All about the Classic
Talk about a comeback! Edwin Evers saved the best for last and absolutely crushed the field bringing in a final day limit of 29lbs 3oz en route to capturing the 2016 Bassmaster Classic crown. The event, held in Oklahoman Evers' backyard, was predicted to be an absolute slugfest, but turned out to be a tale of tough fishing conditions and low weights for all of the anglers, even Evers who nearly blew his shot at the classic when he only managed four fish on day one of the tournament.
At a glance, Evers' 10lb margin of victory makes his win look easy, but that was absolutely not the case. Heading in to the final day, and even halfway through the morning, it appeared as if another local, Jason Christie, would lay claim to the win, however, a flurry by Evers and some unsolicited information changed things rather quickly. After two days of fishing, Christie held a lead of 5lbs 11oz over his nearest pursuer and greater 6lbs over eventual winner Evers. All week Christie had made it clear he was not one of the many anglers who desired windy conditions, plainly stating it to anyone that would listen and on the final day, that's exactly what he got. Sustained winds and a large gallery of spectators almost certainly gave him trouble, but it might have been another incident that will go down in history as a deciding factor when fans look back on this classic.
After Evers had already boxed a significant portion of his monstrous bag, Christie came upon some shoreline spectators who told him he was down. When Christie commented he was probably 4lbs back, the spectator said, "no, Evers has 25lbs." Watching this unfold on Bassmaster Live, you could clearly see that Christie was rattled. As he spun his boat he inadvertently bumped boats with another spectator before starting to question what he had just heard. Prior to this information being given, Christie had clearly stated he had absolutely no desire to know what anyone else had as it might change his fishing style, the style which he had ridden all week to a sizable lead. Once those thoughts crept into his head, he felt the need to confirm this information, but he couldn't get his phone to see the Basstrakk weights. [Just to be clear, this is entirely legal on the final day of BASS Elite Series events - it's a new allowance, but it is completely acceptable.] From that point on, he fished far more rapidly than he had all week long. He jumped spots quickly, fished faster and kept a dialogue going about the incident for a short while after.
Back to Evers
- Day 1: 13lbs 12oz (4 fish)
- Day 2: 17lbs 8oz
- Day 3: 29lbs 3oz
- Total: 60lbs 7oz
Evers had to battle to even stay in the event after a first day that saw nothing go as planned. He scrambled and managed to only catch four bass. According to Evers, it was fortunate he even managed those four as he said it was an absolutely brutal day of fishing. Day two he went into full on survival mode using a flipping stick and a spinnerbait to catch a really good bag of fish weighing 17 1/2lbs. Evers acknowledged this wasn't part of his plan going into the event and fished in this manner simply to stay in the event, he really didn't know if he could remain close enough to Christie to have a legitimate chance at winning, but that was the only way he could find to catch fish. On the final day, with the winds blowing hard, he went way up the Elk River to an area he caught a few big fish in practice. It didn't take him long to change the game completely, boating several fish over 4lbs by 10am and putting lots of distance between him and Day 2 leader Christie.
On the first day of the event, Evers used a
Megabass Flap Slap to catch all of his fish. On the second day, evers changed up and flipped a
Zoom Z-hog and tossed a white spinnerbait. The final day he turned to a 5/16oz homemade flat rubber jig which he pitched to wood far up the Elk River to fish that were using the laydowns and staging areas for the upcoming spawn.
2nd Place - Jason Christie
- Day 1: 20bs 14oz
- Day 2: 16lbs 11oz
- Day 3: 12lbs 9oz (4 fish)
- Total: 50lbs 2oz
While it ended up being a home-state angler who won the classic by a huge margin, it wasn't the angler most people thought would do it. After two days of fishing and a 5 1/2lb lead over 2nd, it appeared Grand Lake stick Jason Christie was going to blow this tournament out. Eight hours of fishing and an improbable bag were all that separated Christie from winning the sport's biggest title. Christie caught them really well on the first two days despite having a floatilla of spectators that often hindered his ability to fish his desired locations.
Each of the first two days of the tournament, Christie managed 8 bites fishing the shoreline with a
1oz Booyah Spinnerbait paired with a shad style swimbait trailer that resembled a
Keitech 3.8" Swing Impact Fat. He fished the spinnerbait right up against the shore and worked it as slowly as he could given the weight of the lure. Despite most of the anglers fishing a spinnerbait during the event, Christie's choice was made somewhat unique given the size of the bait. He used a 1oz while most competitors fished a 3/8 - 1/2oz model. He believed the added size caused the inactive bass to make a decision, either eat the thing or get out of its way.
3rd Place - Aaron Martens
- Day 1: 13bs 8oz
- Day 2: 16lbs 13oz
- Day 3: 16lbs 0oz (4 fish)
- Total: 46lbs 5oz
Given his inconsistent practice, Aaron Martens wasn't quite sure what to expect come tournament day, but he did have a lot of confidence he could figure it out and make a run at the classic title. His practice consisted of a day without a single bite, another day with 2 bites and finally a day with over 40 bites. The 40 bite day came on the last day of practice and provided him with the strategy he would use for the entire tournament - he was going to shallow crank, and by shallow we mean inches to only 3 feet of water where the fish had pushed up and were feeding.
Like Evers, Martens had a tough opening day of the Classic managing just 13 1/2lbs. The frustration of the low weight was compounded by the fact he managed nearly 20 bites during day and hooked only 7 fish. Once the day was over, he immediately started changing out all of his
Gamakatsu G-Finesse Treble Hooks for a larger size on all of the front hooks of his crankbaits. His next two days were much better in terms of hook-up ratio and his weighs reflected that improvement bagging nearly 3lbs more on each of the last two days of the tournament.
During the event, Martens used a
Luhr Jensen Speed Trap in the Texas Shad Crystal, Bone Orange Belly and Brown Mud Crawfish for all of his cranking. He used his namesake
Enigma Aaron's Edge Rods and
Shimano Metanium Reels with
12lb Sunline Shooter Fluorocarbon.
4th Place - Bill Lowen
- Day 1: 16bs 9oz
- Day 2: 13lbs 15oz
- Day 3: 15lbs 3oz
- Total: 45lbs 11oz
Bill Lowen found ways to stick around the top-5 throughout the event with consistent bags of fish that never really catapulted him up the leaderboard or set him far behind either. Lowen fished very shallow all tournament using jigs and soft plastic tubes which he more or less crawled over the tops of rocks in water from 0 - 4ft of depth where bass were hanging out, but not aggressively feeding.
During the tournament, Lowen used a whole hodgepodge of lures including a Tightlines UV Bill Lowen Tube, a 3/8oz black/blue flipping jig with a Tightlines UV Bubba Craw trailer, a selection of spinnerbaits and on the final day he even threw a buzzbait a bit.
5th Place - Randy Howell
- Day 1: 17bs 6oz
- Day 2: 11lbs 13oz
- Day 3: 16lbs 7oz
- Total: 45lbs 10oz
Randy Howell nearly stumbled into the fish that would have propelled him to his second Bassmaster Classic victory. All week long Howell fished the Elk River and on day 2, despite his low weight, he actually started to figure out that the bass in the Elk were position around the isolated pieces of wood in the middle of the river; the structure Evers would fish day three to catch his monster bag. Howell was a serious player in the classic and had it not been for a poor day 2 and Evers show stopping day 3, he would almost certainly have played a bigger part in the storyline.
During the tournament, Howell primarily used a
Livingston Lures Howeller Dream Master Classic Crankbait, a white spinnerbait and occasionally a
Livingston Lures Jerkmaster 121 jerkbait.
The tournament was vintage KVD. He kept chucking and winding his crankbaits nearly the entire event despite immense pressure from locals who actually fished his spot while he was on it. VanDam's arsenal was headlined by the Strike King 10XD in the Sexy Herring color which he tossed for hours with his 7'11" Quantum KVD Crankbait Rod on end absolutely dredging the massive wood littered channels of Toledo Bend. His reasoning for this bait selection was largely due to the primary forage of big bass in the lake, the Bar Fish. While he did try Strike King's actual Bar Fish color, he found the Sexy Herring more to the fish's liking. VanDam also tossed the Strike King 6XD and Strike King 8XD crankbaits, but it was the size and action of the 10XD the bass were keyed in on.
Additionally, while not his money bait, VanDam also used a hair jig, Strike King Sexy Spoon and a hollow body swimbait to catch a few of his fish. Kind of funny actually, many anglers said after the tournament they too tried cranking using the same baits and same types of areas, but they couldn't get the fish to bite. That's where KVD has always shined, he has the patience and persistence to keep at it until he finds the right angle that triggers a reaction strike.
Britt Myers caught the majority of his weight in the event using a white 1/2oz 
Brett Hite introduced the world to a new vibrating jig combo comprised of a green pumpkin 3/8oz and 1/2oz Evergreen Jackhammer and a new Yamamoto soft plastic he designed.
Kelly Jordon made a huge comeback on day 2 of the event and came within one fish of winning the tournament. He flipped a black/red 
Brent Chapman caught all his fish this week using a Tightlines UV Whisker Beaver in a green pumpkin/pbj color.
Howell notched a 5th place finish at the second stop of the Elite Series using an assortment of baits, but his top two choices were a weightless 
Keith Combs put up a solid 6th place finish in the event by flipping and pitching plastics in backwater areas. Combs tried a number of plastics, but he finally settled on a 
John "What's a Depth Finder" Cox of Florida won the second event of the 2016 FLW Tour held on Lake Hartwell over the weekend. Cox, who famously fished the 2015 season without electronic graphs on his boat, utilized another backwater - as he did when he won on the Red River - to capture the win with a final day weight of 16lbs 2oz that pushed his total weight to 67lbs 6oz and edge 2nd place angler Clark Wendlandt by just 7oz. Running his aluminum boat as he has for much of his time on the FLW Tour, Cox was able to access the pond by floating over a very shallow sandbar that blocks the pond from the main river.
You're going to see a lot of that. That, pictured above, being a wacky rigged Senko or, more generally speaking, a stickbait. Most of the top-10 used some form of a wacky rigged soft plastic stickbait to haul in their catch this week. In fact the top 7 anglers all used it as some piece of their gameplan, but obviously the baits they chose to employ varied. Let's take a look at some of the anglers' choices:
Clark Wendlandt elected to fish a few soft plastic baits during the event including a Strike King Flipping Tube for bedding bass. When he wasn't directly looking at the fish, he opted for a wacky rigged Strike King Ocho or 
Former BASS Elite Series angler Jamie Horton utilized the relatively new 
Canadian Jeff Gustafson primarily fished a wacky-rigged 
One of the few pros in the top-10 not throwing a wacky-rig, Powell Kemp of North Carolina, fished a 
