Twenty five anglers head out onto Fort Loudon and Tellico hoping for a miraculous day of fishing that their grandkids will tell their grandkids about. Well, 24 anglers are hoping for a miracle. One is just focused on putting five fish in the boat. As Jeff Gustafson boated his first keeper some 46 hours ago, he looked at the camera and said, “Fourteen to go.”
From the start, Gussy’s game plan has been simple. Put fifteen keeper smallmouth over 18 inches in the boat and he would become the 53rd Bassmaster Classic Champion. It seemed rather bold to all of us at the time, for the typically soft spoken Gussy to have such a resolute and singular focus. But despite few others believing he could back up his 2021 Elite Series win here with a Classic title, he was confident in himself. And he’s very close now.
It’s not over though. There are long boat rides involved where a lot of equipment has to fire on all cylinders. Gussy could have a run of unfortunate 17- and 7/8- non-keepers like the two he boated early yesterday. Or his deep fish could vacate his areas and head shallow to spawn. We’re not rooting for any of this to happen, it’s just that we’ve mistakingly awarded Classic trophies in our minds before the scales had a chance to do their thing on Championship Sunday. Anything could still happen.
And though it is likely Gussy will have to lose this one for someone else to win it, there is the potentional here for a megabag and an angler could overtake the Canadian, even if he does his part. Look at Matt Robertson. He lags back in 19th, nearly 17 pounds off the lead, so he’s not a legitimate threat to Gussy. But Robertson has stuck to his big bait guns, and has had some big bites.
His 19 pounds across two days consist of only five fish that he’s brought to the scales. And one of those was cosiderably smaller than the other four. So the potentional for a 22- to 25- pound bag exists here. And with the pressure on, several anglers will shoot for that kind of a bag all day knowing it’s their only shot to overtake Gussy.
It’s been done before too. On the final day of the 2017 Bassmaster Classic, Jordan Lee caught 27 pounds, 4 ounces to take the win. Lee had started Championship Sunday in 15th place, 13 pounds, 14 ounces off the lead. Randy Howell won the 2014 Bassmaster Classic, catching 29 pounds, 2 ounces on the final day to comeback from 11th place and 9 pounds back.
Keeping all this in mind, there are 7 anglers within 10 pounds of Gussy. If Gussy catches 12 pounds, Jay Przekurat (8th place) could catch 22 and run him down. And the task would be easier for those in between. It’s not likely, but their will be a fair amount of tension still on the water, until Gussy puts a solid limit in the boat, if he does.
