Usually by Saturday night we know who’s going to win the Bassmaster Classic, or at least we know who the two or three guys are who can win it. Not this year. I said on the stage that anyone within 3 or 4 pounds can win. I stand by that. Heck, I might even extend that to 4 or 5 pounds. That means anyone of 10 or 12 guys could be hoisting the trophy tomorrow evening.
The weather is going to make the uncertainty even more certain. It’s supposed to be around 40 degrees tonight with a high temperature tomorrow pushing 60 degrees. That’s warm. And, there’s rain moving in with low pressure. Look for some big sacks tomorrow afternoon. That means anyone can make a move, especially the guys in this group.
Forget all the conventional analysis about how far behind anyone is tonight or how many anglers are in front of them. Throw that out the window. That kind of thinking will be useless tomorrow. All you can really do is grab your computer in the morning and keep an eye on BASSTrakk. It’s the only thing you can rely on.
Take it in. Enjoy it. They aren’t all like this.
As for what I’ll be doing, let’s just say nothing will change. I caught a few early this morning shallow and then I went to work with a big jig looking for a big bass around deep water. Tomorrow will be no different. That’s what got me this far. Why change now?
The toughest part for me will be trying to cover a lot of water with a really slow presentation. Everybody knows what I’m doing and where I’m fishing. I won’t be protecting any spots and I won’t be hiding anything about my lures or my tactics. We’re way past that. It’s about catching big bass that weigh a lot.
There’s no way I can say tonight what tomorrow will bring — maybe a win, maybe a heartbreaker. I can say, however, that I’m very happy either way and that I can live with the outcome.
I wrote a column some weeks back in which I said that one of my goals this year was to get off to a better start. This is it. Win or lose I’ve made good decisions in the first tournament of the year. That gives me the right attitude going into the Elite Series season. I’m off to a good start.
That’s a lot different than last year when I made poor decisions on the first day of the Classic on Guntersville. That was not only a killer for that Classic but it also left a bad taste in my mouth going into the first Elite tournament. That’s what you call a bad start. It took me several events to get over it.
I don’t want to end this thing without saying a word about the fans. You’ve been great. And I especially want to thank the boats on the water. You’ve been really courteous and respectful while watching us fish. Thank you for that.
Mike Iaconelli’s column appears weekly on Bassmaster.com. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter or visit his website, mikeiaconelli.com.
