Will Ike Opt In?
Posted by The Inside Line on Sep 15th 2021
Photo by Andy Crawford for Bassmaster
Randy Blaukat kind of preemptively and unknowingly stole my thunder earlier this week when he referred to Mike Iaconelli as the “cream of the crop,” a title I had planned to use for this blog about Ike, but it’s true – with his hand in a million different things, most of which he’s very good at, there’s no place where Ike quite excels so much as when something big is on the line.
What’s tough to fathom about this is how easy Ike, as well as Greg Hackney, Jason Christie, and potentially Jacob Powrozik, made it look to requalify for the Elite Series. Make no mistake, it’s incredibly hard. There’s no room for error in a three-open slate. One bad morning or afternoon and your year is pretty much done. That’s why I laugh when I hear people say that if Angler X leaves the Elite Series “he’ll just fish the Opens and requalify.” I know several current Elites who would like to hang it up, but they’re afraid that if they do that and have a change of heart they’ll never get back. That’s what locks them into the status quo.
Of course, it remains to be seen whether Ike will actually come back to the Elites. There’s a certain irony out there in the form of hundreds of guys who’d likely give their left nut just to have a shot to fish on the big stage, and he’s not sure whether he wants to come back. Fame and fortune may be fleeting, but when you’re that good the one thing you’ll always have is options.
