Media Day at the Classic, an opportunity to sit and chat with the pros. Laurie and I were able to speak with many pros to include Alton Jones, Tim Horton, Kim Bain-Moore, Boyd Duckett, just to name a few…
Media Day at the Classic, an opportunity to sit and chat with the pros. Laurie and I were able to speak with many pros to include Alton Jones, Tim Horton, Kim Bain-Moore, Boyd Duckett, just to name a few. In discussing what might happen over the next three days of competition there were definitely some similarities in what they all had to say.
First was that the Red River is a large fishery that is going to fish small. With the bass in a pre spawn situation the majority of the anglers are finding their selves fishing for the same fish, and productive patterns are the same. Even though no one is ready to give up the secret, they all did say that everyone is pretty much doing the same thing. With only so much back water avaliable and three days of fishing time, the pros feel that they may all run out of water by the end of the tournament?
Most everyone we talked to also has their eye on the weather. Day time temps are fluctuating and night time temps are dropping. This is going to cool the water. All the pros did agree that they should be able to overcome these cooler temperatures with a strong afternoon bite.
Yet another factor weighing heavily on the minds of all the professional anglers, are the spectator boats. Normally when fishing open water lakes this is not an issue. However, the Red River is stump filled and the waters they expect to be fishing will be shallow, if spectators try to get to close they will spook the fish. Tim Horton suggested that “Spectators bring binoculars and sit back a ways and be mindful of where the pro might be going not only where he is”.
There are many predictions about how big the winning stringer will be, I have even heard upwards of 60 pounds. However when you talk to the pros, it’s like they teamed up to come up with the same prediction 48-52 pounds! One said that he expects to see folks come in on day one with some awesome sacks of bass but being able to sustain it is going to be difficult. The pressure and weather are going to make it tough. When I asked Alton Jones for his prediction he said, “48-52 pounds, caught on multiple baits and techniques, and from a variety of places, meaning the winner is going to be moving around”
Laurie and I had a great time meeting the pros and as always they are polite and fun to talk too. While most didn’t give up any secrets yet, they all seemed very confident, very excited to be there, and genuinely enjoyed the fact that they were fortunate enough to qualify for the 2009 Classic win loose or draw, you could tell they were all already winners. With three days of tough competition ahead of them we wished them all good luck and looked forwarded to seeing who was going to be in the winners circle.
Mike Cork
