All Ive ever heard is that they get lockjaw when the gates are open. But then the pros show up and put the smackdown on them! Makes me lean towards the idea that we all stink at fishing!! LOL

Agreed.. I was thinking the same thing! I have learned a lot from watching this tourney. The main thing is to just fish and not think about all the other stuff like the gates or muddy water, or blue bird skies, or..... you get my point.

The fish obviously are still catchable (duh). It I wonder what the weights would have been on a stable May bite....

I know I struggle when the gates are open, I guess that's why those guys get paid to fish.

Much larger but not as many big weights. As you know Cam, those deep fish are location specific and there are only so many of those spots. The lake being up and many fish still shallow really helped these guys.

They are catching some big ones.

I disagree. I was fishing during the tournament and saw a lot of guys pointlessly junk fishing and struggling. I was pretty surprised the weights for several guys were as good as they were. I thought it was going to be a tough tough event.

Wouldn't it be great if they couldn't count the weights if they were slot fish?

No

I heard a guide on the water say that the reason the fish don't bite when the gates are open is because the Florida strain largemouth don't like the current.... I heard a pro say, "yeah, well tell that to the fish in the St. John's River..."

I bet the guides love that excuse; gives them something to tell their clients.

I've said it a few times this year....I think the gates being open is often a convenient excuse for a bad day out there. They are almost constantly dropping the lake level there in some way and these fish have to be used to it by now.

+1 my thoughts exactly

I am not an expert on Fork or the St Johns River. I do however fish for bass every chance I get. Lately I have been letting this work for a living thing get in the way of my fishing, but I believe that the Florida strain bass do not like change. On lakes where there is seldom current they do get the lock jaw when there is current. On bodies of water where there is normally current they get the lock jaw when there is no current. Much like people I don't think the bass like change

With all of the global warming and stuff one of these days the gulf will be rising and pushing all the rivers to flow inland. The authorities will be forced to open the dame gates in the opposite direction to let water in to the lakes and that certainly won�t be very much fun for a lot of people (especially the youngs but they may be olds by then).