Kevin VanDam

Pros defuse Classic tension before launch

February 20, 2009
(bassmaster.com, February 20, 2009)

BOSSIER CITY, La. — Maybe you can tell the newbies from the vets in the boatyard before launch on Day One of the Bassmaster Classic, and maybe you can’t. But to see what a relaxed angler looks like on this 30-degree morning, glimpse returning champion Alton Jones on the deck of his boats, joking about the 12 pounds he gained in the off-season.

“I wanted to fatten myself before the Classic,” Jones told fellow competitor Dean Rojas. “I knew it was going to be a cold-weather deal. Everyone else had to put on long underwear this morning. I get to stay agile. It’s a physical edge.”

The Elite Series vets know to stay loose, to stick to their routine. Shaw Grigsby, who’s fishing his 11th Classic but his first since 2003, fastidiously went through his morning rituals on the parked boat, checking his oil, packing his lunch away, fastening his electronics to the deck, and picking around the smoked sausage on his breakfast sandwich.

He finds a peace in the old habits. “What really gets you,” Grigsby said, “is when you get rushed.

“Anybody — anybody — has a shot of winning the Bassmaster Classic,” Grigsby continued. “If you’re here, you can win it.”

As he prepared, first-time Classic competitor Ken Baumgardner approached angler Kota Kiriyama, whose boat was parked next to Grigsby’s.

Baumgardner, an amateur qualifier through the Federation Nation, reached up and shook Kiriyama’s hand. “Good luck, man,” he said. “Get ‘em. One at a time.”

A moment later he stood near his boat, shifting back and forth, left foot, right foot. Maybe it was the cold, but the cold is nothing new to an angler from Pittsburgh. Maybe, too, it was nerves. The Classic, the most prestigious tournament in the sport, bestows $500,000 on its winner.

“Just one at a time until there’s five,” Baumgardner said. “I’m fishing against the fish today, not against the guys. If the good Lord give me some shine, I’ll take it.”

If the anglers were to be believed in the week before the Classic — and that’s always a big if — this tournament on the Red River will require a measure of fishing against the guys. Also beside them, around them, on top of them, over them. Anglers will be jostling in backwaters, and trying to overcome spectator boats clattering against submerged stumps.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/classic/news/story?id=3920975

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