How many follow professional Bass Fishing?

brandmoney wrote:

To be honest, not a huge fan of watching Classics on stingy bodies of water (Cough Tennessee River in March COUGH spotted bass fisheries)

I get you on this. Its always fun to watch people catching BIG bass. The classic is so much more than just the fishing tourney. They kind of need to have it where all the other things around it are also good. I sometimes feel like the more difficult tourneys are the ones where we see the true best fishermen step up. I do like to see events where there are both LM and SM bass. Its fun to see what one each fishermen decide to target. The SM bass has really become a player in the professional world in the last 10-15 year. In the early years of professional bass fishing you hardly every saw SM bass being targeted or caught.

Anybody remember the 35th Bassmasters held in Pittsburg where the winning weight was 12lb.

Just be thankful it wasn’t like that.

Good job Gussy!

Charles wrote:

Anybody remember the 35th Bassmasters held in Pittsburg where the winning weight was 12lb.

Yes I do. Kevin VanDam won with 11 bass totaling 12-15. He won by 5 oz. over Aaron Martins. His Daily weights were:
Day 1 – 3 bass weight 4-11
Day 2 – 3 bass Weight 3-7
Day 3 – 5 bass weight 4-13

That’s like a 1Lb 3oz. average – Now that is a brutal classic tourney

All I can say is wow. If you have never attended a Classic put it on you bucket list. Especially if you are a bass guy which I am not specifically. The whole environment was overwhelming. The take offs gave you chills up your spine. The weigh ins did not disappoint. Just the amount of pure coordinating to pull off such an event is amazing. We were fortunate to have great viewing opportunities every day due to getting there early enough to get into key locations. You could tell Gussy was pretty nervous on the last day while I talked to him in the coffee line before take off. But who wouldn’t be. I didn’t think he was going to pull if off. He was one of the reasons I went to the Classic in Knoxville. It was great to see a up north guy win and he did it in a Lund which all the better.
Now Matt Robertson that dude is one heck of a character….

Thanks,
RVRDUX

Attachments:

1. 

   0326230730-scaled.jpg
   

2. 

   0326230713a_HDR-scaled.jpg
   

That sounds like a great time! Cool you got to run into Gussy.

RVRDUX wrote:

It was great to see a up north guy win and he did it in a Lund which all the better.

Is that lund a Glass or Aluminum model. Its way cool to seeing a few different fishermen running a Aluminum boat at the pro tourneys this season.

Very cool. Always impressed by the production quality of the BassMaster series. Looking at the NWT, it’s like a chicken with its head cut off.

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>RVRDUX wrote:</div>
It was great to see a up north guy win and he did it in a Lund which all the better.

Is that lund a Glass or Aluminum model. Its way cool to seeing a few different fishermen running a Aluminum boat at the pro tourneys this season.

Lund 2075 Pro-v Bass

John Cox runs a Crestliner and finished 5th.
Jason Christie won last year in an aluminum Express boat.

The Pro V Bass is aluminum and probably the only one I’d buy over a fiberglass. Maybe the Vexxus. Shame it has to say Lund on it and instantly make it 15k more than it should be.

blank wrote:

Lund 2075 Pro-v Bass

Lund has Pro V’s on both their Glass and Aluminum series. Looking at their website I’d say the 2075 would be Aluminum. they don’t have that size in the glass pro V model.

Lund’s glass models are the deep V’s. Pro V bass are only available in aluminum. They would be near the top of my list for a bass/mult-species boat.

Yeah there were a few running tin. Cliff Poche also ran tin. GatorTrax which I always associate with mud motors. It was quite the impressive rig. He actually won the MLF event last week before heading to the classic.

Lund Bass are only aluminum. They would be at the top of my list for my next boat for multispecies. But like any new boat really can’t justify 100K to replace my 2025 Impact.

Thanks,
RVRDUX

mahtofire14 wrote:

The Pro V Bass is aluminum and probably the only one I’d buy over a fiberglass. Maybe the Vexxus. Shame it has to say Lund on it and instantly make it 15k more than it should be.

Lund makes a good boat. Although like you I think they are overpriced. I am also not a big fan of riveted boats. I know far to many Lund owners who have had leaks at rivets. They must be one of the few remaining manufactures to still use rivets. For my Money the Crestline MX21 is just as nice or nicer boat and starting at 10,000 less with the same motor. The Beam is much wider and carries way farther forward. I had a guy at the boat show in Richmond last week tell me the front deck in the Crestliner is bigger than the front deck in his Vexus VX21 bass boat. He said you could land a plane on the deck of the crestliner. The crestliner is also a all welded hull make with .125 aluminum throughout ( Bottom and sides ) the Lund only uses .125 on the bottom and .080 everywhere else. Just my .02 worth and my opinion

fishthumper wrote:

They must be one of the few remaining manufactures to still use rivets.

I think Alumacraft still uses rivets too.

Definitely not ragging on Lunds quality. They do make a nice boat but their prices are stupid. However if you want a Lund, buy them in the south because no one has any idea what they are and sell them dirt cheap.

Really this only reason I would go with the Pro V Bass is the jump seats that fold up from the back deck. With a wife and two young girls my Nitro isn’t the most family friendly. Those welded hulls scare me. I have seen a lot of broken hull welds on fishing forums over the past 5 or so years.

What a tough tourney for Matt Robinson On Santee Cooper. Leading after 2 days and then to have the lake level drop 2’ and his bite shuts off.

Michael Best wrote:

What a tough tourney for Matt Robinson On Santee Cooper. Leading after 2 days and then to have the lake level drop 2’ and his bite shuts off.

This is the 2nd tourney in a row where he was in the lead or near it after 2 days only to fall off really bad. They even said he was more serious after 2 days this time. I’m guessing that means he didn’t party like a rock star each night like he’s known for. Got to feel a little bad for the guy. To be so close two weeks in a row and have something go bad for him. On day 3 this week he lost a Big fish and had another one break his line. Those 2 fish really hurt him.

fishthumper wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Michael Best wrote:</div>
What a tough tourney for Matt Robinson On Santee Cooper. Leading after 2 days and then to have the lake level drop 2’ and his bite shuts off.

This is the 2nd tourney in a row where he was in the lead or near it after 2 days only to fall off really bad. They even said he was more serious after 2 days this time. I’m guessing that means he didn’t party like a rock star each night like he’s known for. Got to feel a little bad for the guy. To be so close two weeks in a row and have something go bad for him. On day 3 this week he lost a Big fish and had another one break his line. Those 2 fish really hurt him.

Looking at him he looks like he likes to party like a rock star.
His hair says all business in the front and party in the back. Lol

I am not sure if he had boat trouble this tourney or not. But I know he did in the last tourney.

I see both Bob Downey and Seth are off to a decent start at Lay lake. Average weight doesn’t look real impressive at this event.

Downey is up to 2nd in Basstrakk this morning.
It’s looking like if an angler can some how someway come closer to 20 lbs a day he will run.

The MN and WI guys have really turned it on this season. Fun to watch.

mahtofire14 wrote:

The MN and WI guys have really turned it on this season. Fun to watch.

Ya its great to see local guys doing well on the big stage. There are a fair # of others fishing the opens as well. I think we may see a few more locals making the big show soon.

Kind of sad to see some of the legends of the sport struggling. Not only in this event, but all season. Larry Nixon, David fritz, and Rick Clunn are near the bottom in this even and in the AOY standings as well. I think with all the changes in electronics that this is becoming more and more a young mans tourney sport.

fishthumper wrote:

Kind of sad to see some of the legends of the sport struggling. Not only in this event, but all season. Larry Nixon, David fritz, and Rick Clunn are near the bottom in this even and in the AOY standings as well. I think with all the changes in electronics that this is becoming more and more a young mans tourney sport.

I was thinking the exact same thing.
One other thing I have noticed is the amount of guys catching fish in the last few tourneys on spinning rods. So finesse fishing is playing a roll as well.

Good to see Feider in the top 10. He’s had a rough year so far.

Joe Jarl wrote:

Good to see Feider in the top 10. He’s had a rough year so far.

There are a lot of guys that have been really good the last few seasons that have really struggled so far this year.

Seth is in the mix to be in the top 3 at the moment. Would be nice to see him fishing on a Sunday for the first time this season.

What a tough tourney for Palaniuk.
To lead for 3 days and then to get beat by 2 ozs on a fish caught in the last hour.

That was an unreal finish. I don’t know if I’ve seen a closer final weight. I can’t believe how good this year’s rookie class has been.

Michael Best wrote:

What a tough tourney for Palaniuk.
To lead for 3 days and then to get beat by 2 ozs on a fish caught in the last hour.

To make matters worse he had a 4 Oz dead fish penalty that cost him the win. Ouch !!!!
It was fun to see another rookie win a tourney. Also fun because it was in front of so many fans on his home water. He now has the lead in the Rookie of the year race as well.