St. Johns River Elite Series

Brent Chapman – Competition Wrapup
Saturday, March 19, 2011

When a tournament ends, all the adrenalin goes out of you and you realize how exhausted you really are. I have this sinus thing going on that's really starting to hammer me.

I'm a little upset after being in 2nd place after the first day to fall all the way to 17th, but in hindsight, there's 82 guys who'd have loved to have been there. If I could finish 17th in every tournament, I'd be right where I need to be at the end of the year as far as points go.

On one hand it's a little frustrating, but on the other hand it's a good start to the season. I should be in a pretty good place in the standings with six more tournaments to go.

I fished the east side of George and in the morning before it got light I'd flip and pitch a TightLines UV Hog, which is a creature bait, and also the UV Beaver. Then when the sun came up, I'd visually fish for them.

What really hurt the east side was the water got dirty from all the boat traffic, and there was just enough wind to keep it going so it never could clear up.

You hear a lot of guys say this, but I survived Florida. I'll be going over to West Point to check it out (for the May 5-8 event), and then it'll be time to get ready for Pickwick. That place was good to me last year and I hope it will be again.

Brent Chapman – End Of Practice Report
Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Yesterday I kind of solidified where I want to spend my time and today I kind of eliminated water. I went looking for something off the wall and what I ended up doing was eliminating some places, so I know where I need to focus.

I'll just go into the areas that these fish are in and fish blind, and when I come across one that's worthy of sight-fishing for, I'll settle down and do that. From what people are saying, if it's not at least a 3-pounder, then you don't need to waste your time on it.

I think the biggest thing for this one is the mental game is really going to come into play. You're going to have so many boats around that it'll be hard not to pay attention to what other people are doing.

I'd like to say that 13 pounds a day would get you paid, but other guys are saying 14 or 15 pounds. I'm just going to go out tomorrow and get the biggest bag I possibly can to try to give myself some cushion for the second day. Hopefully the warm weather will bring some more females up and make the sight-fishing even better.

I'm kind of ready to use a moving bait sometime this year. This is three tournaments in a row where I've done nothing but pitch a Tightlines UV Beaver. If it pays off like it did last week and at the Classic, that will be fine.

Brent Chapman – Practice Day 1
Tuesday, March 15, 2011

This is going to be about as much of a bed-fishing deal as it could be, I would say. Somebody will catch them some other way, and I'd like to say that maybe I'll be one of those. I'll sight-fish if I have to, but I'd just assume not have to.

This is an interesting fishery. There's going to be some good catches because it's Florida in March, but it's not the easiest place to fish. The water in Lake George is really shallow and it's hard to get around in the eelgrass. You can't just put the trolling motor down and go looking like you can in a lot of places. It's really open there, too, and I can't imagine what a good wind would do.

I fished Rodman (Reservoir) the last time I was here back in 1999, and I think that suits my style better. You don't have to worry about the tide. Because I was committed to Rodman last time, I didn't realize how big of a fishery this place is. We're so far along weather-wise that there are liable to be spawning fish everywhere. I wish I had more knowledge of the place, but I'm sure Shaw (Grigsby) is about as excited as he can be.

From what I know, your two main assets are Rodman and George, and then the river in between them. I've heard you can run way south of Lake George, but I can't imagine doing that. For one thing, there's a 30-mph speed limit. I really don't know if there's anything to the north

Hopefully I'll figure out something that suits my style, and I can go out and hone it a little bit over the next couple of days.