“If you touch this snake, your son will win.” That was Bassmaster emcee Dave Mercer’s ruse to get Britt Myers’ mother to hold a harmless local species.
Bad Mercer, bad. Trying to trick a white-haired grandmother.
Oh, but Renee displayed so much sweet goodness. Before Mercer went serpent during a segment on Bassmaster LIVE, he asked her to assess the possibility of her son’s first victory, which did come later Sunday afternoon in the Huk Performance Fishing Bassmaster Elite at Winyah Bay presented by GoRVing.
“It would mean everything to him,” she said, going full mom mode. “Whether he wins or loses, he’s always a winner in my eyes.”
Awwww. That’s what moms are for, Mercer admitted. That’s when he spoke with forked tongue, telling Renee the last winner’s mother touched a poisonous snake, so if she did … yada yada yada.
Even though Renee professed a dislike of snakes, and even though she saw through Mercer’s trick, she played along. There was some recoil and a look of utter disgust, but she took the common water snake from wranglers who brought it the festival.
“Son, this is for you,” she said, lifting it like a pro, the snake’s head extending from her hands, its tongue flicking at the camera, “for winning the Bassmasters today.”
Mercer redeemed himself when he assessed Renee’s great sacrifice. “That is a mother’s love,” he said. “My mom would have totally took off.”
Mercer came clean about his artifice to Myers on stage. In explaining, Mercer said he did it because “I’m a jerk.” After hearing his Mom was a trooper, Britt said, “Wow, this is good.”
Someone said that Renee should have slugged Mercer, but she’s a grandmother to Britt’s sons, Britt and Carson, and too much of a southern lady. Maybe Britt could have.
Naw, it made for some interesting TV
TEARS OF JOY THIS TIME
Despite a noticeable adrenaline rush, Myers got out all the right messages Sunday. As he took the hot seat, he seemed to be preparing his family for a worst-case scenario, which had hurt them in 2012.
“At Lake Douglas, my boys cried when I finished second place,” Myers said. “Guys, I want you all to celebrate if I finish second place. Life is good either way.”
Any angler who finishes second knows all the what-ifs that run through their heads, but Myers took solace in some advice from a friend.
“When you win a tournament, you will least expect it. When you think you’re going to win it, you won’t win it,” he said, adding that happened here. “The tournament I lost I should have won was Douglas. I led every single day. I lost two fish on the last day. I was pretty depressed. I had nightmares about seeing bass come off.”
Myers won’t suffer this time. He was joined on stage for his trophy celebration by his mother, his wife, Missy, his sons and his sister, Lori, and all the tears were ones of joy.
HITE, JORDON JUST NEEDED ONE
One more fish on Day 4 would have made winners out of either Brett Hite and Kelly Jordon.
Myers weighed a limit Sunday weighing 9 pounds, 5 ounces to total 56-3. Hite needed four ounces to tie, so a third fish would have given him a second Elite title. Jordon was stuck on four fish for 6-3, and fell 1 pound short.
Jordon thought he might have had the winner late Sunday. The cool Texan was at the best spot in his Santee backwater and had a strike. He loaded up and fought it to the boat, thinking it might be a fish like his 8-5 on Day 1.
“I thought this is it,” he said, thinking he’d become a furious hawg snatcher. “It was the largest chain pickerel I ever caught in my life.”
Jordon caught another pike, and left his spot believing the bass were still there, but Saturday night’s cold front turned off a lot of bites. But it was his first top 10 since 2011, after he regularly made several each season before that. He would have broken a decade-long win drought with one more.
“I’m convinced they’re still there and I could not catch them,” he said. “I tried about everything and that’s frustrating. If I could have just got them to bite … ”
MARSHALS ROCKED WINYAH BAY
We rely heavily on Marshals for both BASSTrakk and the LIVE blog. They enter fish weights for the former, and enter the fun zone at times for the latter. We enjoy their close-up photos of the anglers with their catches, but sometimes they offer up a better perspective.
Marshal Kyle Johnson sure had some fun with a photo he snapped, twisting an old-time golfing look – on Masters Sunday no less — into something very clever. As Zona would say, let’s give it the Tabasco Bold Spicy Hot Post of the Week, or some such thing.
“Always knew these boats were fast, but this is a new one for me … J-pow’s (Jacob Powroznik) boat is so fast it seems we have hit some kind of time warp,” Johnson wrote for the photo below. Well played, Kyle.
Winyah Bay also gave us Marshals like Richard Petty. No, not that one, but this one is the King — king of sending in awesomeness. He gave us a real tour with photos of the area’s cool bridges and attractions like the U.S.S. Yorktown, an aircraft carrier at Patriots Point in Charleston Harbor.
Marshals pay for the rights to ride and observe anglers, and some feel compelled to tell us they appreciate the opportunity. Here’s what Clint Proudfoot emailed:
“I’ve learned a lot on this journey and stuff that I will take with me forever. Not only tactics, but knowledge from these guys and drive!! To Chuck Harbin and the entire B.A.S.S. team, thank you for the opportunity you give normal guys like myself to hang out with guys we strive to be like one day.
“To Brandon Coulter, Drew Benton, and Boyd Duckett, thank you for what you’ve taught me these last couple days and allowing me to ride along.
“It’s been an honor to be in your office each day and good luck the rest of this season. To the entire B.A.S.S. Elite field, kudos to each one of you, you treat us like your own and not one of you act boastful or rude. Until next time, thanks again.”
Hey, thank you all right back.
FOCUS ON FISHING, NOT SPONSORS
With John Hunter, a former Carhartt Bassmaster College Series angler with Georgetown College, making noise in the event, Mark Zona got on a rant. It started as a mild simmer then boiled over.
He brought up the very first college bass show, a seven-boat event in Cane Creek, Ark., in 2006 for ESPNU. The anglers hobbled in with ragtag boats and gear. Things like flashlights tied to a broomstick for a navigational light come to mind.
“That was the beauty of it,” Zona said. “Sanders, remember we did that show in Jerry’s office. I thought, this ain’t gonna to work. Boy, I nailed that one.”
He was being facetious as the College Series has grown by leaps and bounds. Hundreds of college teams now compete for a national title and the series awards a Classic berth. Some schools even offer bass fishing scholarships — Zona’s twin boys have gotten recruitment letters.
But all those positives turned into a rant when he spoke of the most-asked question of young anglers — how do I get sponsors?
“Don’t worry about that,” Zona said. “Spend as much time as you can in classes and on the water. You should go work boat shows or tackle shows to learn about the industry. Concentrate on your craft, and concentrate on being polished. Take communication classes.”
First and foremost is being able to fish and know the craft of fishing, Zona said. Second is polishing yourself to be attractive to a potential advertiser. That includes appearance, personality and speaking skills. If you hope to one day represent a company, you had better be ready to play the part.
“Ok, you look cool, but you are in a line with thousands,” said Zona, who added that marketing and communications degrees will go a long way with your ability to catch fish.
“When the time comes, when you jump into Bassmaster Opens, you better be able to hold yourself well,” he said. “And if you can catch them, they’re coming. The sponsors are coming to you.”
CULLING
- A zero on Day 4 knocked rookie John Hunter back from fourth to 11th, but he left pretty happy. “Being this is my second Elite Series event, and I made the top 12 against the best guys in the world, it’s been an unbelievable experience … and I get to weigh in front of a crowd like this. Look at this, Georgetown, you all rock.” There was quite a crowd.
- Here’s a photo from Georgetown County’s Facebook page showing the layout of the Winyah Bay Heritage Festival that center around the Elite weigh-in. A huge crowd gathers around the stage on Day 4 and were treated to Myers’ home-state victory. (First person to present an accurate count of everybody in the photo will win a hat. Remember to include the folks under the tents, too.)
- Chapman climbed into Hunter’s Day 3 position to finish fourth, and feels he’s righted the ship. He explained his struggles after he won the 2012 AOY. “It was all mental. There were so many commitments. It was a great problem to have. I just had way too much on my plate, just a strain on my time.”