The third event of the 2021 season for the MLF Bass Pro Tour gets under way Friday at the Harris Chain of Lakes out of Leesburg, Fla. The 80-angler field will compete for a totals purs of more than $800,000, with $100,000 going to the winner.
Although the Harris Chain has played host to numerous MLF BIG5 (previously FLW) tournaments and the 2016 MLF Challenge Cup, this will mark the first time that the BPT has visited Central Florida’s Lake County. Lakeland’s Bobby Lane, who won the 2016 Challenge Cup event and is currently leading the Angler of the Year (AOY) race, thinks that the Harris Chain will offer great fishing that will allow anglers to fish their strengths.
“I think the thing I’m most excited about for this event is being close to home, knowing that all of my family and friends will be there if I’m doing well,” Lane said. “I’ve been on the road quite a bit already this year, so it’s nice to know I’m only an hour from my house.
“Harris has really come a long way from when we used to fish it 10 years ago,” Lane continued. “It used to be 13 to 16 pounds would win any tournament here, but now you need at least 25 to 26 pounds every day to have a shot. I predict the big females will be feeding up and I expect the post-spawn fish will be aggressive. I think guys are going to be catching them any way they want – flipping, fishing hydrilla, fishing brush piles, even shallow fishing up on the bank.”
Lane said that the key to doing well in this tournament will be ignoring the smaller fish – which are plentiful on the chain – and keying in on fishing for big ones only.
“This place has a lot of fish, and a lot of smaller fish in it,” Lane said. “When I won the Challenge Cup, I had 16 to 18 fish one day that weighed something like 31 pounds. There wasn’t very many over 2 pounds. So, I think the guy that fishes his strengths, catches a few big ones in practice and sticks with that the whole tournament will do well.
"I don’t think it’s going to be the guy running and gunning and fishing a bunch of different stuff. I think to do well you’re going to have to have patience and not get spun out. It’s going to be hot. The sun will be shining. It could be slick calm, and there are days when those fish don’t bite at all. Then, out of nowhere, there will be a 45-minute window where they’ll turn on and you’ll catch four or five good ones on a stretch that 10 guys have already fished. It’s kind of like brush-pile fishing – you have to try to get on the right stretch, at the right time.”
Although he predicts fishing fans will see a variety of baits and tactics in play at this event, Lane is already developing his game plan on how he will approach the tournament.
“I’m going to have a Berkley Choppo tied on, the big one,” Lane said. “I’ll have a 10-inch Power Worm tied on, and I’ll be using the Berkley Diggers and Dredgers, cranking some of those brush piles. And I’ll definitely have a bladed jig with a Grass Pig Jr. on it. Trailers are pretty key, and that Grass Pig stays on that bladed jig so much better than a lot of the other baits.”
The Harris Chain (Big Harris, Lake Eustis, Lake Dora, Lake Carlton, Horseshoe Lake, Little Lake Harris, Lake Denham and Lake Beauclair) and the canals within the chain will be used for the Qualifying and Knockout Rounds. Locking is not allowed to Lake Apopka and Lake Griffin. Lake Griffin and the canals within the lake will be used for Championship Round. Locking to Lake Eustis is not allowed
Anglers will take off from the Venetian Gardens Ski Beach Boat Ramp, located at 201 E. Lake Harris Dr. in Leesburg, at 6:30 a.m. ET during the Qualifying and Knockout Rounds, and from Herlon Park, located at 700 N. Blvd. E., in Leesburg, for the Championship Round. Each Qualifying and Knockout Round day’s takeout will be held at the Gardens beginning at 3:30 p.m., while the Championship Round takeout will be held at Herlon Park. Fans are welcome to attend, but encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW! livestream and ScoreTracker coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
The tournament will have anglers competing with a 1-pound, 8-ounce minimum weight requirement for a bass to be deemed scorable. Minimum weights are determined individually for each competition waters that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.
The Bass Pro Tour features a field of 76 full-time competitors joined at each event by four pros who qualified via the MLF Pro Circuit. For this event, that quartet is comprised of Spencer Shuffield, Kyle Cortiana, Kyle Hall and Tai Au, who made it due to their finishes in the Pro Circuit event at Lewis Smith Lake.
The 40 Anglers in Group A compete in their two-day Qualifying Round on the Harris Chain on Friday and Sunday, with the 40 anglers in Group B fishing on Saturday and Monday. After each two-day segment is complete, the anglers who finish in 2nd through 20th place from both groups advance to Tuesday’s Knockout Round, while the winner of each group advances directly to Wednesday’s Championship Round.
In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed and the remaining 38 anglers compete to finish in the Top 8 to advance to the Championship Round on Lake Griffin, where weights will again be zeroed.
The MLF NOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action on all six days of competition from 6:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. CT. MLF NOW! will be live-streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.
