Vance McCullough's blog

Glen and David Barnes outfished 441 other teams on the St Johns River to win the 24th annual Wolfson Children's Hospital benefit bass tournament. The duo ran to Lake George and brought 23.60 pounds of bass back to Palatka. They caught all of their fish from spawning beds. After a dead fish penalty, their adjusted weight was 23.35.

Sight fishing produced a number of the biggest bass today. Many nmore fell for the old Devil's Horse topwater plug.

Here are the top 10:

1 *GLEN BARNES-*DAVID BARNES 23.35

2 *TREVOR FITZGERALD-*DANNY THOMPSON 22.68

If you noticed Elite Series pro Brandon Palaniuk's photo, which we shared on the AnglersChannel.com Facebook page, you saw how high the waters were on the Alabama River during the practice rounds for this week's tourney - stop #5 of 8 for the Bassmaster Elite Series.

The river is 10-to-11 feet higher than normal. Daily launches were scheduled to take place at the historic Montgomery Riverfront on Coosa Street in Montgomery, Ala. But the takeoff point has been moved.

Day 1 leader Keith Combs dropped to 4^th place today when he brought 7 pounds, 4 ounces to the weigh in.

He will try to take the lead back tomorrow but, as was the case last month on Falcon Lake, Rick Clunn is close behind.

Clunn’s 2^nd day heroics are 20 pounds lighter on West Point than they were on Falcon. Still, his14 pound sack is nearly double what he had yesterday and the 8 anglers ahead of him are liable to get caught by the 67-year-old bass fishing icon.

During a phone conversation with Keith Combs just now, he said he feels "very fortunate" to be leading the Bassmaster Elite Series event on Georgia's West Point Lake.

"I'm chalking most of my bites up to luck, but hopefully I found a little something and I can do it again," said Combs, who already owns an Elite Series trophy this season, earned on Lake Amistad, and a berth into the 2014 Bassmaster Classic.

Of his excellent day, Combs shared that he is "pretty stoked about it" but noted that his bites were "very random". 

I was watching the weigh in, wondering how 5-bass limits could weigh so little as some of them did today. Then Dave Mercer singled-out Alton Jones’ smallest fish out of curiosity. It weighed 10 ounces.

Joe Holland had a crazy day on his boat in the Florida Everglades this weekend:

“I caught the largest thing I have ever caught today. A 16+ foot long Python in the Everglades. I couldn't believe how strong and heavy it was. Lucky it straightened the hook when it got to the bank and stuck around for a picture or two. Brett caught a fish shortly after and was reeling down and set on it and it turned into a gator. Quite a fight and a wild day in the Glades!!!”

"It's going to be one of the biggest tournaments in the Southeast," said Jeb Bell about the upcoming Kicks 99 Hooked on Country bass tournament to be held out of Wildwood Park on Clarks Hill Lake Saturday, April 27th.

The team tourney features a $15,000 top prize for an entry fee of $125 per boat. 

Robert Tindell brought 20 pounds, 12 ounces to run his 2-day total to 47-14. He retained the lead, but Scott Canterbury matched Tindell's Day 1 weight with a Day 2 sack that went 27-02 and included the day's big bass at 7-08.

As such, Canterbury is 2nd with 42-07.

Five pounds may sound like a solid lead, but on a lake with Seminole's reputation for producing giant bass Tindell will need to keep pouring on the steam if he hopes to hold off Canterbury. 

After that, Roger Beaver is Tindell's closest persuer and he is over 10 pounds back with 37-11.