We just saw the conclusion of what may prove to be one of my favorite tournaments in 17-plus years of Elite Series history.
Speaking as someone who loved the Pittsburgh Classic, it wasn’t because of the high weights. No one even cracked the Century mark. For the record, there have been much bigger weights before in the state of South Carolina.
It wasn’t because Drew Benton won, although he will make a worthy champion.
It was because we saw the practitioners of the sport doing what they do best – in an incredibly wide array of possibilities – at world-class levels.
Want to see someone chasing the herring bite? We’ve got it.
A graduate-class lesson on sight fishing? Covered.
Shad spawn topwaters? Explosiveness defined.
How about a new (to most Americans) technique like hover strolling? It’s not a secret anymore.
And we even got one outlier – not surprisingly, John Cox – who bucked categories A, B, C and D and just did what he does better than anyone else.
Within the Top 10 we got an array of the best of the best, all doing what they do best. That’s why I watch sporting events. I want to see Aaron Judge turn on a 100 mph fastball that I couldn’t see and launch it 450-feet into, or past, the bleachers. I want to see an Allan Iverson posterize a 7-foot big man with a thundering dunk. I want to see someone break a world record in the 100-meter dash.
That’s what it felt like this week at Lake Murray — everyone doing their thing at a level beyond what us weekend guys can achieve, yet inspiring us to get out on the water and try it while the footage is still fresh in our minds.
“I caught ‘em how I wanted to catch ‘em,” 4th place finisher Patrick Walters said.
Some will argue that it wasn’t the sport at its purest, that the reliance on forward-facing sonar (and several iterations of it on a single boat in some cases), compromised or diminished the anglers’ efforts. We’ll leave that argument for another day – except to say that while it does change the game, it’s hardly a layup. I have forward-facing sonar on my boat. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to learn it, and I’ve had access to some top practitioners to instruct me, but I still couldn’t do what I saw some of the pros do this week. Not even close. These are the best anglers in the world – and all I can hope is that they come back to Murray sooner rather than later.
With that hefty intro, here are a few random thoughts on today’s final day of competition:
It was still anyone’s ballgame – Both Bernie Schultz and Drew Cook weighed in 26-1 on Day 3 to make it to Sunday, but Drew Benton topped that with 26-7 today to claim the win. It turned out that he didn’t need that much. Hunter Shryock turned in 21-plus for the third time in four days, but still felt 1-9 short of the win.
Big bags – No angler had over 20 pounds all four days. All of the top six had over 20 pounds on three days. Benton was the only one to weigh in multiple bags over 23 pounds. He did that three times.
Benton Overcame – Champion Drew Benton’s Day Three 14-pound bag was the smallest single-day catch of anyone who finished in the Top 10.
Keep on keepin’ on – Normally we see weights dwindle by Day 4 of a tournament as fish get beaten up and weekend pressure intensifies. Even anglers who’ve been whacking them end up with the occasional paltry bag. There was no such drop-off at Murray. On Day 4 the ten remaining anglers produced six catches over 20 pounds and two more over 19. The smallest limit weighed in was Kenta Kimura’s 17-2.
Fujita follow-up – Through seven Bassmaster events – three Elites and four Opens – Kyoya Fujita has five top 20 finishes, including three Top 10s, two of them in consecutive Elite events.
Benton’s comeback – As noted above, Benton barely snuck into Sunday’s final day of competition and had to come back from 10th to claim his second BASS victory. Super-impressive by any measure, but it does not match the comeback engineered by the late Aaron Martens in 2017 at Champlain. A canceled day meant that 51 anglers fished the final round, and Martens came back from 19th to win. There’s a pretty substantial chance that’ll never be matched or beaten in Elite Series competition.
Hunter doubles down – On Day 2, Hunter Shryock had a miraculous fish recovery under a dock but the thrill went away yesterday when he suffered a painful loss (on a bigger fish) in a similar situation. Today he got back on the right side of things just before 9 AM when he caught a 6-14 on spinning tackle with 10 lb. fluorocarbon that required major gymnastics. The fish passed around not one but two or possibly three pilings. Shryock nearly went in the drink, but we learned that the key to keeping your weight in the boat, is to have your “left butt cheek squeezing the graph.” Two outta three ain’t bad but that lost fish yesterday may hurt for a long time.
Third time’s the charm – This morning Benton hooked a quality fish in the back, and then it took him through the ringer, hanging up in an unseen obstacle before coming free. “I’m only going to have one chance,” he said of the apparently fleeting opportunity to land the fish. He whiffed on the first grab. Same on round two. On the third try he put a death grip on the bass. The hooks held longer than expected. In order to win, those types of breaks are critically important.
New York state of mind – Earlier in the week we heard Lee Livesay compare Lake Murray to his home waters of Lake Fork. Today Hunter Shryock explained that his best bites were coming in 6-inches of water, and in that respect, Murray reminded him of Oneida. In that respect, it makes sense why Bernie Schultz – a Floridian who excels in the Empire State – found himself in the Top 10. This was Schultz’s ninth Top 10 finish in Elite Series competition – with four in New York and now two in South Carolina.
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