If you’ve been a follower of professional bass fishing for any length of time, you know February in Florida is a special time of year. The weather is getting warmer in that area of the country and with even a subtle warm front, the bass fishing action can turn from ice cold to red hot in a New York minute.
While many of us may be bundled up and wishing of warmer days, Florida native Bobby Lane is right at home in the Sunshine state this time of year.
Something particularly interesting is Lane’s differentiation from the field when it comes to bass fishing tournament history. When someone is familiar with a particular body of water, we refer to that as “history.” This knowledge can often hinder your game plan because it causes you to fish memories instead of current conditions but sure enough, the shallow-water specialist earned the win from fishing a surprising amount of history.
“History is everything for me in Florida,” Lane said. “I have spent the last three or four years learning Lake Apopka on the Harris Chain because I knew one day it would pay off. There was a bunch of talk about a fish kill on that particular lake but by gosh, there’s where I ended up winning the tournament. I started out practice fishing canals and they weren’t any good. But at one point, I figured I was five minutes from Apopka so I might as well go check it out. I put my Power-Poles down and had six bites before I lifted them and I’ll tell you, two of those bites were great big ones.”
Along with his first regular season Bass Pro Tour win, Lane earned an additional $3,000 check from Toyota Bonus Bucks for being the highest finishing pro hauling his boat with a Toyota tow vehicle. “Big Fish” Bobby Lane has owned multiple Tundras over the years and has logged thousands of miles towing with them. Similarly, Lane had to log miles on his Yamaha Outboard at the Harris Chain enroute to his win. With the Harris Chain being such an expansive body of water, Lane had to check every bit of history he had on the fishery throughout practice.
“I will live and die by a flipping stick when it’s the right time,” Lane said. “And this event set up to be the right time. You wouldn’t believe how many big bass there were in the shallow water. It was a tough tournament for a lot of the guys, but I connected with the fish at the end of the first day of competition and it was something I’ll never forget.”
Although Bobby Lane isn’t an old man by any means, he has earned the utmost respect of any and everyone when it comes to fishing less than a few feet of water. If the bass are in the shallow water, you can just about guarantee he’ll be at the top of the leaderboard.
“This was just one of those special events,” Lane said. “When it’s your time, you can’t stop it and thank the Good Lord, it was my time. I’m glad I listened to my gut and decided to check Apopka. I am so thankful for that decision.
