“I’ve talked with several anglers lately and one caught a 9 1/4-pound, one caught a 7-pounder and one a 6-pounder, so I am about 90 percent sure that bedding fish will win the tournament,” Mullis said. “But, with this warm weather, that could totally turn around.”

Mullis said if the springlike temperatures prevail the warming water may make all the fish turn on everywhere.

“If that happens the biting fish may dominate or it may even spread the bedding fish out,” he said. “Right now most of the bedding fish are being caught in the warmer water around the springs, but if those fish get a week or so of warmer water they may go to bedding on the East side or West side of the lake.”

Mullis said most of the anglers in Saturday’s tournament will most likely be fishing in Lake George, one of the main bodies of water on the St. John’s River.

“We’ve got Big Lake George, Little Lake George, Crescent Lake, Dexter and Woodruff lakes. Crescent should come on a little later in the year, March or April, with the bedding fish, but Dexter and Woodruff may be on right now.”

Mullis said entries have been off a little in the two earlier tournaments in the series because another tournament series was holding its Classic and there were two or three other tournaments held the same day as the other tournament, but he expects 15 to 20 boats for Saturday’s tournament in the St. John’s Division

“This time of year we get a lot of the local anglers because of the bedding fish. I think there will be a lot of weight in the tournament because of the bedding fish, with it taking 21 or 22 pounds to win and we will probably have a big fish weighed in the neighborhood of 9 to 11 pounds.”

Mullis added that because of a drawdown on Rodman that division is being relocated to Santa Fe Lake. A lot of anglers who fish Rodman also fish the St. John’s Division, he said.

Scott Scarboro started FloridaBass in 1998 with four divisions and the trail was very successful for half a dozen years. Then he sold it to Extreme Fishing. He recently resurrected FloridaBass with the goal of providing anglers with the chance to have fun while earning good prize money.

The new FloridaBass Trail consists of seven divisions so anglers in the region do not have to travel a great distance to fish one of them. The seven include : St. Johns, Rodman, Lake Rousseau, the Harris Chain, West Lake Toho, Kissimmee and Istokpoga.

Entry fees in the regular FloridaBass Trail are $120 per boat for each tournament with $80 of that paid back at the tournament to one in every seven entered, plus $10 per boat paid back for big fish. Then $10 goes to the championship pot, $10 covers trail expenses and $10 goes to the tournament director.

The FloridaBass Trail also has two monthly awards. The divisional tournaments are sanctioned by the Power-Pole Captains Cash Rewards Club. Power-Pole will pay $250 to an angler who wins a FloridaBass event and meets all of the Captains Cash requirements. Anglers must be a member of the Captions Cash Rewards Club to be eligible. In addition to Big Bass of the tournament and Big Bass of the year the trail also has a Big Bass of the Month Employer Payroll Solutions. Anglers can win a monthly bonus of $250 for the largest fish weighed-in for the month.

The top 20 in points in each division qualify to fish the championship, which has a guaranteed purse of $10,000, at the end of the year.

 

FloridaBass Team Tournament Trail – St. Johns Division

Sat, Jan 28, 2012

St Johns River

Welaka Public Boat Ramp

Call Scott Scarboro – 813-293-3032

www.floridabass.net