Jason Christie has been the Day 1 and Day 2 leader at two Bassmaster Classics, including at Lake Hartwell in 2018. Neither turned out well for him, as he finished 3rd at Hartwell and 2nd at Grand Lake in 2016. Christie said he was completely satisfied to be sitting in 9th place with 17-1 after weighing in yesterday.
“I’m right where I want to be,” he said. “I don’t want to be leading this.”
Well, don’t look now, but Christie is leading this, according to BassTrakk, which shows him 15-0 today and a 32-1 total. There’s still a lot of fishing time left today, and too much is made about leading and Christie’s track record in Classics. It’s not like he can’t finish, having posted six B.A.S.S. wins. Most importantly, he’s right on track to where he wants to be.
“It’s just going to be steady wins the race,” Christie said yesterday. “Seventeen, 17 and 18, and I’ll take my chances.”
Christie probably has 17 today, rather than that 15-pound BassTrakk total. He’s still puzzled about the elusive nature of the big bass in Lake Hartwell.
“This place has big ones,” he said. “They just run around. I don’t know where they go. I had one practice day where I caught a bunch of big ones. I had one practice day where I saw a bunch of big ones and couldn’t catch them. Then I had one practice day where I didn’t even see any of them. (Friday) was that day (again). I didn’t see any, and I don’t know why.”