The Classic Begins

The Classic is Underway!!!

With the weather…it actually sounds like a good weekend just to sit on my a$$ and watch the thing. Although I’ve never really been one to make plans around the weather man!

First Fish Caught at Classic!
Boyd Duckett caught the first recorded fish right out of the gate at the Bassmaster Classic. His runaway lead was taken over by Edwin Evers with a two-pounder moments later.

Cool……… you gonna give us a fish by fish report, Slop? This is better than watching it on TV!

hit us with the link to the live scoreboard please…I can’t seem to navigate to it!

I know it was posted but when and what channel will it be on?

I’m not sure if it is working yet or not, I can’t get it running on my machine yet….I have to check my java scripts

Here is the link to what the call the live leaderboard though.

http://proxy.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/members/ldr/leaderboard

Slop. It’s not working for me either.

I see Tommy Biffle engine went right at the dock and he needed to be put into a spare boat.

Terry McWilliams runs away with Classic – February 23, 2007, posted at 7:56 AM EST

No sooner than we think Boyd Duckett is the man and Terry McWilliams our Federation Nation friend gives us shades of hope of another Bryan Kerchal-like Championship.

McWilliams jumped into the lead at 7:35 a.m., when he boated a 3-pounder, giving him 4 pounds, 8 ounces and the glorious lead of the Bassmaster Classic.

Technology great, when it works – February 23, 2007, posted at 9:19 AM EST

We’re having a love-hate relationship with technology.

You have to love all the wires, blinking lights and electrodes that allow us to have things like this web site and the ability to track anglers on Lay Lake from the comfort of a cushy chair. But dang it all, when it doesn’t work, you can definitely hate it.

Take Russ Lane for example. His Bass Trakk unit is the same as every other angler, except the battery went dead sometime after take-off.

Lane, though, was smoking them in the first 30 minutes of the day. He boated the first limit, with a 4-pounder as a kicker and by 8 a.m. had at least 12 pounds.

So much for the hometown jinx. At 9 a.m., he and Jeff Reynolds are in a neck and neck race with the only recorded limits of the day with 12 pounds apiece. Of course, technology not withstanding, those are decidedly unofficial results

— Steve Bowman

Jeff Reynolds and Russ Lane are tied for first with 12 lbs. even with perennial Classic favorite Gary Klein bringing up the rear in third with 10lbs. 11 oz.

Go Gary!!!!!!! The tv guide said it was telivised like at 9:30 at night, any changes in that? my boss (wife) works at the paper and would hate to tell her its wrong.

How quickly things can change in Bassmaster Classic competition.

About the time we had a race between Jeff Reynolds and Russ Lane, Terry Scroggins jumps in and upsets the apple cart a bit.

Scroggins busted four quick keepers, including a 4-pounder and two 3-pounders. With his fourth fish, he has an estimated 12 pounds. And Gary Klein has almost 11 pounds with just three keepers.

The plot thickens

UNOFFICIAL* TOP FIVE STANDINGS as of 11:10 AM CST — February 23, 2007:
#1. Tommy Biffle 14-10
#2. Terry Scroggins 14-00
#3. Randy Howell 12-04
#4. Russ Lane 12-00
#5. Matt Reed 11-00
#5. Michael Iaconelli 11-00
#5. Gary Klein 11-00

* Standings are based on observers’ best estimates.

Biffle pouring on the heat – February 23, 2007, posted at 11:53 AM CST

He’s gone from a engine breakdown to being the early favorite to break his bank account, and Tommy Biffle is pouring on the heat according to the Bass Trakker observers.

It’s an unofficial observer’s estimate, but at the moment he’s on the top of our leaderboard with a commanding 17lbs. 10oz., nearly three pounds more than his closest follower Terry Scroggins.

As the water heats up on Lay Lake, we’re getting more and more input that nearly every angler out there is “on ’em” at the moment…but there are a few notable exceptions to that — the most notable being Kevin VanDam who is currently holding in second to last place with 2lbs. 8oz.

Keep checking the unofficial standings at our TOP FIVE page.

UNOFFICIAL* TOP FIVE STANDINGS as of 12:21 AM CST — February 23, 2007:
#1. Timmy Horton 17-10
#1. Tommy Biffle 17-10
#2. Boyd Duckett 17-00
#3. Terry Scroggins 14-00
#4. Randy Howell 13-08
#5. Russ Lane 12-00

WOW! Look at the top 5 weights!

UNOFFICIAL* TOP FIVE STANDINGS as of 1:03 PM CST — February 23, 2007:
#1. Boyd Duckett 17-14
#2. Tommy Biffle 17-10
#3. Randy Howell 17-04
#4. Terry Scroggins 17-00
#4. Timmy Horton 17-00

I haven’t seen anything about KVD or Ike, does anyone have any info on what they are doing?

thanks

Last I had heard, KVD was struggling.

Here’s the most recent blog:

Forget the Number 23, Dean has The Number 40 – February 23, 2007, posted at 2:32 PM CST

We can’t pass this one up, especially for those superstitious types.

We’ve been paying particular attention to Dean Rojas this week. As always Rojas is capable. But that’s not why we’ve been watching him.

Some of us are superstitious and Rojas is Boat 40 for this event.

How does that figure?

A few weeks ago, the Weekend Series was won Russell Colwell. And if you watched that event at all, you know Colwell had no business winning. He caught them, so you can’t take that away from him. But he brought six fish to the scales and had his biggest thrown out.

Lucky sucker, won any way.

The boat he was in? You guessed it, 40.

Then the week before that Royce Dennington won the Federation Nation event out of Boat 40. There’s even a rumor that the Junior World Championship may have been won out of Boat 40.

So you have to wonder about Rojas. To make things a little more interesting, as this entry is being written (2:15 p.m.) Dean Rojas is 13th place. Ouch!

— Steve Bowman

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Randy must have been watching the ’02 Classic tapes – February 23, 2007, posted at 2:07 PM CST

The hottest hour of the day, thus far goes to the 10 a.m., to 11 a.m., hour.

While the rest of us were slamming down ham sandwiches and ice-cold RC Cola, our fearless anglers were stacking up the heads.

In that hour 59 fish were caught. Sorry we don’t know which ones were keepers or not. But it shows a hot hour any way.

That compares to the first hour of the day (7 to 8), which only produced 31 fish. And the worst hour so far? That would be 1 p.m., to 2 p.m. A whopping four fish were caught by 1:49 p.m.

Makes one think the Alabama Power generation schedule is a little off. Generation was supposed to run until 2 p.m.

Who would have ever believed they wouldn’t follow a schedule?

For those who don’t know, we’re being sarcastic as hell. We have a talent for that.

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The most interesting note to come from this hour. The tapes of Randy Howell’s day are starting to make into the edit mix. Surprise, surprise but it seems (and this is purely on minimal video evidence) but Howell may be catching at least part of his stringer in the same place Jay Yelas caught his in 2002.

One other tidbit: The estimations of Howell’s fish may be a little off. Given the penchant for observers/anglers to exaggerate, we’ll leave it to you to decide which way those weights might actually fall.

Boyd Duckett had a great bag I would love to tie into an 8#. The Live Weigh-in was really cool to watch. They had some neat stories on some of the competitors and how they got to where they are now

A 8 lb’er. WOW!