will be next, so it will be a matter of timing, as in being in the right place at the right time. I’m where it can to down.”

“Everything is in play here. Canals, shell bars, and all phases of the spawn, including postspawn,” Whitaker said. “It’s a matter of landing on the right stretch to get the big ones to bite. It’s not frustrating at all, really, because it could go down anywhere at anytime.”

Chris Johnston: “This is my third time here and the second time I won a tour event here. It’s completely different from the last time. Harris was full of hydrilla and there were offshore fish, which is where I won. Now there isn’t any, and what little vegetation exists has 20 or more boats on it.”

“We have a full moon, with warming weather, and I think it’s going to be a situation where you will have to go find them in the tournament, find where they finally come up,” Johnston said.

Cory Johnston: “It’s all over the place right now, with fish in all phases of the spawn. I really thought there would be more offshore fish, and today seemed like a better day.”

“We are getting some warmer weather, day and night, and I’m sure that will really get them moving the same direction,” Johnston said.