The tension is at an all-time high of Jeff Gustafson. He has one bass in the boat, as the clock quickly approaches the halfway point and a mere 4 hours or so remains in the Bassmaster Classic. He’s led both days so far, with a commanding lead to start Championship Sunday. But very little is going right today.
Gussy’s deep-hull metal boat, albeit it a fantastic vessel, couldn’t hang with the other anglers’ more aerodynamic fiberglass rides this morning. And so, the 46 minutes it took him to reach his starting spot was 7 minutes longer than the time needed for Drew Benton and Austin Felix to make it to the same area.
Like the 9th puppy to make it to a mama dog outfitted for 8, Gussy could only hang his head and idle off in search of other water. As he was doing so, Benton boated a near 4- pound smallmouth before Gussy could even plane off.
There are fewer bass on Gussy’s graphs than there have been, but there are still some. He’s caught a keeper and at least one close short, having to throw back the latter bass that would have pushed 3 pounds. Most of the fish are just nosing his bait, and the LIVE camera that has been with him all week is picking up lots of heavy sighs and very little elation so far on Day 3, a far cry from what we watched go down the first two days.
This is the time of day though when Gussy has done most of his damage. And he’s rarely fished his best place after this, once he’s caught his limit. So he’s in good shape, but he’s going to have to start catching them soon.
