Rick Clunn Wins Bassmaster Elite St. Johns River

Rick Clunn has developed a habit of weighing shockingly large bags on the weekend en route to winning Bassmaster Elite Series events at Florida's St. Johns River. His latest effort, a 34-14 stringer in Sunday's final round of the 2019 season opener, propelled the 72-year-old icon to his 16th career B.A.S.S. victory. It was a sack that contained two giants - a 9-14 and a 9-11. It propelled him up from 8th place to start the day and left him more than 3 1/2 pounds ahead of Chris Johnston, who'd led after days 2 and 3 in his Elite Series debut. His four-day total was just 1-02 shy of 100 pounds. Clunn, Johnston and nearly all of the top 10 spent most of their time in the northern portion of Lake George, where big females were pulling up on spawning beds in droves following a spate of warm weather and a conducive moon phase. They continued to cooperate throughout the weekend despite the arrival of a storm front that brought gray skies, chillier temperatures and strong winds.

The eelgrass that's long served as the primary cover for St. Johns largemouths was pretty much nonexistent this time, having been wiped out by powerful weather events since the circuit's last visit in 2016. Clunn keyed on boat docks for the majority of the event, then pounded the dollar pad-rich water between them with a spinnerbait on the final day when there was no appearance from the sun and the wind reached its highest velocities. "Practice was semi-tough for most people and nobody was really expecting all these big catches," Clunn said. "But when the water temperature jumped 8 to 10 degrees (between the conclusion of practice on Tuesday and the start of competition two days later), those fish were ready."

Competition:

cv

Clunn hadn't fished the upper portion of George on any of his four previous Elite Series visits to the St. Johns and he certainly wasn't alone in determining that it was the best place to be for this derby. "It was the nearest place to where I'd won before that was showing decent habitat," he said. "If they weren't where they were before because there was no eel grass, they'd find someplace that was more to their liking. I just moved in that direction." He caught some good fish in practice, including a 10-pounder and a 6, from the ends of docks while throwing a Luck-E-Strike Hail Mary lipless crankbait. Once competition got under way and the water warmed up dramatically, he found that the fish had moved to the back sides of the docks and were spawning in 1 to 2 feet of water. For that scenario, he employed an out-of-production Bobby Ditto Gator Tail worm as his primary offering, along with a Luck-E-Strike Trickster spinnerbait that enticed one or two 5-pound-plus fish per day.

He had the 17-05 he weighed on day 1 by 1:30. Judging by what had occurred during practice, he figured that would be a strong bag, so he pulled off his primary stuff and went looking for additional options - a move that he would regret after the initial top 10 all boxed at least 20-08. He catapulted to 5th with a 23-11 stringer on day 2, but then lost 3 places the following day despite a bag that weighed 23 pounds even. He got it all back, plus a lot more, with his boated sack in the final round.

Day 4 evolved into a three-way duel involving Johnston (who started the day with a 5 1/2-pound lead), Mark Menendez and Clunn. However, Menendez had overestimated the weights of his two biggest fish and 7-plus-pounders that Johnson had been catching daily eluded him on Sunday as his reed-laden area succumbed to the pressure it had received throughout the week. Clunn got one of his behemoths on the spinnerbait and the other on the worm after it had shown itself by swiping at and missing the blade offering. "When I got the first one, I was thinking that if I got another big bite I had a shot," he said. "After I got the second one, then I knew I was in it. (Johnston) hadn't missed a beat the whole tournament, but I had to remind myself that everybody has an off day occasionally and that it could happen, so I wasn't out of it."

Winning Gear:

Spinnerbait gear: 7'6" heavy-action Bass Pro Shops CarbonLite rod, Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Signature Series casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), 25-pound Bass Pro Shops Excel monofilament line, 3/4-ounce Luck-E-Strike Trickster spinnerbait (shellcracker), Luck-E-Strike Original Ringer trailer (firecracker with chartreuse tail).

The spinnerbait, which he designed, features long-drop blades that look like elongated Indiana blades. He chose the skirt color, a mixture of yellow, green and orange, to imitate the shellcrackers (redear sunfish) that are frequent raiders of bass nests.

Worm gear: Same rod and reel, 65-pound Bass Pro Shops Hyper Braid 8 line, 1/2-ounce Bass Pro Shops XPS tungsten weight, 5/0 Owner worm hook, 6" Bobby Ditto Gator Tail worm (junebug).

Main factor in his success: "Realizing how quickly those fish started moving after the water warmed up. Getting the cloudy weather (on day 4) was a big factor because it allowed me to fish between the docks with the spinnerbait.

Performance edge: "The 3/4-ounce spinnerbait and also the Power-Poles. If you want to catch big fish in the wind in Florida, you have to slow down. I could dig the Poles into the dirt and stay right there."

Bassmaster Elite Series St. Johns River Winning Pattern BassFan 2/12/19 (John Johnson)

Chris Johnston's weights grew successively larger across the tournament's first three days and he began the final round with a 5 1/2-pound lead. However, the reedy spot that had been so good to him didn't surrender any brutes on Sunday and he was one of seven anglers leap-frogged by the legendary Rick Clunn, who boxed a tournament-best 34-14 for his second consecutive win at the St. Johns. Johnson, like many in the field, did not have an encouraging official practice session. "I was going through reeds looking at old beds and I found some buggy-whips that looked like the best stuff to spawn in I'd seen," he said. "I finally got a bite on one, and around the corner were some more reeds and I got another bite. "On day 1 of the tournament, a lot of fish had pulled up onto those old beds. They were in a foot to a foot and a half of water."

Some of them he could see - for instance, he looked at a 7 1/2-pounder before catching it on day 1 - but most of his approach consisted of blind-casting soft plastics in the extremely shallow water. "If you got anywhere near them, they were pretty spooky. If I'd go over a bed that had one on it, I'd mark it (using the GPS on his depthfinder) and then come back later and blind-cast to it."

Gear:

Worm gear: 7'5" heavy-action G. Loomis G. Loomis NRX 893 Jig and Worm rod, Shimano Metanium MGL casting reel (7.4:1 ratio), 16-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/0 Gamakatsu Superline EWG hook, Zoom Speed Worm (junebug).

Soft stickbait gear: 7'5" heavy-action G. Loomis GLX 894, same reel, 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon, 3/8-ounce tungsten weight, 5/0 Gamakatsu straight-shank hook, 5" Yamamoto Senko (black/blue).

Main factor: "I just kind of figured out that the fish were all on the beds. Every clump of reeds in the right depth had fish. I just kept running that pattern and I knew I could get a big one on any cast."

Bassmaster Elite Series St. Johns River Patterns 2-5 BassFan 2/13/19 (John Johnson )

Mark Menendez was undoubtedly the derby's most consistent competitor. He was in 3rd place after each of the four weigh-ins and was the only top-5 finisher to exceed 20 pounds in every round. He fished a two-mile stretch of bank and threw at a wide variety of cover types. Primarily focused on pre-spawn fish, he stayed worked deeper water than most of his fellow competitors (6 feet in some places). He didn't get a lot of bites - never more than 10 in a day - but connected with a great deal of quality. "My problem was I had to fish it all; I couldn't just pitch to one specific thing," he said. "I didn't cover a lot of water - I had my MotorGuide trolling motor on 2 most of the time. I fished like an inchworm and at times it drove me crazy. Then after awhile I'd catch a good one and I'd tell myself I'd better slow down even more." His bait lineup consisted of a plastic craw, a finesse worm, a spinnerbait and a 10-inch worm.

Gear:

Craw gear: 7'6" Lew's Custom Speed Stick Mag Heavy Cover rod, Lew's Hyper Mag casting reel (7.5:1 ratio), 20-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 5/16-ounce Strike King tungsten weight, 5/0 Gamakatsu straight-shank hook, Strike King Rage Craw (Falcon craw).

Finesse gear: Same rod and reel, 17-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon, same weight and hook, Strike King Perfect Plastics finesse worm (redbug).

Spinnerbait gear: 7'3" Lew's Custom Speed Stick Football Jig rod, Team Lew's Lite casting reel (6.8:1 ratio), 17-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon, 3/8-ounce Strike King spinnerbait (black with junebug, brown, purple and black skirt).

The blades on the spinnerbait were a No. 2 Colorado and a No. 5 willow-leaf, both gold. He threaded a short piece of chartreuse soft plastic onto the hook shank to add color and used a Rabid Fishing Solutions disc to hold the trailer hook in place.

His big worm was an unnamed 10" black ribbon-tail.

Main factor: "Realizing that I was around pre-spawn fish that were willing to bite and fishing ultra, ultra-slow."

Bassmaster Elite Series St. Johns River Patterns 2-5 BassFan 2/13/19 (John Johnson )

Patrick Walters got off to a sluggish start in his pro debut, but his weights went up considerably over the middle days of the event, culminating with the massive haul on day 3 that put him in 2nd place headed into the final round. He caught fish weighing more than 9 pounds on each of the first three days. He used a topwater prop bait to find fish and then caught them on a flipping stick using a couple of different sizes of worms. He targeted reed heads, isolated reeds and other emergent vegetation. He also caught a few good fish casting a soft stickbait to isolated pieces of cover.

"It was an unreal tournament," he said. "I had the best day of my life, catching almost 33 pounds, and I didn't even have the biggest bag of the day (that honor went to Clifford Pirch and his 34-09 stringer). "My practice was miserable - the bite was to tough that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to catch anything. But the lake showed up in style."

Flipping gear: 7'6" heavy-action Daiwa Kage rod, Daiwa Tatula 100 casting reel (7:1 ratio), 20-pound Sufix fluorocarbon line, 3/8-ounce VMC tungsten weight, 4/0 VMC Heavy Duty Flippin' hook, Zoom Magnum Finesse Worm (junebug).

Casting gear: 7'4" heavy-action Daiwa Tatula Elite Ish Monroe Signature Series Frog rod, Daiwa Tatula SV TWS casting reel, 17-pound Sufix fluorocarbon, 3/16-ounce VMC tungsten weight, 5/0 VMC EWG hook, Zoom Magnum Trick Worm (watermelon red) or Zoom Fluke (pearl white).

Main factor: "I'd say it was finding clean water in the areas where fish were pulling up to spawn. They were coming fast."

Bassmaster Elite Series St. Johns River Patterns 2-5 BassFan 2/13/19 (John Johnson )

John Crews didn't spend all of his time in Lake George; he also focused a lot of his attention on the main river. He caught an 11-02 monster on day 1 that held up as the biggest fish of the tournament. "I was never married to any one area," he said. "Getting that 11 was just a total fluke; a real gift." He used a Neko rig tipped with a Missile Baits Destroyer to catch a couple of solid spawning fish (a 6-pounder and a 4) on the first day. The vast majority of his weigh-in fish were enticed by a Texas-rigged Missile Baits 48 fished around pennywort and other types of vegetation. "Sometimes I'd just run down the river and if something looked right, if it had certain types of reeds or lily pads, I'd go fish it. "The wind blew so hard (on day 4) that I was limited in where I could go."

Worm gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Cashion flipping stick, unnamed casting reel (8:1 ratio), 20-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, 3/16-ounce SPRO tungsten weight, 40 Gamakatsu Heavy Cover worm hook, 4.8" Missile Baits 48 (junebug).

Main factor: "Just to keep fishing new water was a big factor."

Bassmaster Elite Series St. Johns River Patterns 2-5 BassFan 2/13/19 (John Johnson )