Kelly Bostian: Enter the Tulsa World Outdoors Weigh-in Challenge

BY KELLY BOSTIAN Outdoors
Thursday, February 14, 2013
2/14/13 at 6:56 AM

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.

Bassmaster Classic anglers are in town and will begin practicing on Grand Lake O' The Cherokees when the lake's off-limits period expires Friday morning. They will be out there through Sunday, daylight to dark, no doubt, making use of every minute.

The Classic, set for Feb. 22-24, draws ever nearer. In the meantime, readers can think about it and take a small part in the competition. The Tulsa World Outdoors Weigh-in Challenge is open and awaiting your entries. Deadline for entries is a week from today.

Rules for the contest are simple: Just guess the weight of the biggest bag of fish to be weighed each day. A prize will be awarded each day of the tournament for the best guess that doesn't go over the actual weight.

You'll have to activate a (free) Tulsa World online account with your name, valid email address and password and put in your three guesses before 11:59 p.m. Feb. 21.

I can't wait to see what kinds of five-fish bags Grand Lake produces for the Classic. If the weather cooperates, it could be impressive.

"It's going to be big. The fish are biting right now and these guys can catch 'em better than anybody," said Fisheries Coordinator Brent Davis with the Grand River Dam Authority.

Davis said he thinks we'll see 21- and 22-pound bags every day. "Probably the guy who wins will need to average 18 pounds or more every day," he said.

The winning bag in the last jackpot tournament allowed at the lake before the Classic was 23 pounds, 11 ounces, he said.

Guessing the biggest bag isn't the same as guessing the winner - not always, anyway. A guy might bring in 21 pounds one day and 10, or less, the next.

To win this contest, you'll have to focus on what Grand Lake can produce.

Historically, Grand Lake tournaments are won regularly won 20-plus pound bags, "roughly a four-pound average," said Gene Gilliland, assistant chief of fisheries for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

Things to consider about those 20-pound bags is most of them are put together in team tournaments - that is, two anglers on a boat taking their best five fish to create that larger bag. Classic anglers go it solo.

Strategy also might figure into the picture, Gilliland said. Depending on what anglers find on the water the first day, they might hold back. Under some conditions an angler might conserve fish for later.

How well the fish are biting and how easily they can be "patterned" and caught in several locations may dictate whether that average daily catch is 18 pounds or 20 pounds for the leader.

Grand Lake always has the potential to provide for exciting competition with many anglers bringing in bags full of 4- and 5-pound fish. The fun begins when several of them have a pile of fish that weigh within a few ounces of each other.

The fun for us in our contest will be seeing who guesses those daily weights, the closest, without going over.

Top prize, awarded Sunday, is a guided fishing trip for two in 2013 on Grand Lake with lifelong guide Ivan Martin. That's a $375 value. Saturday's winner will score a pair of rod/reel combos from Lew's; a pair of 6 1/2-foot Tournament SL rods and a Tournament MG baitcaster and a Speed Spin casting reel, a $350 package. Friday's winner gets a Plano tacklebox loaded with Gene Larew and Bobby Garland lures worth an estimated $200.

Find links to the contest and full explanation of the rules on the World's Bassmaster Classic website at tulsaworld.com/bassmaster

Original Print Headline: Some tips for Weigh-in Challenge

Read Kelly Bostian's blog at tulsaworld.com/outdoors

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