2010 Bassmaster Classic Experience

A blog on my classic experience won't do it justice, but then again I'm not sure what would or could. In short, it was the single greatest fishing experience of my life. Really, beyond what words can express. So let me just try to recap as best I can what went down. This will probably be long, but trust me, if I were to write about everything I could fill a book.

I arrived in Birmingham on Thursday, Feb. 11th. My good friend and tournament partner Ray Lehrman flew down with me and was going to be my "rider" during the pre-practice days of Fri, Feb 12- Sun, Feb 14. As a rider he could only watch and help me load and unload the boat. He was not allowed to fish or touch any equipment while out on the water. The rider had to be someone with no experience or knowledge of Lay Lake.

As it turned out, I have family (cousins) who live in Birmingham. One of them, Shane, owns a sign company near the airport. This was a huge blessing. I would be running a new Triton boat - 21 XS Elite - for the classic (and beyond), so the boat would be sent from the factory in Tennessee to Birmingham. In Birmingham it was going to be wrapped and kept at Shane's company. So as it turned out, once we landed in Birmingham we simply had to grab our rental truck and pick up the boat along with all my tackle that I had shipped to Shane's company address as well.

Ray and I were staying at a lake house on Lay Lake. Staying right next door to us, literally 50 feet away were Boyd Duckett, Byron Velvick and Kelly Jordon. We meet those three and had some chit-chat as soon as we arrived at the lakehouse. I had a lot of work to do. Rigging all of my rods and reels along with organizing tackle in prepartion for the first practice day the next morning. I didn't get to sleep until after midnight that night.

Friday morning was very cold with the forecast calling for snow. I had been following the weather around Lay Lake for the better part of the last two months and it had been a brutally cold winter for the deep south. That was going to kick up a notch on Friday.

Friday, Feb 12 - Practice Day 1

Fishing out of a new boat you are not familiar with is a little unsettling. I had done it before at the Federation Nation Championships in Florida in November and was prepared to do it again for the classic. Still, all of your stuff is in a different place. I had about 75% of all the tackle I owned with me, just because I didn't know what to rule out. Lay Lake is one of those bodies of water where there are many possible patterns and ways to approach the fishing. The new Lowrance units wouldn't display my Navionics map or share my waypoints. I was in a strange place, in a stange boat with rods and tackle all out of order in a snow storm. I never did feel really comfortable during that first day, but what could I expect? Once it started snowing you couldn't even see across the creek, much less where things were out on the main river.

I had been to Lay before, in November with my brother-in-law, Ryan Brown. We drove the lake for 3 days, saw every bit of it and I made some recordings with a Humminbird side-imaging unit. Over the next several months I would review those recordings on my computer at home, making waypoints and trying to plan on what might be productive for different scenarios. One of the creeks I made several recording of was Beeswax Creek where the classic would launch out of. Beeswax was not an exceptionally big creek, but it was fertile, with lots of coontail and also the sight of many local tournaments so it was also a prominent release site.

I had started that Friday of practice on one of the areas that I had marked from the scouting trip in November. It was about 30 degrees out and the water temp was 43-44. After making a few casts at that starting point, I moved along, staying in Beeswax, trying to stay warm. That starting point of my practice ended up being Jeff Kriet's main location during the tournament. Within a couple of hours the temperature dropped and it started to snow. By noon, I had several inches of snow on the deck of the boat. Mainly due to the weather, there were at least a dozen other boats working Beeswax. Slightly after noon, I caught my first fish of practice - a 2.5 lb spot on a DD 22 on a creek channel swing in about 12' of water. There was no legendary Coosa River spotted bass fight - the thing came in like a wet sock in the 43 degree water.

All in all, the first day of practice was a bust. I stayed out longer than most, but didn't feel like I had a lot to show for it. I did run into the Lowrance service guys at the end of the day. They updated my units and finally I could view my map and waypoints like I needed to.

Sat, Feb 13 - Practice Day 2

On Saturday, I planned to get out and stretch around the lake a bit. My goal was to cover water, look at each of the creeks other than Beeswax and see if I couldn't locate where fish were hanging. I was not going to spend any time on the main river until it cleared up some. For now it was a rolling mass of chocolate water and I figured it wasn't worth my time to get frustrated over it.

I was planning on getting an early start that morning, except for I had one big problem - all of my rod lockers were frozen shut. Looking over at Duckett's boat that morning we noticed that he had left all of his lockers wide open. Kelly Jordan had forgotten to open his, so I wasn't alone. It was 21 degrees that morning, and I had to go through about 10 gallons of hot water to get the lockers thawed out enough to open. Ray thought all of this was hilarious and took numerous pictures and videos of the whole scene. As I found out later, many other guys would go through half of Saturday without being able to get into their compartments. Some ended up beating on their compartment lids to the point they tore up their carpet.

Fishing was simply brutal that day. I never had a bite and if I did I never knew it. I could see easily enough where fish were hanging, in massive groups. Basically anywhere there was a sharp break, fish would be suspended off that break. I also began to notice massive amounts of shad dying. The cold water conditions were creating an easy meal for the bass. All of my offerings were being ignored. On top of all of this, the long-range conditions were calling for a warming trend (mostly because it could not get any colder!) and I began to try and anticipate what fish would be doing a week later when conditions changed. Based on where fish were I tried to come up with plans on how to catch them when they moved. For the time being they were basically uncatchable.

Sun, Feb 14 - Practice Day 3

My plan for day 3 was to figure out how to catch some spotted bass that were staging off of some of the edges and breaklines. In case conditions didn't change much, I felt I needed to have a way to catch some wintering fish. It was still below freezing out, and the water temps were still hovering below 45 degrees. I spent the first part of Sunday searching, trying to make something happen. I fished around Ike, Brauer, Quinn, Short, and Scroggins. By noon, I hadn't seen anyone catch anything nor had I caught anything - not a bite. By this point it was becoming clear that I had a major dilemma to solve: The main river was where the majority of the spotted bass should be, but it was cold and muddy. Mid way back into the creek arms you could find slightly warmer, slightly clearer water and fish bunched up in large groups suspended underneath dying shad. If you went to the very back of the creeks, the water would become even clearer, but would drop in temperature several degrees. The very backs of these creeks were generally shallow and flat without the major breaklines that the fish seemed to be relating to. The weather was supposed to warm so things would change, but how much?

At noon, I decided to go flipping mats. The water around the mats was clearer than the rest and if you found the right mat on the right bank then you could find slightly warmer water as well. Within 30 minutes, I found a mat in 48 degrees of water. Within a few flips I had a 5-6 lb LM. I was using a 1oz. weight with a punch skirt and a Big Bite Bait 4" Fighting Frog (black/blue all around). Kevin Short was idling by at the time so I kept the fish down until I was sure he wasn't looking. At that point I decided I would spend the rest of the afternoon looking for similar water/conditions. That payed off with another nice fish over 3lbs a while later. From there I mostly drove around checking water conditions around some other mats. As the day concluded I felt slightly optimistic that I could catch quality fish flipping and it would be a pattern that would only improve as the temperatures warmed.

Monday, Feb 15 - Off Day

On Monday the qualifiers were supposed to check their boats into the service yard next to the Convention Center in Birmingham. The service yard, Convention Center and Sheridan were all located in the same area in downtown Birmingham. They had held a drawing for boat numbers earlier and I was boat no. 5. Van Dam was 1, Skeet was 2, Faircloth 3, Velvick 4, Bobby Lane was 6, Kriet was 7. Those would be the boats nearest me in the service yard and as a result the guys I would end up spending the most time around. After getting the boat situated in the yard and a few things taken care of with the boat, I was set. Cover on, batteries charging, gear ready to go. Temps still cold. High temp that day was like 37 degrees, but a warm up was still in the forecast for Thurs-Sunday. Competition would start Friday with one more practice day on Wed.

After checking in to the Sheridan, I went to go ride the elevator up to my room. I took the elevator ride up with KVD and Brauer. We talked about weather, the forecast and how brutal practice was. As I walked to my room, Skeet walked out of his. We shook hands as I introduced myself and talked about conditions again. He said I was about to have the time of my life. It turned out his room was right next to mine.

Tuesday, Feb 16 - Registration Day

There was going to be a tour of the Children's Hospital in Birmingham at 10am that morning. It was optional, but I decided to go. A shuttle took some of us down to the hospital. Alton Jones, Brent Champman, Bobby Lane, Randy Howell, Bryon Velvick, Pam Martin-Wells and a few of us Federation guys sat at tables set up for us in the hospital as they brought kids well enough to be out of their rooms by for autographs. It was a neat experience. I was a little overwhelmed with how big of celebrities we were to people in Birmingham. We signed shirts and hats for a couple of hours. Even hosptial personel would want autographs. The same type of fanatical enthusiasm that Alabama fans have for their football teams was on display for bass fishing. Simply amazing.

After coming back from the hospital, we had to go to the angler registration and video shoot being held in the Sheridan. At registration they checked your license and then you went by all these tables set up with gear from the various boat, and motor manufacturers. Hats, coats, sweatshirts, etc. were being piled on us. I had two bags that were overflowing with stuff. They also handed us our plaques that read "2010 Bassmaster Classic Qualifier" We had so much stuff we had to return to our rooms and put it away. We came back down and they did some video shoots that they would use for the weigh-in shows.

Next was the pre tournament briefing. They went over speed restrictions leaving Beeswax as well as handing us updated weather forecasts. They discussed how the police escort to the lake would work each day, how launch would work, safety check on the water, blastoff, and then check in. We would be responsible for driving ourselves down to the lake and back. We could have a "Caddy" who could assist with driving us down, launching us and picking us up. After we had our fish checked at the lake we would drive back to Birmingham and check back into the boatyard. They would hook the boats up to Toyota trucks and then drive around to the Convention Center where a crew would be waiting outside to wash the boat and truck. Then we would be driven into the arena for weigh-in. We had to select a song to be played as we came into the arena. I picked "Barracuda" by Heart.

Basically, I spent the day with all the other qualifiers for the classic, and by Tuesday night somehow it felt like we were all just guys who loved to fish. The consensus was that practice was the worst ever. Many of the guys mentioned getting only a couple of bites all practice long. Nobody had anything good to say about it, but most all of us were expecting things to change.

Wednesday - Feb 17th - Official Practice Day

Wednesday would be a dress rehersal for the competition days. I woke at 3:30 and went down to the service yard to get the boat ready. At 5:00 we left the yard with a police escort on the 45 minute drive to Lay Lake. Every major intersection was closed with police officers while the Alabama State Troopers escorted the anglers to the ramp. When I got there, my marshall (official observer for the day) introduced himself and said he could back me in. The first 6 boats were to tie up to the small dock and go through safety check. The whole scene at Beeswax was a rush. Hundreds, maybe a thousand spectators lined the ramp and bleachers that had been erected there. KVD and Skeet were rushed by people seeking autographs and by camera crews. Remember this is just a practice day.

We blasted off in order and I decided to run up the river. I ran about 20 miles nearly up to the dam and was greeted by 42 degree muddy water. I worked my way back downstream, fishing key areas as I went without a strike. By noon, I decided to try working some grass mats again. About 1:00 I entered a dead end canal that was narrow but warmer than anything else so far. Temps in there were near 49. I had 5 good bites in a matter of 30 minutes. I didn't stick any of them, just let them chew on me and felt them tug around under the mats. They felt like good fish. At this point, I pretty much knew what I had to do. There just weren't many options - I was going to committ to flipping mats. The only other option I could think of was to fish Beeswax as it was the only other place I had caught fish in practice that was not a mat fish. But Beeswax was going to be very crowded and I felt better about fishing these mats for isolated big fish.

Wednesday night there was a big fancy dinner for all the anglers and their wives/girlfriends. Everyone dressed up, ate, drank and enjoyed each others company. Van Dam was recognized for his Anger of the Year accomplishment with a really cool highlight show and he gave a long speech where he talked about what it meant to be around such great fisherman, many of whom he considered friends. He also talked about his family (they were all there) and how much they have helped with his success - especially his wife. It was cool to see everyone dressed up and to meet their significant others. They also showed some video footage from the past Elite season, some inside stuff of guys giving each other a hard time. It was pretty funny stuff.

Thursday - Feb 18th - Media Day

We were to meet in the lobby at 9am on Thursday so that they could walked us through the arena and explain how things would work for the weigh-ins. After that, we had to sit at tables with name cards on them for "Media Day". They served us lunch while we interviewed for various media outlets. I actually did about 6-7 interviews, more than I thought I would have. The highlight of the day for me was having a good conversation with Jerry McGinnis who has always been someone I've watched and looked up to. I also got to visit and joke around with Zona and Tommy Sanders. Just a fun afternoon all around.

At 2:30 all the anglers headed to the service yard to get things ready for Friday. It was a surreal feeling being absorbed with retying and getting things rigged and then to look around and see everyone else doing the same. A bunch of the guys like to give each other a hard time. Kriet and Bobby Lane were going back and forth. Skeet and Velvick. It was surprising to see how often these guys share baits with each other and talk openly and honestly about what they are going to do. I was sitting in between all these guys just taking it all in. By 5pm most of us were done and ready to go in.

Friday - Feb 19 - Competition Day 1

Friday morning was identical to Wed morning. Police escort down to the lake. Launch, Tie up. Safety check. The main difference was how many more people were there at the launch. I was blown away. Bass fishing just means so much to these people. The passion in the air was tangible.

My main concern with my plan to go flip the mats that day was that I hadn't done it before noon on any of the practice days. I wasn't sure how early to get to it, but wasn't confident I could catch fish any other way. I basically felt like I was going to kill time till at least 10am. I would check on some areas for spotted bass and then start flipping about mid-morning.

VanDam took off 1st (a reward for being Angler of the Year) and made a hard left turn back through the maze of contestant and spectator boats then went underneath a bridge into the back of Beeswax. Several of the other boats around me stopped quickly at other locations around Beeswax. I decided to check the mouth of the canal that I had several bites in on Wed. The air temps were around 27 Friday morning and the water temps were in the low 40's. at my first stop which was upstream from Beeswax about 5 miles.

I had a couple of short strikes in the canal which only confirmed to me that the fish were there. I decided to leave around 9:30 and make a run down lake to the area I had caught the big fish in practice. I would use the rest of the morning chill to make the 20 minute run down near the dam. There is a large creek called "Paint" creek near the dam. It was back in a pocket of this creek that I wanted to focus. As I ran in there, I noticed Kevin Short and his pink boat working a bank nearby. As I dropped the trolling motor Jason Quinn came in and worked another arm nearby. I had to go straight to the mat before they hit it. I went right in made a couple of flips and stuck a big fish - just like that. My marshall that day told me he had me on his fantasy team and was really excited. I guessed the fished went around 5lbs and he recorded the catch on the "Bass Trax" device which was basically a Nextel phone. It was 11:00 and I was now sure I was doing the right thing. I felt confident that I had a chance for a big day. For the next couple of hours I worked mats on the lower section of the lake without a hit. By 1pm I decided to go back to the canal and see if I could catch a few in there. The sun was out, the water was finally warming and I still felt confident. As I worked through the canal, I thought I would catch 3-4 fish in there and have a good limit. I had only 2 bites in there that afternoon. One I missed and the other was barely a keeper. I decided to run into Beeswax and fish before checking in. About a dozen boats were working the creek all together. Each of those boats had a gallery of anywhere from 15 -30 boats watching them. In short it was difficult just to drive through the maze of boats, let alone pick a place to fish. I found a corner out near the mouth of the creek and spent the last 15 minutes catching nothing.

I checked in with my two fish, confused as to why the flipping bite hadn't improved any, I rode in the Tundra back to Birmingham with Ryan acting as my "caddy". Going into the Convention Center that evening was a rush. First, they stage you outside the arena where they wash the truck and boat. While that is going on, media people are rushing up to you to ask how your day was. Fans lined the streets and the lot - waving and asking for autographs. As they pull you down the ramp into the arena you bag your fish before you descend into darkness outside the stage. Then you hear your name being called out over the PA as your song starts blaring through the speakers. You enter the arena and are blinded by the lights, made deaf by all the noise. I pulled my big fish out of the livewell and held it up to the crowd - they roared. Then I went to weigh my fish on stage. KVD had a 5lber, mine was bigger at 6lbs. Never in my life did I expect to hear "VanDam with a 5lber and big fish right now....6lbs, and Don Hogue now with the big fish for the classic." My two fish went just over 7lbs. For the moment I had big fish for the classic. Ike was the last to weigh-in that day and beat my big fish with a 6-10. All I could hope for was that I was just a day early on my pattern. Saturday was supposed to be warmer and I was counting on the mat fish to play.

Saturday, Feb 20 - Competition Day 2

Air temps at lauch were still below freezing on day 2, but the highs were expected to get into the low 60's that afternoon. I tried hard that morning to make something happen before going to the mats. The only water I had confidence in doing that was in Beeswax and that was out of the question. For one, the places I had marked and felt good about were covered with boats, and for another I couldn't go in and crowd somebodies gallery fishing a nearby spot because that would disrupt the whole location for those guys in the top 10. It was going to take back to back 20 + lb days for me to get even close to back in the mix. The only way I could see that even being possible was to continue to swing for the fences and punch those mats.

For the first 4 or 5 hours I didn't have a bite. The water was warmer, and clearer that ever and it just didn't make sense to me why this pattern wasn't improving. About 1:30 I was back in the canal and had 3 bites in a row. I lost all 3 fish. Dissapointed, I finished up fishing next to Reese in a small cove in Beeswax, both of us flinging lipless cranks. Nothing. Check in time came and I made my way through the sea of spectator boats to the check-in boat. Zero fish - Nada.

As I was back at the service yard waiting for the Toyota trucks to be hook up to pull us into the Convention Center, a group of us gathered around to talk about our day. KVD, Skeet, Faircloth, Velvick, Lane and myself were all standing around telling stories. None of us had a very good day. KVD had about 12lbs he thought and just couldn't get any big bites. Skeet and Velvick said that neither of them had a bite - all day long. They asked me how I did and I said - no fish, that I had lost 3 in a row that afternoon. Skeet said, "dude, at least you had a bite"....He was saying that he can't remember the last tournament he fished and never got a bite. VanDam says "oh I have, lots of times" and started telling stories about times he couldn't get a bite. I think that made some of us feel a little better. Someone mentioned how the bridge and the fans were working to KVD's advantage. He said the crowd had been great and was really in effect keeping other boats from coming into the back of the creek. At the end of that day Kriet had a slight lead over KVD. Skeet, Velvick and myself all weighed in in succession with zeros. On stage, I thanked my family and friends who had traveled down to watch. Their support meant the world to me.

Sunday, Feb 21- Day 3 at the Expo

All of us who didn't make the cut made appearances at sponsor booths at the Expo. The Expo is the most amazing bass fishing show ever. In my one day, there was no way I could see everything. Family and friends of mine were very impressed with the show. All the latest stuff was on display. Sunday was a good day for fans to get autographs. A nobody like myself stood and signed autographs all day long all over the Expo. Bill Dance, Hank Parker, Ray Scott and many other legends of the sport were there. There were huge lines of people waiting to see all the big names. Nearly 10,000 people packed the arena for the final weigh-in. They sat there and watched for hours. They even stood in long lines outside the arena waiting to get in. Their passion for the sport of bass fishing gave me chills. I watched in the crowd with my family and friends as KVD won going away. More impressed than ever with what it took to do what he did. The guy has zero down time as far as I could see. He gave a speech for the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame inductions, another speech when he accepted his Angler of the Year award, and more media interviews and autograph requests than you could count. Going through one day of the classic in his shoes would cause most people to have a breakdown. When you see firsthand all the distraction he deals with and still performs like he does, it leaves a big impression on you. None of the other anglers I meet were rude, or bigger than life. They all talked about the same things we do. If anything, they were more open and sharing of their baits, techniques and thoughts than most tournament anglers I've been around.

Final Thoughts.....and thanks

Being around all of the other anglers you really develop a bond with them. It's a strange kind of brotherhood formed by shared struggles, highs and lows from chasing fish on the world's greatest stage for bass fishing. As a Federation angler, I never really felt out of place or was I treated as a nobody. Many of the Elites said how they were impressed with what the Federation guys have to go through to qualify - and that they were proud of us. I had meals, meetings and casual conversations with most everyone in the field. Afterwards, at night usually, I would reflect back on how I just hung out with so-and-so that day, how they were just a regular guy and how cool it was to talk fishing with the worlds best.

Several people have asked me what I would do different if I had it to do again. I'm not sure what I could have changed. Maybe if I had the freedom from work to get down there sooner, do some fishing before going to Lay and have everything in the boat set up the way I wanted. I fished the classic to win it, and felt I was doing what was necessary to go after big fish. There just wasn't room for more boats in Beeswax and when I decided to go after the mat fish, I forfeited my right to stake a claim in Beeswax and you can't go back in there on the next day and lay claim to something. I knew where those critical locations in Beeswax where, but my big fish in practice led me to believe that I was going to be on the front end of a pattern that was only going to improve.

I definitely have the "post-Classic" blues. Some people warned me about it. Well it's for real. The whole experience doesn't seem real though. Every morning I wake up with that vague feeling that something great happened in my dream and now it's over.

I had a lot of help in this adventure. Ryan Brown basically acted as my manager, initiating many deals for me, making travel arrangements, setting up places to stay during the scouting trip and for pre-practice. He handled many aspects of the boat deal, getting it wrapped, etc. He was awesome. Bill Brown, my father-in-law, also helped set up some meetings with various companies. My cousin Shane in Birmingham was crucial in making things happen. Picking up the boat, draging it around Alabama, letting me turn his sign company into an branch office for the Bassmaster Classic. Plus, he served as my "Caddy" driving me down to the lake and backing me in during the competition days. Without him, I can't imagine how I would have fished this. My wife also made a lot of the arrangements for me as well as keeping me company and being by my side for the social events with the other anglers and their wives at the classic. My dad introduced me to bass fishing at a early age, and put up with many frustrations with me in the boat with him as a little kid, backlashes, falling in the water, etc. - I bet he had no idea it would all result in this! He is an excellent bass fisherman to this day and still one of the most innovative minds about bass fishing I have ever been around. I owe a great deal to him. Ray spent what had to be three bone-chilling days with me during pre-practice. Riding in a boat (single console) in those conditions is something only a good friend would do. He didn't complain - maybe he was just too cold to talk!

Jeff Priester at Nixon's Marine helped a great deal and was always someone I could count on. The boat was a joy to fish out of - he was right! Bernie House at Triton worked with Ryan, Shane and myself making things happen in a less than ideal situation. I just want to say "thanks" to everyone involved or who wished me luck along the way. Your words of encouragement were greatly appreciated.