Bryan New Wins Bassmaster Elite Series at St. Johns River

New? Yes, both in name and Bassmaster Elite Series status.

Overmatched? Not hardly.

Bryan New, the 2020 Bassmaster Opens Angler of the Year (AOY), made a stunning transition to the organization's top level by winning last week's season opener at the St. Johns River in Florida. The 30-year-old from North Carolina started the final day in 6th place, then caught a 26-04 stringer (the second-heaviest of the derby) to leap-frog the five anglers in front of him and post a winning margin of 9 1/2 pounds.

"It's pretty cool, man," he said a day later. "You only get one shot (at your first pro-level tournament) and that's it.

"It really hasn't all settled it yet and I don't know when it will because we'll be off to the Tennessee River (for the season's second event) next week. I just know it's an awesome experience and I feel very blessed."

Better as he Went

New's bags got progressively heavier throughout the event – 12-00, 20-03, 21-00 and 26-04. His primary tactic was pitching a Zoom Zlinky (a Senko-type bait) to sparse sections of lily-pad fields in 1 to 3 feet of water, which was a program he didn't lock into until the final day of practice.

The Zlinky produced 17 of the 20 fish he took to the scale. The other three were enticed by a Berkley Warpig rattlebait from shell bars in the 5- to 7-foot depth range and two of those were crucial, as he caught them in the final 20 minutes of the fog-delayed first day from a locale near the ramp. Without them, he would've weighed a short bag and eventually missed the cut to the Top 10.

Sitting in 22nd place, he started day 2 in "check mode" (just trying to ensure that he finished the day among the Top 50). Having had just five lily-pad bites the previous day – two of which never made it into his boat – he started on the bars and amassed about 14 pounds within a couple of hours. After moving south to the pads, he had much more action there than on day 1 and ultimately culled his way past the 20-pound mark.

He went with the same game plan on day 3 and ended up with plenty of weight to advance to the final day. He disdained the bars entirely on day 4, however, opting to go directly to the vegetation and stay there.

"I caught a few small ones really quick and then I went through spells for the rest of the day – I'd catch three or four, then go a little while without a bite, then hit another little flurry. I'm sure I probably caught 30 fish again (the approximate number he landed on both days 2 and 3).

His final-day bag was topped by a fish that weighed a couple of ounces less than 6 pounds. He had three others in the 5-pound class, along with a 4 1/2.

"Oddly enough, that 5-14 was the biggest fish I caught all week," he said. "Catching that many fish, I just knew I was going to run into an 8- or 9-pounder, but I never did."

He said that one of the biggest keys to his success was "just fishing what looked right."

"I only caught fish from one place that I'd fished in practice. Wherever I caught them best the day before, I'd start there and fish it real quick, then I'd start hitting (new) places and go slow.

"Being slow and steady and stealthy with the Zlinky was a critical factor. The Power-Poles were a big help with as slow as I was fishing and I even used them on the offshore fish."

Winning Gear Notes

> Light pitching gear: 7'3" heavy-action Fitzgerald Fishing Stunner HD rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (7:1 ratio), 18-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, 1/8-ounce tungsten weight (pegged), 5/0 Berkley Fusion19 flipping hook, Zoom Zlinky (black/blue).

> He used the same hook and bait on a 7'3" heavy-action Fitzgerald All-Purpose rod, an 8:1 ratio Abu Garcia Revo AL-F reel and 22-pound Sunline Shooter. "I wanted to go as light as I could get away with," he said. "If it was windy or I was fishing thicker pads, that's when I used the heavier setup."

> Rattlebait gear: 7'3" medium-heavy Fitzgerald Vursa rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (7:1 ratio), 14-pound Sunline FC Sniper fluorocarbon, Berkley Warpig (bleeding shiner).

Notable

> New remains employed by a pavement-marking company owned by a buddy whom he met through fishing. "We paint roads, and also sports fields and running tracks," he said. Obviously, I'm not full-time right now, but when I'm home and things aren't as crazy as they are this week, I do go to work."

> He and wife Brittany have an 8-year-old daughter named Braylen.

John Johnson. "New Quickly Made His Presence Known; St Johns Elite Series Winning Patter". 17 February 2021. bassfan.com/news_article/10140/new-quickly-made-his-presence-felt#.YC3RYuB7nOQ . Accessed 17 February 2021

Greg Hackney had two big days in his first tournament back on the circuit following a 2-year hiatus spent with the MLF Bass Pro Tour, but the first and last rounds were a bit of a struggle.

"I caught all of my fish out of Lake George and I never caught one that wasn't spawning," he said. "The first day I fished to fast – that was a short day (due to a fog delay of almost 2 hours) and I was around the same fish I caught the next 2 days, but I was in a hurry because I only had about 3 hours to fish and I caught mostly males."

He fished extremely slow and frequently made multiple casts to likely spawning locations. He couldn't see fish on the beds, but he'd sometimes detect movement that would reveal their locations.

"I targeted wood because there's no grass left in that lake," he said. "I knew where they historically spawned when the grass was there and I checked around those places and found that wood.

He had no competition for his fish – he never saw another angler on any of the 4 tournament days. Every fish he weighed was enticed by a Strike King Rage Bug.

> Flipping gear: 7'6" heavy-action Lew's Hack Attack flipping stick, Lew's Pro-TI casting reel (7.5:1 ratio), 25-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 1/4- or 5/16-ounce Strike King Tour Grade tungsten weight, 5/0 Strike King Hack Attack flipping hook, Strike King Rage Bug (junebug in low-light conditions or watermelon red when sunny).

John Johnson. "Big Bags Were Out There, But Hard To Repeat; St Johns River 2-5 Patterns". 22 February 2021. http://bassfan.com/news_article/10143/big-bags-were-out-there-but-hard-to-repeat#.YDQnQOB7nOQ. Accessed 22 February 2021

Seth Feider bounced back from a lackluster first day by catching 10 more pounds on day 2 and then another 7 pounds over that in the third round. He targeted spawning fish that he couldn't see in a complex of mostly short canals.

"I had a marginal practice and I thought I could catch maybe 15 pounds a day," he said. "I was getting some 3- and 4-pounders, but nothing real big.

"When I found those fish they were still staging and I caught a couple nice ones burning a ChatterBait. Day 1 was short and I tried that, but I didn't have a big. On day 2 I settled down and fished slower with a light Texas rig and I came to the conclusion that they were locked on beds and that's why they wouldn't bite the ChatterBait anymore.

He targeted any irregularity in the seawalls and small lily-pad clumps.

"The canals were tight and I pretty much had to stay down the middle," he said. "I'd turn my graphs off and put the trolling motor on a low setting and creep through there. I'd pitch (the bait) around and drag it or shake it and if I thought one should be spawning in a particular place, I'd make multiple casts there.

"At the pace I was fishing, it took me all day to fish the whole thing once. I really never went back to anything."

> Pitching gear: 7' medium-heavy Daiwa Tatula Elite Brent Ehrler Signature Series rod, Daiwa Steez CT casting reel (8:1 ratio), 30-pound Sufix 832 braided line, 17-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon leader, 3/16-ounce Woo Tungsten weight, 3/0 straight-shank worm hook, Z-Man Bang StickZ (black laminate).

John Johnson. "Big Bags Were Out There, But Hard To Repeat; St Johns River 2-5 Patterns". 22 February 2021. http://bassfan.com/news_article/10143/big-bags-were-out-there-but-hard-to-repeat#.YDQnQOB7nOQ. Accessed 22 February 2021

Patrick Walters was another guy who bounced back from a slow first day to post a high finish.

"I had a good practice, but I was definitely disappointed in day 1," he said. "We had the fog delay and I was locking into Rodman (Reservoir). I didn't get much time to fish and I lost two good ones that would've put me up around the 15- or 17-pound mark."

He made long casts with a jerkbait to isolated stumps, lily pads and standing timber and often followed it up with a wacky rig. He also used the worm to probe shallow cover. He used his Garmin LiveScope unit to evaluate cover rather than see fish.

He deduced that some of his fish were spawning and others were on the verge of going to the beds.

He weighed a strong bag on day 2 and a monstrous stringer on day 3 to move to the top of the standings, but was stymied by the conditions in the final round.

"Some low pressure came in with that storm and there was a bunch of pollen in the water – I couldn't see 30 feet in front of me with the LiveScope," he said. "The fish got weird – they got off the jerkbait and they didn't want the wacky rig either. It was a strange day."

> Jerkbait gear: 7' medium-light Daiwa Tatula Bass Jerkbait rod, Daiwa Steez CT SV TW casting reel (8:1 ratio), 14-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon line, 13 Fishing Loco (black lavender).

> Wacky-rig gear: 7'4" medium-action Daiwa Tatula Elite spinning rod, size 4000 Daiwa Certate spinning reel, 30-pound Sufix 131 braid (main line), 14-pound Sufix Advance fluorocarbon (leader), size 1 VMC Neko hook, VMC Crossover Ring, Zoom Zlinky (blueberry).

John Johnson. "Big Bags Were Out There, But Hard To Repeat; St Johns River 2-5 Patterns". 22 February 2021. http://bassfan.com/news_article/10143/big-bags-were-out-there-but-hard-to-repeat#.YDQnQOB7nOQ. Accessed 22 February 2021

Mark Menendez had a satisfying return to competition after sitting out 2020 due to a back injury.

"I was really pleased," he said. "I was very tentative about my boat-driving so I didn't go all that far. I'd say I'm at about 90 percent and I don't know if it'll ever get much better than that so I'm just going to have to do some things a little differently."

He displayed great consistency as there wasn't even a 1 1/2-pound difference among any of his four bags.

"In Florida, normally you get one or two big bites and you're a hero, but I wasn't around the really big ones," he said. "I had a 5-09 on the first day, then nothing bigger than 4 3/4 on days 2 and 3 and a 5-03 the last day, but vast majority of my fish were 2 3/4 to 3 1/4. I banked on those instead of the one big bite."

He spent the tournament in Crescent Lake and had one place that featured cypress trees and sand and another that consisted of a small current break in 3 to 5 feet of water. He threw a Strike King Space Monkey creature bait on the former and a Rage Craw on the latter.

> Flipping gear: 7'6" Lew's Mag Heavy Cover Custom Speed Stick, Lew's HyperMag casting reel (7.5:1 ratio), 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 1/4-ounce Strike King Tour Grade tungsten weight, 5/0 Gamakatsu straight-shank hook, Strike King Space Monkey (junebug).

> He used the same rod, reel line and hook for the Rage Craw (Alabama craw), but employed a 5/16-ounce slip sinker.

John Johnson. "Big Bags Were Out There, But Hard To Repeat; St Johns River 2-5 Patterns". 22 February 2021. http://bassfan.com/news_article/10143/big-bags-were-out-there-but-hard-to-repeat#.YDQnQOB7nOQ. Accessed 22 February 2021