Team Captains: Your Starting Two
Posted by Pete Robbins on Aug 2nd 2021
After Tuesday’s blog in which I asked for topics to write about, reader Keith Timmons of Alabama suggested that I take on the topic of bass fishing as an Olympic sport. I don’t know exactly what that would entail, or how many anglers would be on the U.S. team, but since this is my column I’m going to suggest that we’d have a four- to eight-man (or woman) team and there’d be no specialization: everyone would have to be good at everything.
Obviously, if you knew that it was going to be an all-cranking event or a Great Lakes smallmouth derby or a Florida flipfest you could tailor your team to that, but I’d like to think that it would be a mystery lake format (again: my column, my rules.). In that case, where would I start?
I’d have to think that my first two picks would be Jacob Wheeler and Brandon Palaniuk. Those two just seem to catch them everywhere, they catch them under pressure, and they win…a lot. I don’t think of either of them having a specialty other than dominating. Right now, day in and day out, I’d put both in my top ten anywhere, at any time of year, against any field.
After that where would you go? Hard to turn away Jordan Lee or Edwin Evers or KVD, all of whom have a proven track record of success around the country. The Canadians will have a pretty strong start against us with two Johnstons and Gussy. Will they try to claim their running buddy Seth Feider, who just happens to be the recently-crowned Elite Series AOY? And can you ever really count out anglers like Bryan Thrift or Andy Morgan, who are a threat any time they launch the boat (and possibly even when they don’t)?
Who am I missing? I’m sure there’d be competition and controversy over the fillable spots, whether we made it two anglers or twenty.
