Fans choose Martens, Evers over Christie for Classic

Evers shows off his 8-11 bass. Big fish every day helped him to victory.

After a second week of asking fans who’s going to win the 2016 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro, fans have stuck to their guns and still say the match is between Aaron Martens and Edwin Evers.

Last week, through a series of polls narrowing down the fan pick, people chose the two anglers. (To be specific, Twitter followers chose Martens, and Facebook fans chose Evers.)

But this week, even in head-to-heads with Jason Christie — the pro many fans say is the favorite — Martens and Evers won again.

In fact, even last week, before Christie was one of the voting options, fans continuously said “Where’s Christie in this list?” and “Christie is going to win it.” But when he became a voting option, fans backed Martens and Evers.

Fans also commented that Kevin VanDam was going to win; we’ll see this week now that he’s an option. (Vote on Twitter or on Facebook.)

Let’s start from the beginning of this week, when we asked fans to choose among Christie, Skeet Reese, Matt Herren and Keith Combs.

In that group, Christie won hands-down. On Twitter, he garnered 50% of the vote, and on Facebook, 64%.

“I think Christie has the edge in this bucket,” said Facebook fan Jason Collins. “His diverse approach to each individual tournament and ability to show poise under the greatest amount of pressure sets him up nicely to be the frontrunner in this great group of highly skilled anglers. Not to mention he’s just as hungry, if not more, than anyone to prove to the world he’s got what it takes to be a champion at the Elite level. He’s got more to prove.”

In the next bracket, we asked fans to choose among Bill Lowen, Alton Jones, Greg Vinson and Bernie Schultz. Jones won both, with 60% of the vote on Twitter and 53% on Facebook.

“AJ all day!” said Facebook fan Tofu Her.

But Bill Lowen got a strong showing as well, landing in second place in both polls.

“He isn’t afraid to throw baits that fish haven’t seen in a long while,” said Nick Griffith on Facebook.

Then we pitted brother against brother in the next poll, with Chris Lane and Bobby Lane together with Clifford Pirch. Chris Lane won, with 58% on Twitter and 61% on Facebook.

“Pow!,” said J. Paul Sansing on Facebook.

So then, we took the winner of each poll for this week and put them against the winner from the previous week.

For Twitter, that was Martens, Christie, Jones and Lane. Martens won with a strong 47%.

For Facebook, it was Evers, Christie, Jones and Lane. Evers also won with 47%.

Christie came in second in both.

“While this is both Evers’ and Christie’s home lake and wins have been trending lately for the homer to win it all, I have a feeling Evers just wants it more,” said Griffith on Facebook. “I have a feeling Christie’s flotilla will get in his head a bit more.”

Bobby Sanders on Facebook agrees. “Edwin Evers is the angler to beat in this one,” he wrote. “He has the home field advantage and he’s due for a Classic win. It’s E Squared all the way!”

So, has Christie fallen from favorite status among fans? Maybe. Does that matter when it comes down to it? No. But it’s always good to know. Last year, Casey Ashley was the favorite, and you saw how that worked out.

Want to vote? It’s easy. Just go to Twitter or join the Fantasy Fishing group on Facebook.

Aaron Martens was triumphant again in fan polls about who will win the Classic on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees.