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Yelas and Zaldain preview Elite Series on St. Johns
Jay Yelas and Chris Zaldain talk treasured memories, new puppies, lures, and make their weight predictions prior to the start of the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at St. Johns River.
Q: What is your favorite memory from the many times the Bassmaster Elite Series has visited Palatka’s St. Johns River?
Yelas: Seeing Rick Clunn win two Elites here in 2016 and 2019 over the age of 70.
Zaldain: My rookie year, getting an invite to dinner at Terry Scroggins’ house down the road, and looking around to realize I was sharing a meal on the eve of my first Elite Series tournament with Kevin VanDam and about a dozen more guys who were my bass fishing heroes.
Q: What will be the biggest challenge this week?
Yelas: Catching enough big ones, because 3-pounders don’t lead to wins on the St. Johns.
Zaldain: Keeping an open mind to ignore a lot of what happened on colder practice days. Temps are going to get way warmer during the tournament, and throw a lot of what we learned in practice right out the window.
Q: As a brand-new season begins, what was the highlight of your off-season?
Yelas: Having family together for Christmas at our home in Lincoln City, Oregon.
Zaldain: Getting a new Belgian Malinois puppy.
Q: Name four lures fans can expect to see used a lot this week?
Yelas: Flipping a punch rig, Texas rigged worm, lipless crankbait, and a Carolina rig
Zaldain: Soft plastic stick worm, flipping a Texas rig, a swim jig, and a topwater prop bait.
Q: How much weight will you need to average each day to get a Top 10?
Yelas: 15 pounds
Zaldain: 15+ pounds
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Sumrall: Florida in February all about Forecast
There is something buzzing in the air in Palatka, Florida besides the fog. You can feel the excitement and nerves of Bassmaster Elite Series competitors as they prepare to kick off the 2021 season tomorrow with the start of the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite on the St. Johns River.
Fourth year Elite Series pro Caleb Sumrall is ready to get the season underway and is excited to tackle the vast and beautiful St. Johns River. This is Sumrall’s third trip to Palatka, but as much as this river might look like his native Louisiana waters, the Yamaha pro is quick to tell you this place doesn’t exactly fish like home.
One thing Sumrall has learned about Florida in February is just how much weather factors into a four-day Elite Series tournament. “Weather” has definitely been a buzzword today, just as it has been for every St. Johns River event. A warming trend has settled in to northeast Florida this week and has anglers hopeful for what is to come.
“Based on the 5-day forecast, I truly believe some giant Florida bass will flood the shallows to spawn during our derby,” Sumrall suspected. “But it’s so hard to predict where or when that will happen on a fishery like this. You hope you’re the guy who lands on them in the tournament, but you never really know this time of year in Florida.”
Sumrall’s experience on the St. Johns has shown that the giant bass this fishery is famous for do not just pull up all over the river to perform their spawning ritual. There might be miles of dead water in between productive spots. And with 101 of the best bass anglers in the world all looking for similar types of areas, this massive body of water could fish very small.
The potential for rainy or stormy conditions doesn’t concern Sumrall too much, as he is not planning to focus on sight fishing solely during this event. He’ll be primarily fishing for bass he believes to be spawning, but not necessarily looking at them. Overcast conditions could very well play into his favor if it affects anglers hoping to use their eyes to find and catch fish.
Sumrall trusts his Carhartt rain suit to keep him comfortable no matter the conditions and doesn’t believe the wet weather will affect fish too negatively. One weather factor that does worry Sumrall is the chance of fog. As of 10:30am on Wednesday the fog still hadn’t lifted and anglers are expecting similar conditions tomorrow morning.
“The dense fog we’ve had the past two mornings definitely has me nervous,” Sumrall said. “You hate to have a fog delay and lose time in any tournament, but I really need every minute possible with the way the St. Johns is fishing this week.”
There is no doubt the weather will be a major player for Elite Series anglers this week, but it’s also something they cannot control. Instead of spending his time worrying, Sumrall is focusing on variables he can control and intends to start his 2021 Elite Series campaign off on the right foot.
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4 Lures Lester Says Will Star at St. Johns Elite Series
Perhaps the coolest thing about asking Brandon Lester to share four lures with fans he thinks will be major players on the St. Johns River is that he currently has no soft plastic or crankbait sponsor. So, what you’re getting here is unbiased authenticity in its purest form.
Plus, Lester has fished several Bassmaster Elite Series events on this famed Northeast Florida river, including leading after Day 1 of the 2016 Elite Series event, thanks to a 9-pounder he caught from a bed. Thus, his opinions are not only authentic, but dripping with experience too.
“The biggest key in this event is how much warm weather we get the next three days in order to push the water temps from where they’re currently at in the low 60s, up to around 68-degrees,” says Lester. “If it warms that much, we’ll see a huge wave of largemouth get shallow to spawn. So, I’m choosing the following four lures with hopes of that being the case.”
Rapala X Rap Prop – This bait is really similar to the famous old Devil’s Horse topwater prop lure bass are famous for eating in Florida around the spawn. Its magic resides in the fact you can float it directly over a spawning bed with a long pause between rips, and big fish simply can’t stand not to rise up and smash it.
3/8-ounce swim jig with a Zoom Z Craw trailer – This is a great lure for covering a lot of water like one might do with a Chatterbait or spinnerbait. Lester plans to swim it around everything from laydown trees to lily pads on the St. Johns.
1.5-ounce Texas rigged punch bait – If Florida had a mascot for a bass fishing lure, this might very well be it. It’s designed to “punch” through the thousands of acres of floating matted pennywort to get the fast attention of largemouth laying just beneath in a couple feet of water. Lester uses a Mustad tungsten weight, a stout 4/0 Mustad straight-shank hook and a Berkley MaxScent Creature Hawg.
Soft stick bait – Lester theorizes that since the St. Johns unfortunately lost a great deal of its once famous eel grass, a lot of bass are now forced to spawn on lily pad stems. And a slender stick bait like Berkley’s “The General” is perfect for pitching around the pads.
While millions of Bassmaster fans freeze around the country in frigid temps, Elite Series pros like Team Toyota’s Brandon Lester are anticipating the 78-degree temps forecasted for Palatka, Florida the next three days will bring an absolute heat wave to the weigh-in scales.
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Bass Pro Shops opens registration for First Three Qualifying Events for the US Open National Bass Fishing Amateur Team Championship
$4.3M in cash and prizes and an anticipated $1M+ for conservation
Registration for the first three regional qualifiers for the Bass Pro Shops US Open – Lake Okeechobee, Fla. (March 13); Lake Ray Roberts, Texas (April 17); and Lake Mead, Nev. (April 24) – opens on Wednesday, February 10, at 10 AM CST at basspro.com/usopen. Registration will be open for 24 hours only and allows amateur anglers to be entered in a drawing to compete as one of 250 two-person teams in regional qualifying events this spring. Bass Pro Shops last week announced the first-of its-kind amateur team tournament with a total guaranteed purse of $4.3 million.
With proceeds benefitting conservation and the future of fishing, the event is being created exclusively for amateurs including serious weekend tournament anglers, parents, grandparents, and youngsters, giving everyday anglers, friends, and families the chance to win big!
The top 40 finishers from each regional qualifier will be eligible to fish the National Championship this fall at Big Cedar Lodge on famed Table Rock Lake in Missouri. The National Championship will be an internationally broadcast and feature 350 two-person teams competing for the ultimate $1 million prize, the largest payout in fishing tournament history.
Note: White River Marine Group boat owners have received direct communications on the registration window from Bass Pro Shops over the last two weeks.
When:
Registration will be open for 24 hours from Wednesday, February 10 at 10 a.m. CT through Thursday, February 11 at 10 a.m. CT
Who:
The tournament is open to amateur anglers owning one of the world’s foremost boat brands – Tracker, Ranger, Nitro, Triton, Sun Tracker, Tahoe and MAKO brands. For a full list of qualifications, visit basspro.com/usopen.
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Schmitt Wins Toyota Series Event on Lake Toho Presented by Googan Baits
KISSIMMEE, Fla. (Feb. 6, 2021) – Maryland pro Bryan Schmitt of Deale, Maryland, brought four bass to the scale Saturday weighing 18 pounds, 2 ounces – including a 9-pound, 2-ounce kicker – to win the Toyota Series presented by A.R.E. at Lake Toho Presented by Googan Baits . Schmitt weighed in 15 bass over three days of competition totaling 66 pounds, 10 ounces, besting second-place angler Mikey Keyso of North Port, Florida, by more than 8 pounds. For his victory, Schmitt earned the top payout of $51,500 in the first tournament of the 2021 Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Southern Division.
The victory was the sixth career Toyota Series win of Schmitt’s career and moved him to No. 1 for the most Toyota Series wins all-time. Schmitt had been in a three-way tie with Randy Haynes (5) and Koby Kreiger (5), now tied for second-most.
“I am so blessed,” Schmitt said. “I am blessed to have grown up fishing the Potomac River where I had no choice but to learn all the intricacies of grass fishing if I wanted to compete. Those lessons have served me well over the years.”
This week the puzzle started with a long, narrow vein of grass that ran out across a vast flat of bare sand and shell in about 6 feet of water. The thin strip of hydrilla was about ¼ of a mile long and terminated into a huge and shallower grass bed in about 3 or 4 feet of water.
“The band of grass grew up about 2 or 3 feet off the bottom and it was clumpy the whole way.” Schmitt said. “When I first found it in practice, I knew fish had to relate to it in some way.”
On the first day of the tournament, Schmitt figured out exactly how they related to it.
“I graphed the entire length of that narrow strip several times and finally found the mother lode where the strip ran into the shallow grass flat,” he said. “There was like an intersection right there.”
His suspicions were confirmed when he began using his LiveScope to scan along the clumpy grass strip and saw big dots swimming everywhere. With that, he picked up SPRO Aruku Shad 75, in a color aptly named wild shiner, tied to 15-pound test P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon and the rest is history.
Schmitt guesses that he saw about 70 percent of the fish he caught on LiveScope before casting to them. On several occasions when he saw fish meander up close to the boat, he pitched the Aruku Shad to the fish, let sink, ripped it up and watch the fish annihilate it on his screen.
He also watched fish take a swipe at the rattle bait on the screen, but never touch it. When that happened, he would resort to a couple of back up lures, including a Missile Baits Quiver Worm (junebug) Neko-rigged on a Hayabusa Weedless Spin Muscle Wacky Hook. He also caught a few on his namesake ½-ounce swim jig called the Lil’ Schmitty (river special) trailed with a Missile Baits Shockwave (shrapnel).
“I caught a lot of big fish on that Aruku Shad this week,” Schmitt went on to say. “I put fresh Hayabusa trebles on it: a #4 on the back and #5 on the front. The very first fish I hooked this morning was that 9-pounder and she stayed pinned the whole way.”
The top 10 pros on Lake Toho finished:
1st: Bryan Schmitt of Deale, Md., 14 bass, 66-10, $51,500
2nd: Mikey Keyso of North Port, Fla., 15 bass, 58-8, $20,000
3rd: Bobby Bakewell of Orlando, Fla., 15 bass, 50-15, $14,250
4th: Steven Hatala of Harrison Township, Mich., 15 bass, 43-4, $12,250
5th: Eric Conant of Lakeland, Fla., 13 bass, 42-2, $11,250
6th: Trevor Fitzgerald of Belleview, Fla., 15 bass, 42-2, $9,125
7th: Eric Panzironi of Longwood, Fla., 15 bass, 38-11, $7,900
8th: Jared McMillan of Clewiston, Fla., 15 bass, 37-14, $7,900
9th: Samuel Whitmire of Babson Park, Fla., 11 bass, 35-6, $5,900
10th: Cole Hewett of Orange Park, Fla., 14 bass, 34-3, $4,500
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Whitmire won Thursday’s Berkley Big Bass Award after bringing a 11-pound, 11-ounce lunker to the scale. Friday’s Berkley Big Bass Award went to pro McMillan with a 9-pound, 13-ounce largemouth. Each angler won a bonus of $150.
McMillan took home and extra $1,000 as the highest finishing Phoenix MLF BIG5 Bonus member. Boaters are eligible to win up to an extra $35,000 per event in each Toyota Series tournament if all requirements are met. More information on the Phoenix MLF BIG5 Bonus contingency program can be found at PhoenixBassBoats.com.
Jeffrey Baffa of Frankfort, Illinois, won the Strike King Co-angler Division Saturday with a three-day total of nine bass weighing 35 pounds, 15 ounces. Baffa took home the top prize package of a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard motor.
The top 10 Strike King co-anglers on Lake Toho finished:
1st: Jeffrey Baffa of Frankfort, Ill., nine bass, 35-15, Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat w/115-hp outboard
2nd: Benton Peoples of Bardstown, Ky, 11 bass, 34-2, $6,125
3rd: Ricky Grant of Inverness, Fla., 11 bass, 32-3, $4,900
4th: Theron Asbery of Longwood, Fla., 10 bass, 30-9, $3,950
5th: Frank Kitchens Jr. of Blairsville, Ga., 12 bass, 28-11, $3,450
6th: Todd Classon of Camilla, Ga., nine bass, 27-15, $2,950
7th: Clinton Lacinak of Homosassa, Fla., 10 bass, 24-2, $2,450
8th: James Littich of Davidson, N.C., eight bass, 20-3, $1,975
9th: Troy Johnson Jr. of Carrabelle, Fla., five bass, 18-2, $1,590
10th: Joe Cifuentes of Clinton, Ark., six bass, 16-5, $1,350
The Toyota Series at Lake Toho was presented by Googan Baits and was hosted by Experience Kissimmee – Kissimmee Sports Commission. It was the first of three regular-season tournaments in 2021 for Southern Division anglers. The next event for Toyota Series anglers will take place on Feb. 16-18 – the Toyota Series at Lake Guntersville presented by Googan Baits in Guntersville, Alabama. For a complete schedule, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com.
The 2021 Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. consists of six divisions – Central, Northern, Plains, Southern, Southwestern and Western – each holding three regular-season events, along with the International division. Anglers who fish all three qualifiers in any of the eight divisions and finish in the top 25 will qualify for the no-entry-fee Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. Championship for a shot at winning $235,000 cash, including a $35,000 Phoenix MLF BIG5 Bonus for qualified anglers. The winning Strike King co-angler at the championship earns a new Phoenix 518 Pro bass boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard.
The 2021 Toyota Series Championship Presented by A.R.E. will be held Oct. 28-30 on Pickwick Lake in Counce, Tennessee, and is hosted by the Hardin County Convention and Visitors Bureau.
For complete details and updated information visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow the Toyota Series presented by A.R.E. on the MLF BIG5’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
About Major League Fishing
MLF BIG5 is part of MLF, the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization. It provides anglers of all skill levels the opportunity to compete for millions in prize money across five tournament circuits featuring a five-biggest-fish format. Headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with offices in Benton, Kentucky, MLF and its partners conduct more than 290 bass-fishing tournaments annually around the world, including the United States, Canada, China, Italy, South Korea, Mexico, Namibia, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and Zimbabwe.
MLF tournaments are broadcast on Outdoor Channel, Sportsman Channel, World Fishing Network, MyOutdoorTV, Discovery and CBS Sports while MLF Bass Fishing magazine delivers cutting-edge tips from top pros to the world’s most avid bass anglers.
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