With two wins, two seconds, a third and a fourth place in the Rodman Reservoir Xtreme Series  this year, Billy Bowen and Dale Kendrick are leading the points going into the seventh of nine tournaments on the schedule this Saturday.

Although 42 points separate them and the second place team, Ryan Worthington and Roger Roebuck, only 17 points separate the next three teams, with Gary Bradford and Steve Williams trailing Worthington and Roebuck by just five points, Wendell and Dwayne Burke behind them by just three points and Johnny Key and Justin Bennett needing only six points to catch up to the fourth place team.

“Bowen and Kendrick are doing really well, but there are still a couple of teams in the hunt that could jump up there and get them,” said Terry Mullis, tournament director. “They are all good, quality fishermen.”

With three tournaments left before the fall classic, Mullis said fishing in Rodman Reservoir, or Lake Ocklawaha as it is also called, has been really good.

“We have been weighing a lot of big fish and there have been a lot of big fish caught. In our last tournaments we had two 9s and a couple of 8s. The tournament was won with 28 pounds.”

Participation has also been good, he said, with 22 boats or more entered in every tournament so far.

“Probably 20 to 25 boats will go to the Classic from the Rodman series,” he said. “It all depends on how many tournaments they fish. They have to fish seven out of the nine tournaments.”

Mullis said the news has been filled with reports of a big fish kill on the river from Lake George to Jacksonville, but so far he has seen nothing to indicate any problem with bass or other sport fish.

“I’ve seen a lot of dead trash fish, but I have not seen a dead game fish yet. No bass, no stripers, no bream – and I live between Little Lake George and Big Lake George. In fact I caught a 10-pounder out of the Ocklawaha River and two week ago I caught an 8-pounder off Drayton Island (on the north end of Lake George) in the river where the fish kill was supposed to have happened, but I’ve not seen a dead game fish.”

Mullis said there are a lot of grass mats on the lake and the fish are relating to those mats.

“Most anglers are catching fish flipping and pitching. Ninety percent were caught flipping in the last tournament,” he said. “In the tournament Saturday it all depends on what the water will be like, if the rain will affect it or the water color.”

Rodman is an excellent fishery, he noted, but fishing can be just as bad as it can be good.

“Rodman can make you or break you. We had one tournament this year  when 14 pounds won it. Fourteen pounds on the river anytime is sad.”

The final two tournaments will be held Aug. 8 and Sept. 12.

Xtreme Bass Series - Rodman Reservoir – 2010

Sun. Jul. 11, 2010

Rodman Reservoir

Kenwood Landing

http://www.xtremefishingseries.com