Edwin Evers lands a fish on the second day of the Bassmaster Classic on Saturday. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World
With the cut made and 28 anglers left off the water Sunday, fans will be thrilled to meet and greet some of their favorite anglers who now will be working booths at the Bassmaster Classic Expo, presented by Dick's Sporting Goods.
The anglers are not so thrilled - not that you'll ever catch them complaining.
Not everyone can be the winner and even if you're the reigning Bassmaster Angler of the Year or the returning Bassmaster Classic champion there are no guarantees you'll always be in the running for the top prize, or that you'll be fishing the last day of the Bassmaster Classic rather than working a sponsor's booth at the Expo.
The expo-bound anglers likely will hear the question, "so why didn't you catch 'em?"
Ouch.
As with any competition, the ways to fail are myriad - physical to mental, elemental to mechanical. And sometimes with fishing, the reasons are pure mystery to competitor and observer alike.
As 2009 Bassmaster Classic champion Skeet Reese put it, "No one angler is so good that they can go out and catch them every time, every place. We're dealing with Mother Nature and something that's got its own brain," he said.
Sometimes the failures are catastrophic. Sometimes the line just has to be drawn so close it hurts.
But for one ounce of fish, Angler of the Year Brent Chapman of Lake Quivira, Kan., would be fishing Grand Lake O' The Cherokees on Sunday. Wagoner's Tommy Biffle posted a two-day total of 25 pounds, 15 ounces and is in 25th place. Chapman's catch was 25-14, and there is no 26th place on the final day of the Classic.
"It kind of kicks you in the stomach," Chapman said. "Here I got in a hurry and tried to swing a 2 1/2-pounder into the boat on 8-pound line, I had one pull off a crank bait and lost a good one off a jerk bait ... I probably should have had 17, 18 pounds," he said.
Returning champion Chris Lane of Guntersville, Ala., provided the great mystery of the 2013 Classic. The champ zeroed on Day One, but returned to the field Saturday and hauled in five fish for 18-11. Lane said he didn't do anything differently the first day compared to the second.
"I'll say it was 50 percent me, and 50 percent the fish," he said. "The difference the second day is I got a bite within the first 15 minutes. I repeated that and got onto a pattern. The first day I never got a bite. Not a single bite."
Lane said the zero on the first day is just something that has to happen.
"Look at it in the sense of everyday life," he said. "I did outside sales for a long time. You go in and work on an account for a long time and they tell you 'no,' you go in the next and it's 'yes, yes, yes.'"
He called the first-day zero "a shocker."
"I put fishing in perspective to a lot of people that it does happen," he said. "People go out, including me, even when you're the 2012 returning champion and haven't even handed the trophy over yet, and you go out there and you do not have a bite."
Lane said all an angler can do is move on from it and learn. "It happened for a reason," he said. "I'm sure of that."
He also said he won't complain. "I'm living a dream. For me to be disappointed or upset or frustrated that just wouldn't be right."
Ardmore pro Jeff Kriet knows the pain. He blanked the last tournament of the year and lost the chance to compete in the Classic in his home state.
"It happened to me and I always do well on Oneida (Lake in New York)," he said. "What I think happens a lot of times to a guy, in the Classic or even a regular tourney, you have an OK practice and a you get out the first day and you have a lot of things you think you need to hit, you're thinking 'man, I gotta be there, to get that I'm going to have to run across the lake,' and pretty soon you're looking for the quick fix and pretty soon you've run through all of your stuff and your day's over."
Anglers often talk about confidence and decision-making as keys to their success. Kreit said when the pressure is off, sometimes an angler thinks more clearly.
"Now it's Day Two and you have a totally different mindset, you think 'screw it, I can't win' and you go out and fish totally free, you slow down and just have fun - and it's amazing some of the sacks you'll catch like that."
Why an experienced angler falls apart like that is anyone's guess, he said.
"It happens to everyone, maybe it doesn't happen to VanDam, but it happens to everybody else," he said.
When it's over, Kreit said, "It's shoulda, coulda, woulda."
Kelly Bostian 918-581-8357
kelly.bostian@tulsaworld.com
