This week is the Bassmaster Classic. I don't know how many (if any) B.A.S.S. professional bass fishing fans we have on BGP but I am certainly one. For a quick description of the tournament it is pro bass fishing's equal to the NFL super bowl.

Contestants/anglers qualify for this championship through a series of tournaments the previous calendar year (2008). B.A.S.S. has started holding the Classic as the first tournament of the new year/season to kick off the tournament season for 2009. This year the Classic will be held on the Red River and based out of Shreveport,LA .

I will post a link to a general overview of this years tournament...........

 

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/classic/news/story?id=3908310

 

 

Does anyone have any favorite anglers on the B.A.S.S. tournament trail? I will get back with some of my thoughts on this one later. What are any others thoughts and predictions on this years classic?

I'm with you man should be plenty of coverage on ESPN. Mike and Mike will also be broadcasting on site.

Glad to see someone else that is a fan, lol.

I believe this will be pretty much a shallow water/power fishing type tournament. I don't believe any finesse fishing will be going on here. Flipping and Pitching Jigs/creature baits, throwing spinnerbaits, shallow cranks and the like imo will dominate.

As for picks for this years classic, one can never rule K. VanDam out of any tournament so I will include him. Other than KVD I am going with Greg Hackney and Davey Hite as my possible picks to win. I will say that I would love to see Gary Klein win it, as great as he has been for years and years on the tournament trail he has never won a classic. Other favorites of mine are Jay Yelas, Mark Davis, Gerald Swindle, Rick Clunn, Greg Hackney and Alton Jones. Also, George Cochran and Larry Nixon are two of my very favorites but they are fishing the FLW circut only now.

Anyone but Iconelli, I cannot stand the guy.

Edited February 17, 200917 yr by oldrambler

I'm with you man should be plenty of coverage on ESPN. Mike and Mike will also be broadcasting on site.

 

Espn will have plenty of coverage along with the Mike and Mike show broadcat from Shreveport on Friday, 20th. Here is a link to the t.v. schedule for the classic plus others............

 

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tv/index

If the fishing is tough then I would go KVD all the way. He is like Tom Watson in golf, if the course was easy and really low scores were being shot then Watson wasn't your man. If Par was a great score then Tom was your man. KVD can win any way, but I feel he really excels when the fishing is toughest, he finds things that work that others don't.

 

I like Hackney, Swindle and Yelas as well. I can't stand Rick Clunn really like to see him out as soon as possible.

 

I know for a fact that KVD has some new jigs that are not on the market yet, made by a guy in Florida ( a friend of mines dad). If there is heavy cover look for him to break these out, you will know them by the weed guard design being a little different than normal. KVD and a couple other guys have these Jigs. One pro got them after being outfished by a local guide in Florida a few months ago, he then put KVD onto them and he ordered 5 dozen to try.

^ I can certainly agree on KVD and if it is a tough bite then he will be right there. Lets face it, KVD is one of the favorites at any tournament. This is also Hackneys kind of tournament along with D. Hite. Skeet Reese is also tough in these conditions. I cannot stand D. Rojas but he could be a factor as well.

I frankly would hope that Rojas and Ike blank but that's not gonna happen .

Good inside info on the jigs as well....:thumb:

Rojas with his frog could be deadly in this shallow water and heavy cover. Agree with you on Ike. Should be fun to see where these guys are fishing they are trying to get back in these backwater pools and say they are spending a lot of time just idling around to find a path. Will be a lot of flippin going on.

Hackney

Kelly Jordan

Terry Scroggins

 

Three shallow water springtime guys to watch out for. I like KVD and Timmy Horton but this type of fishing is not in their wheelhouse but you defintely cant count them out. We also have a Ky boy to pull for in Kevin Wirth.

 

Sorry Rambler but I read on Espn that IKE is saying he has found a magical area that he can win from.....heres hoping the cold front moves his fish. :thumb:

Hackney

Kelly Jordan

Terry Scroggins

 

Three shallow water springtime guys to watch out for. I like KVD and Timmy Horton but this type of fishing is not in their wheelhouse but you defintely cant count them out. We also have a Ky boy to pull for in Kevin Wirth.

 

Sorry Rambler but I read on Espn that IKE is saying he has found a magical area that he can win from.....heres hoping the cold front moves his fish. :thumb:

 

:thumb: On the three you mentioned and like I said, I would really like to see Gary Klein take this one. He has been so good on the B.A.S.S. trail for so long and has never won a classic. I felt that he would have won the one a few years ago on the LA delta (Venice) but understandably was shaken when he was shot at by a local resident back in the LA swamp land that bodered some of the tournamrnt waters. I guess it was some backwoods local that knew nothing and cared nothing about a bass tournament or bass boats with camera boats coming into what he consider his property/water. That was scary scenerio and Klein and his press partner could have easily been killed.

 

As for the bolded.....Maybe he will do something pompass and arrogant like he has in couple of other tournaments and get himself DG'd. We can only hope. I would love nothing more .

 

Personally I am pulling for Klein, Hackney and Yelas.

I love bass fishing and am actually experience a serious episode of withdrawal. Next nice day I get, I am heading to McNeely Lake or somewhere just to wet my line.

 

Not routing for anyone in particular in the Classic but I read an article on the Red River and it seems to be a challenging venue.

2007 Classic Champion Boyd Duckett takes the day 1 lead in the classic with a limit of 5 fish weighing in at 20.3lbs.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/classic/news/story?id=3922889

 

 

Bassmasters classic day one standings go as follows............

Name DAY 1 TOTAL

Fish Weight Fish Weight

1 Boyd Duckett 5 20- 3 5 20- 3

2 Jami Fralick 5 19- 3 5 19- 3

3 Fred Roumbanis 5 18- 4 5 18- 4

4 Aaron Martens 5 18- 1 5 18- 1

5 Terry Fitzpatrick 5 18- 0 5 18- 0

6 Scott Rook 5 17-11 5 17-11

7 Dave Wolak 5 17- 6 5 17- 6

8 Edwin Evers 5 17- 0 5 17- 0

9 Randy Howell 5 16- 3 5 16- 3

10 Dean Rojas 5 15-13 5 15-13

11 Kelly Jordon 5 15-10 5 15-10

12 Brian Snowden 5 15- 9 5 15- 9

13 Skeet Reese 5 15- 8 5 15- 8

14 Mike Burns 5 15- 7 5 15- 7

15 Bryan Schmidt 5 15- 5 5 15- 5

15 Michael Iaconelli 5 15- 5 5 15- 5

17 Kevin Wirth 5 15- 3 5 15- 3

18 Bill Lowen 5 14-12 5 14-12

19 Matt Herren 5 14- 4 5 14- 4

20 Greg Pugh 5 14- 0 5 14- 0

21 Mike McClelland 5 13-14 5 13-14

22 Alton Jones 5 13- 5 5 13- 5

23 Brent Chapman 5 13- 3 5 13- 3

24 Bobby Lane 5 13- 2 5 13- 2

25 Greg Hackney 5 12- 9 5 12- 9

26 Mark Davis 5 11-11 5 11-11

27 David Williams 5 11- 6 5 11- 6

28 Bernie Schultz 5 11- 3 5 11- 3

29 Steve Kennedy 5 10-14 5 10-14

30 Davy Hite 5 10-12 5 10-12

31 Rick Clunn 5 10-11 5 10-11

32 Terry Scroggins 5 10- 8 5 10- 8

33 Scott Parker 5 10- 7 5 10- 7

34 Casey Ashley 5 9-13 5 9-13

35 Jay Evans 5 9-12 5 9-12

36 Todd Faircloth 5 9- 2 5 9- 2

37 Kenyon Hill 5 9- 0 5 9- 0

38 Shaw E Grigsby 5 8-11 5 8-11

39 Timmy Horton 5 7-11 5 7-11

40 Waine Pittman 4 7- 9 4 7- 9

41 Rick Morris 2 6-10 2 6-10

41 Ken Baumgardner 4 6-10 4 6-10

43 Ish Monroe 3 6- 8 3 6- 8

44 Peter E Thliveros 3 6- 0 3 6- 0

45 Kevin VanDam 4 4- 4 4 4- 4

46 Kim Bain-Moore 2 3- 6 2 3- 6

47 Gary Klein 2 2-13 2 2-13

48 Kotaro Kiriyama 1 1-10 1 1-10

49 Bryan Hudgins 1 1- 5 1 1- 5

50 Byron Velvick 1 1- 0 1 1- 0

51 Dustin Wilks 1 0- 0 1 0- 0

Day 2 weigh ins are now complete in this yeas classic. SD angler Jim Fralick has taken the lead with a totla 2 day total of 38-9. CA angler Skeet Reese tuned in big 22lb+ limit today and vaulted into 2nd place with a 38-1 total. Sundays final day will be narrowed to the top 25 anglers in the tournament standings after today's weigh in.

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/index

 

Pl. Name DAY 1 DAY 2 TOTAL

Fish Weight Fish Weight Fish Weight

1 Jami Fralick 5 19- 3 5 19- 6 10 38- 9

2 Skeet Reese 5 15- 8 5 22- 9 10 38- 1

3 Edwin Evers 5 17- 0 5 19- 3 10 36- 3

4 Kelly Jordon 5 15-10 5 20- 5 10 35-15

5 Aaron Martens 5 18- 1 5 17- 9 10 35-10

6 Brian Snowden 5 15- 9 5 19- 4 10 34-13

7 Dave Wolak 5 17- 6 5 17- 0 10 34- 6

8 Mark Davis 5 11-11 5 22- 7 10 34- 2

9 Michael Iaconelli 5 15- 5 5 18-10 10 33-15

9 Boyd Duckett 5 20- 3 5 13-12 10 33-15

11 Casey Ashley 5 9-13 5 22-11 10 32- 8

12 Dean Rojas 5 15-13 5 16- 2 10 31-15

13 Bobby Lane 5 13- 2 5 18-12 10 31-14

14 Greg Pugh 5 14- 0 5 16-11 10 30-11

15 Mike McClelland 5 13-14 5 16- 8 10 30- 6

16 Kevin Wirth 5 15- 3 5 15- 2 10 30- 5

17 Bill Lowen 5 14-12 5 14-14 10 29-10

18 Bryan Schmidt 5 15- 5 5 13-11 10 29- 0

19 Terry Fitzpatrick 5 18- 0 5 9- 6 10 27- 6

20 Greg Hackney 5 12- 9 5 13-13 10 26- 6

21 Alton Jones 5 13- 5 5 12-12 10 26- 1

22 Kenyon Hill 5 9- 0 5 16-12 10 25-12

23 Randy Howell 5 16- 3 5 9- 2 10 25- 5

23 Jay Evans 5 9-12 5 15- 9 10 25- 5

25 Shaw E Grigsby 5 8-11 5 16- 7 10 25- 2

Skeet is looking good.......OldRambler, You know I'm watching.

BM Classic in HD, this is awesome. This is really making me want to hit the water.

Skeet is looking good.......OldRambler, You know I'm watching.

 

Skeet made a huge move on day 2, today should be great! They are calling for clearing conditions and a bluebird sky...typical day after a front, it is expected to be a tough bite.