Top 10 Baits from the Harris Chain
Typical Florida baits did a lot of work
There’s a reason certain baits are popular in certain areas of the country: They work. At the FLW Tour event presented by Ranger Boats on the Harris Chain, it was proven yet again that sometimes you don’t need to think out of the box. The Harris Chain presents some different cover options than popular tournament stop Lake Okeechobee, but for submerged grass it’s tough to beat a lipless crankbait, and a dark worm pretty much always plays in the Sunshine State.
1. Bradley Dortch rolled to first place on a pad-dragging and hydrilla-winding pattern. His baits of choice were a chrome XCalibur XR50 One Knocker, a Tennessee blush shad-colored BOOYAH One Knocker, a NetBait Big Bopper with a 3/16-ounce Picasso tungsten weight (gunmetal finish) and a NetBait Salt Lick with a 5/16-ounce weight.
2. JT Kenney straight up smashed them on the final day to surge into second. His primary bait on the week was a green pumpkin Gambler Ace that he Texas-rigged with a 3/16-ounce Reins sinker and a 5/0 TroKar Big Nasty Flippin’ Hook. On the final day, Kenney says that most of his giant bag was put together with a Carolina-rigged Ace and shad-colored Strike King Red Eye Shad and BOOYAH Hard Knocker lipless crankbaits.
3. John Cox very nearly won the whole thing sight-fishing. To catch bedding bass, he mixed in a Zoom Super Fluke, but primarily relied on Cox Juice (a fish-attactant) and a 5-inch Yamamoto Senko that he rigged weightless or wacky.
4. Staying mostly in Little Harris, Shane LeHew bed-fished with a Bizz Baits Killer Craw, fished pads with a Bizz Baits Sassy Stick and caught schooling fish on a 1/2-ounce lipless crankbait that he beat to death and declined to name.
5. Matt Reed caught almost every one of his bass on shell beds and hard spots in Lake Eustis. His bait of choice was a Carolina rig with a 3/4-ounce weight and a junebug-colored Zoom Trick Worm.
6. What would a top-10 baits gallery be without Bryan Thrift? Mostly over in Lake Griffin, Thrift wound a Damiki Tremor (real shad), flipped and dragged a 5.5-inch Damiki Stinger, and mixed in a frog and a Z-Man ChatterBait.
7. Chris Whitson was also part of the Griffin brigade. He caught the majority of his fish on a Tennessee blush shad-colored BOOYAH One Knocker, one on a walking topwater and several others on a Showboat Lures Finesse Stick (black and blue) Texas-rigged with a 5/16-ounce weight.
8. Josh Weaver caught a lot of fish on an unnamed chartreuse and bluegill-colored vibrating jig, but he says he also used a pair of conventional Florida plastics. Per Weaver, the plastics he relied on were a sungill-colored Zoom Magnum Ultravibe Speed Worm and a gooseberry-colored Zoom Trick Worm.
9. Making the first top 10 of his pro career, Aaron Britt says he caught ’em on a BOOYAH One Knocker, a 6th Sense Snatch 70X and a 4.8-inch Keitech Swing Impact FAT on an Owner Beast Flashy Swimmer.
10. Rusty Trancygier stuck to a pair of old standbys – a 6-inch Yamamoto Senko (black and blue) and a Zoom Magnum Ultravibe Speed Worm (junebug red).