To paraphrase Forrest Gump, fishing is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. That applies to catching as well as the weather. Both can be widely different every time you go. The Bassmasters Classic at Lake Hartwell and a Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament last Sunday at Lake Sinclair both reinforced that idea.
Last Wednesday I rode with David Kilgore at Hartwell while he practiced one last day for the Classic. It was partly cloudy and 27 degrees when we started and the water was about 47 degrees and clear. I have a tough time catching bass when the water is colder than 50 degrees but David was happy with the water temperature.
Although he had fits with his line freezing in his guides and even had trouble with the trolling motor freezing in the rack between stops, he got about a dozen bites on his jig and swimbait. He had cut the hook off the jig since he did not want to catch any bass two days before the tournament, just locate them. We did see a couple that hit and held on to the jig in the clear water, and they were quality fish.
On Friday morning the air temperature was ten degrees, increasing the problems with everything freezing. Than goodness I had not scheduled to be a marshal on one of the boats. Marshalls just sit and watch as the pros fish, and they have to pay about $500 for the privilege of watching and freezing. I got to stay in a nice warm convention center all day for the outdoor show.
I was amazed that night at weigh-in when two of the pros had five bass limits weighing over 20 pounds, and many more had limits weighing over 15 pounds. David had a limit that weighed 14 pounds and was in the top 15 or so. His pattern was working.
The next morning it was a balmy 14 degrees. At launch it took some of the pros half an hour to get their boats off the trailers. The boat was frozen to the bunks on the trailers. Trolling motor problems and guide icing was a big problem that day, too, and many of the pros reported running to the place they wanted to fish and finding it covered with a sheet of ice.
David got another limit weighing 12 pounds and made the cut, fishing with the top 25 the last day. There were no 20 pound limits but several had over 15 pounds even under those conditions. Results varied widely. Randall Tharp had only four pounds the first day but had a 16 pound limit. The guys with over 20 pounds did not do as well, with one of them weighing in less than five pounds.
The last day at launch it was rainy and much warmer. By the end of the day the air was 50 degrees warmer than it had been at launch on Friday. The rain hurt David’s pattern, he was fishing docks and the bright sun was positioning fish in specific areas of the docks. Clouds don’t make them do that.
But Casey Ashley had over 20 pounds that final day and came from fifth place to win with 15 bass weighing over 50 pounds in three days. There were many other good catches that day, too. The top pros fishing the Classic can catch fish under terrible, changing conditions. But some of them didn’t do well, even they never know what they are going to get.
One interesting fact to me from the results. Five of the fishermen were amateurs that qualified through the Bass Nation Federation. They are club fishermen like me, just better. But three of the four zeros in the tournament were the federation fishermen. Most of us don’t know how to adjust to changing conditions like the pros do.
The Classic was an amazing experience. I hope the one next year is close enough for me to go, but I heard rumors it was going to be back on Grand Lake in Oklahoma where it was held in 2013. Cities pay big bucks, somewhere over $50,000, to get the Classic to come to their town. There is a reason. A city hosting the Classic can expect around #20,000,000 in revenue from it.