This Week in Fishing – April, No Fooling

I’m still writing “2021” on my checks (does anyone else still write checks?) and yet the professional tournament year is already slipping away – with both major championships completed and lots of regular-season events in the books. There’s so much going on in so many places that it’s hard to grasp a single, unifying theory of fishing, so this week I’m going to take a stab at sharing the various threads invading my mind.

Is Canada the New California?

Several years back I wrote a blog on this site entitled “Is the West Weird? (Discuss Among Yourselves).” My basic thesis was that no matter who you talked to, whether their home waters Okeechobee, Oneida or OH Ivie, or anywhere in between, they almost uniformly hated anyone who consistently did better than them. “Do you know X,” I’d ask, referring to a pro angler from their hometown, and they’d invariably call him overrated, a cheater, a bedwetter, or worse.

Except in the west in general, and California in particular.

On the left coast, they openly rooted for their home-state heroes to do well on tour, to beat the pros from the bass belt, and to bring home the hardware. They took pride in their homeboys’ achievements.

That seems to have shifted from the west to the north. Now my Canadian friends are taking great pride in the stateside exploits of their countrymen – whether it’s Gussy and the Johnstons or tour, or the likes of Cooper Gallant on the Elites.

Even before Gallant won this past week’s Bassmaster Open, I’d heard multiple Canadian friends brag about his skills and upside. There’s a long way left to go in the season, but unless something goes horribly wrong he’ll make the Classic – and there’s the very real possibility that there will be four Canadians in the Classic and/or on the 2023 Elite Series.

What’s In a Name?

Cooper Gallant is a fantastic name not only for an angler, but likely for a superhero or the star of a 1950s serialized set of boys’ novels. Better than the Hardy Boys, for sure, and at least on par with Jack Armstrong, the All-American boy, except that he’s Canadian.

So what are the chances that he wouldn’t even get the bonus award for best tournament winner’s name this week? That goes to one Jack Daniel Williams of Tennessee, who won the Toyota Series at Dale Hollow. I have no idea if he celebrated with some Old Number 7 or if he even drinks, but the classic “Tennessee Whiskey” should be his walk-up music.

Big Fish Bobby Lane – Phone Home

I’ve heard it argued on occasion that Bobby Lane has had a better – or perhaps the more apropos term is “more consistent” – career than his brother Chris, but that Chris has had the more notable wins. I’m not prepared to make that judgment in either direction, but with his victory at the Redcrest last week, he’s entered the pantheon.

What’s fascinating to me at Bobby’s two biggest wins is that they didn’t come in the shallow flipper-dipper bowls of the Sunshine State. This one came in Oklahoma, at Grand Lake. The other one that stands out in my mind was his 2009 victory at Kentucky Lake, an offshore slugfest. It was one of three Elite events I went to that year (plus the Classic), by far the most I’ve observed in person. He caught ‘em offshore. On a swimbait. With about 100 boats observing in a horseshoe around his “magic” area.

It wasn’t a luck deal. It was a foreshadowing of things to come – a day when just about every angler would be able to win any given tournament, making prognosticating virtually impossible.

And he did it without forward-facing sonar.

More Overlapping Slugfests

This week the Elite Series makes stop number four at Lake Chickamauga. Meanwhile, the Bass Pro Tour has their Heavy Hitters event at Lake Palestine in Texas. If we don’t see at least one double digit fish come to the scales (or get weighed, as the case may be), I’ll be shocked.

Pity this Fool

My 2022 boat is taking a little bit longer than expected. That’s OK, I get that workers and supplies and time are in short supply and orders are through the roof. Where I made a mistake was in selling my 2018 too early. I tend to sell my boats at a competitive prices and given those market constraints this one went fast – I’m sure I could’ve sold it at that same price later, but I was worried about the cash flow issue. Now I’m boatless at a prime time. At least I have good friends. I think.

Senko Color of the Week

Watermelon Moondust. Trust me on this one.