For 12 years Lee Kitchens of Green Cove Springs, Fla. has partnered with David Tagliarini to fish the Workin’ Man’s Bass Tournament series out of Whitey’s Fish Camp every Thursday evening from April until September.

The series draws some 40-to-50 boats each week to the fish camp and restaurant on Doctor’s Lake, a backwater off the St. Johns River in Northeast Florida’s Clay County.

The river doesn’t really play to the duo’s strengths early in the season, but they manage, says Kitchens. “We start the first week in April and the fish are still spawning on the north end of the river at that time. David and I don’t really do a lot of bed-fishing, but we have a couple of areas that we spend a little time in – just enough to get a limit and keep us high enough in the points so that when bedding season is over we’re not too far down.”

“As soon as bedding season was over we started running little creeks including Moccasin, McCullough, Deep Creek, the grass in Toccoi, and Clark’s Creek depending on the tide and which one would have the most water in it.

“This year was, overall, our best year fishing (out of) Whitey’s. As far as the quality of fish in the river and what we have done throughout the year it has been pretty amazing up on the north end of the river.”

Team Kitchens/Tagliarini finished 1^st in 2 of the Thursday night tournaments, 2^nd in 3 of them and placed 3^rd twice. They also won the big fish pot 3or 4 times, which Kitchens says was important to their success. “That’s been a big key to it. We’ve been fortunate enough to get that big bite, that 6-or-7-pound fish which, in June or July is a big fish.”

Having qualified to fish the Workin’ Man’s Classic, they won the day-long event on Saturday by running farther than time allows during the three-and-a-half-hour Thursday evening events.

“The day before the classic we pulled the boat down to Palatka and put in and ran some stuff in Crescent Lake – fished some grass and wood in there, came back and fished some stuff in Dunn’s Creek, came out of there and just hit a bunch of community holes form Devil’s Elbow back to the Palatka Bridge. It just seemed like, once we got that far away from our competitors, the community holes weren’t so ‘community’. There weren’t so many people sitting there all day, running to them from as far away as we are (in Clay County). It allowed us to pick and choose our spots.”

Some of the spots they picked were outstanding. “When we got into Dunn’s Creek, there were 3 or 4 spots that have always produced; just the quality of fish isn’t always there. When it is there it’s dynamite. You can go in there and catch 26 or 27 pounds no problem.

“Friday (during practice) we went in there and first cast I set the hook on one and it was 5 pounds. I told my partner ‘don’t even throw out there.’ We immediately left and went to the next spot. We both threw out at the same time, looked at each other and both said ‘I’ve got one’ at the same time. We were both trying to shake them off and neither one of them would let go so we both set up on them. Mine was four pounds; his was four-and-a-half. I said ‘alright put the rods down. We’re just going fun fishing now. This is what we’re going to run on Saturday’.”

On Saturday morning the team boated a couple of small bass on topwater plugs before heading to the honey holes in Dunn’s Creek. As soon as they went to their primary fishing spot, the game was on. “I didn’t even have all my rods out yet and Dave said ‘hey I think I’m going to need your help – get the net!’ About 25 yards out the fish was jumping out of the water, doing summersaults and it was wearing on him pretty good. It was a good fish and it was caught in that current. It ended up weighing 5.8 pounds. It was our big fish of the day.”

That first stop rewarded them with two more keepers. Then Kitchens and Tagliarini went to another hole where they caught an estimated 15 fish, the smallest of which was about 3 pounds. Sounds like fun but Kitchens said, “All these fish are starting to look alike and I thought there could be some bigger fish down there and we’ve just to figure out something else they’re going to eat so I picked up a Bomber 7A. I hooked one that was 5 pounds.”

Everything was going great at that point. And then, “As soon as I got it in the boat I threw back out there and had one on that probably weighed over six. It jumped out of the water and had the crankbait sideways in its mouth with not even a hook in it. When it hit the water it knocked the crankbait out of its mouth. I threw right back up there and one even bigger than that ate it. It came within 15 feet of the boat and when it came up, same thing – crankbait was sideways in its mouth and it just spit it out.

“We looked at each other and I said ‘I hope we don’t lose by a couple of pounds’.”

They needn’t have worried. And they didn’t. When the tide stopped moving in Dunn’s Creek at about noon, the anglers went to Toccoi Creek and “ate peanut and butter sandwiches with a manatee under a shade tree, laughing and cutting up – we do a lot of that, David and I do.”

“We knew we had a good bag but we didn’t know if we were going to have enough. We had the potential to have 25 pounds with the fish we lost. We were both thinking the same thing – I’d rather finish 3^rd or 4^th than finish 2^nd and lose by 2 pounds,” said Kitchens.

It didn’t help that friends decided to play head games with them, “We got a text message that another competitor, Chris Cercy, had caught a 9-pounder. He’s a friend of ours. He was trying gloat a little, rub it in and black us out a little bit. But he didn’t realize what we already had so we sent him a message back and told him ‘you better have a limit’. Then Frank Streeter pulled under the Doctor’s Lake Bridge and asked us ‘did you lucky squirrels find enough acorns? I’ve got about 18 pounds.’ I told him ‘you better keep fishing. I think we can beat that’.”

Kitchens and Tagliarini were first to weigh-in. They took a lead they would not lose.

Kitchens noted that Jeff at Isle of Palms takes great care of his Skeeter.

The winners caught bass on Carolina-rigged Bass Assassin Tap Out worms, a Rico popper, and a 7A Bomber crankbait. “I even caught fish on an Alabama Rig in one particular spot in Dunn’s Creek, but none of those fish weighed. But the Alabama Rig is a pretty significant tool for locating fish and I think everybody should have one.”