Five Memorable Bassmaster Classics

"If the Super Bowl is really the ultimate game, why do they play it again next year?"

-Dallas Cowboys running back Duane Thomas 

I’m not going to go so far as to say that the Bassmaster Classic is the biggest event in bass fishing, just that I’ve never experienced one bigger. In 2009, Manabu Kurita tied a vaunted decades-old world record that promised to make him a millionaire, and I still think about Skeet’s win in the Classic that year just as much if not more. Nevertheless, individual Classic winners may face into obscurity (or, as Mike Tyson once said, “into Bolivian.”). Cliff Pace and Casey Ashley and Chris Lane continue to have solid careers and assumedly do ok financially, but the details of their Classic wins are not front and center, even in most hard core bass fans’ minds. Meanwhile, Ike’s win at the Louisiana Delta in 2003 is still riveting and memorable, and noteworthy for his signature “Never give up!” exclamation. Yes, there’s a sliding scale.

So as I head to my 18^th Classic – one purely as a fan, five as a member of the independent media, and now 12 working for the B.A.S.S. mothership – I remember different ones for different reasons. Here are five that stand out the most.

1990 – James River – Rick Clunn

The first professional tournament I ever attended and it was remarkably historic. Rick Clunn came back from behind to win with a massive Day Three bag to win his fourth Classic, a mark that has never been topped, and only tied by KVD, who won his fourth in 2011. With a threepeat, Hank Cherry could close within one of them. In many ways, this tournament started my BASS fandom, because while I’d subscribed to the magazine as a teenager, driving down to Richmond on a lark while home from college for the summer showed me how big the sport could be. As the weigh-in commenced, two attractive young women were standing next to me (I’d arrived too late to get a seat), and when Clunn took his victory lap they were there in the boat with him – his daughters. I wouldn’t fish my first club tournament until five years later, but I went on to fish on the James a lot. It’s one of my favorite local fisheries, even though I’ve never done well where he caught his fish, nor using the same lures.

2004 – Lake Wylie – Aaron Martens

This was my first tournament as a member of the media – that’s with a small “m” because I’d been writing for my Federation and asked for a credential with no real hopes of getting one. The luck of getting to ride with Aaron on the first day of competition, as he used “horsey heads” and other odd choices, was a career-defining moment. Not only did it give me a story that no one else had, but it introduced me to the Aaron mystique in living color. This will be the first Classic after his death, 18 years after we were introduced. It doesn’t feel that far in the past.

2011 – Louisiana Delta – Kevin VanDam

The first Classic I worked for BASS was at Lay Lake in 2010, when most of the top finishers fished primarily in little Beeswax Creek. Kevin VanDam won. Both of those trends continued next year, when most of the top dogs stayed in Cataouatche and once again the GOAT grabbed the hardware. I had a front-row seat for the whole thing. When you think about the history of sports, every ultra-superstar has a period of time when they’re at the absolute top of their game and simply better than everyone else. That was VanDam at that point in time. You catch 10 fish, he’ll catch 15. You catch 2-pounders, he’ll catch 3-pounders. I knew that I was in the presence of greatness at the time, but I didn’t realize simply how dominant he was. Other competitors could have traded boats or traded tackle and he still would have won.

2012 – Red River – Chris Lane

I’m not really a fan of the Red River. I think if I lived there I’d take up bowling or coin collecting, because in order to get on the juice, you need to put your gear through some nasty stuff. On Day Three, photographer James Overstreet and I ended up in five different boats – one knocked a hole it the bottom, one lost a lower unit, and so on. In order to watch Chris Lane in his final stop, we had to hike through tick-infested, snakey woods. Had we tried to get in through the narrow chute, we might have prevented his egress and cost him the Classic. It was memorable for that reason, and also because it was one of the numerous Classics I spent in the boat with future Hall of Famer J.O. Oh yeah – I also took one of Sherry VanDam’s cookies from him. He still reminds me of that every year.

2017 – Lake Conroe – Jordan Lee

I had met Jordan Lee after the 2013 Classic in Tulsa, and fished with him at an Alabama media event in 2014, but no one except Zona seemed to know that he was poised to become a megastar. Despite not catching a limit every day, he still beat a stacked field before he had to shave daily, and then went on to do it again the next year. What I’ll remember about that one is that my photographer and I weren’t on the eventual winner. Instead, we were up in “The Jungle” watching early contender Brent Ehrler. Steve Kennedy was up there, too, and if you haven’t seen SK’s swim jig footage from that event go look it up on YouTube. It’s the thrill of the chase in a nutshell. We couldn’t see them through the brush, but every time they caught one we knew it by the cheers. Late on Day Three Ehrler, who was still in contention, made a move to a small ridge in a nearby tributary. He’d been saving it all tournament and when he hooked up on his first Classic I figured he was going to shut the door on a major win. Alas, he finished 3^rd and Kennedy was second. Of the top 10 finishers in that Classic, only Kennedy is in this Classic (Ike is the only other one still on the Elites). I kind of have a feeling this could be his year.