Kelly Bostian: Multiple big bass make for unusual day
BY KELLY BOSTIAN World Outdoors Writer
Thursday, January 24, 2013
1/24/13 at 10:13 AM
Get ready for the Super Bowl of bass fishing: Find everything you need to know about the Bassmaster Classic, which comes to Grand Lake and Tulsa on Feb. 22-24. This site will be home to news, videos, maps, schedules and guides to follow the event.
Go to Kelly Bostian's blog Original Print Headline: Big bass make for unusual day
FOUR FISH, AND they totaled more than 20 pounds. If I consider all five keepers I saw, it was probably close to 25.
I don't care whom you are fishing with, it's just not every day you go out and see four bass landed that total well over 20 pounds.
That was Tuesday for Tulsa World photographer Mike Simons and me. The composite photo with this column shows just three of the iPhone photos I snapped. Those who have read this in my blog already know the scoop, I just thought this was worth repeating. On Sunday, I'll go into more explanation of how the fish were caught and winter bass fishing in general.
Working up personality stories on local anglers who will compete in the Bassmaster Classic Feb. 22-24 at Grand Lake O' The Cherokees and Tulsa, we took on the somewhat ambitious idea of getting on the water with new Elite pro Jason Christie of Park Hill and Elite pro Edwin Evers of Talala in one day on Tuesday.
We hooked up with Christie about 9:30 a.m. on Tenkiller Lake. He had already been on the water a while and swung by to pick us up at the dock. He said he had hooked small fish so far.
We motored to a different fishing spot and he had a 3-ish-pounder on the line in just a couple casts. It was a little scarred up on one side, not the prettiest of fish.
"Hang on, I'll catch another one," he said.
Sure enough, a cast or two later he says he's got a nice one on the line. Up came a big older male, skinny, but still every bit of 7 pounds. We pulled to a calm cove to do our sit-down interview, and by 11:30 a.m. we were back at the dock.
We even had time to stop for lunch in Tahlequah on our way an hour and a half north to Eucha Lake to meet with Edwin Evers.
We met with him at 1:30 p.m. The water was colder there, about 41 degrees compared to 47 on Tenkiller, but Evers said that could well be the case on Grand Lake come Feb. 22. He had been catching fish but said most were smaller and pretty skinny. Sounded familiar.
He had another spot to try. Then he called it. "This just looks good in here. Should be bass," he said seconds before he hooked a fat spotted bass, probably 14 inches but not picture-worthy in Evers' view.
Then he said it, too: "Hang on, I'll catch another one."
Up comes a 6-pounder with video rolling. Stills are taken. He puts it back. Picks up his rod and up comes another 6-ish fish: Big bass bookends.
By 3:30 p.m. we were back at the shore and ready to head home.
People will be asking what baits these guys were using and how the fish were caught. They were using jerkbaits, and that's about as far as I can go with that.
The Bassmaster Classic is one month away, and this just got me all kinds of fired up.
Four hours on the water and well over 20 pounds of fish caught in two lakes with two different anglers?
No, that doesn't happen just every day. I don't care whom you are fishing with.
Associated Images:
A composite photo shows Bassmaster Elite Pro Edwin Evers (left and right) with bookend 6-pounders Tuesday on Eucha Lake as Tulsa World photographer Mike Simons takes photos and Elite Pro Jason Christie (center) with a 7-pounder on Tenkiller Lake earlier on Tuesday. Photos by KELLY BOSTIAN/Tulsa World
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