What I learned from the Classic

[kennethdaysale]

Originally Posted by OkobojiEagle

Where was the Classic held this year? I haven't paid any attention for several years. Who won... how much weight?

oe

El Salto Mexico won by Roland Martin with 187.54 lbs

[nofearengineer]

Originally Posted by Jrob78

He's lost a ton of weight too.

Do you think that would work for me? Because the whole "gotten use to him" thing isn't working...

[kennethdaysale]

Originally Posted by nofearengineer

do you think that would work for me? Because the whole "gotten use to him" thing isn't working...

no..............

[joedog]

The really great thing I learned from the Classic, and this I know is a fact,
the sport I truly have a passion to participate in is represented by some of the finest human beings ANY sport could ask for!

No excuses, no blame just true SPORTSMANSHIP!
Every personality imaginable and all ages to boot.
Old timers as well as newbies.
All respect one another.
Gracious, admirable and true believers in family and gratitude along with appreciation for the FAN base.
These anglers care about the sport not just for them but for US as well.

My HATS OFF to the those gentleman for a job well done.

[keithdog]

Originally Posted by joedog

The really great thing I learned from the Classic, and this I know is a fact,
the sport I truly have a passion to participate in is represented by some of the finest human beings ANY sport could ask for!

No excuses, no blame just true SPORTSMANSHIP!
Every personality imaginable and all ages to boot.
Old timers as well as newbies.
All respect one another.
Gracious, admirable and true believers in family and gratitude along with appreciation for the FAN base.
These anglers care about the sport not just for them but for US as well.

My HATS OFF to the those gentleman for a job well done.

Amen Joe! They certainly seem to be a good bunch of guys!

[keithdog]

Originally Posted by kennethdaysale

El Salto Mexico won by Roland Martin with 187.54 lbs

Bwahahaha. If that were true, John would have had a stroke! haha

[Tavery5]

Originally Posted by joedog

The really great thing I learned from the Classic, and this I know is a fact,
the sport I truly have a passion to participate in is represented by some of the finest human beings ANY sport could ask for!

No excuses, no blame just true SPORTSMANSHIP!
Every personality imaginable and all ages to boot.
Old timers as well as newbies.
All respect one another.
Gracious, admirable and true believers in family and gratitude along with appreciation for the FAN base.
These anglers care about the sport not just for them but for US as well.

My HATS OFF to the those gentleman for a job well done.

Well said.....

[Jrob78]

Originally Posted by joedog

The really great thing I learned from the Classic, and this I know is a fact,
the sport I truly have a passion to participate in is represented by some of the finest human beings ANY sport could ask for!

No excuses, no blame just true SPORTSMANSHIP!
Every personality imaginable and all ages to boot.
Old timers as well as newbies.
All respect one another.
Gracious, admirable and true believers in family and gratitude along with appreciation for the FAN base.
These anglers care about the sport not just for them but for US as well.

My HATS OFF to the those gentleman for a job well done.

I couldn't agree more Joe. In my experience, fishermen are some of the finest people on Earth. It doesn't matter whether they fish for hundreds of thousands of dollars or drown worms under a bobber.

[kennethdaysale]

Repost:
"I am new to this site but despite the normal bickering I do get a sense of "fellowship" here but I wouldn't expect anything less. Fishermen are percieved as friendly and helpful and all that by the non-fishing world as well. Case in point>>> Many years ago a buddy of mine and I had planned to meet at a particular 7-11 on the "rough" side of town before daylight to go fishing. When I pulled up in the parking lot in my old truck looking kinda scruffy and hungover, the young girl getting ready to open the store looked up from her till with a scared-almost panicked look on her face that she was about to be robbed or worse. I pulled up just a little bit more so she could easily see that I was pulling a boat...grinned real big and waived. Immediately she relaxed, the color came back in her face and I could see her smiling a little as she continued to get ready for the day. I'm sure there might be some mean and hateful fisherman out there somewhere, but as a group the general public sees us as non-threatening even comical and certainly not dangerous...l...lets endeavor to keep it that way"

Fisherman are typically a nicer group than the non-fishing group, but if I stop to think about niceness in general, I realize that the real dividing line is the outdoorsman. In the story above I'm sure the girl would have been equally relaxed to look up and see someone with a dog box full of beagles or pointers in the back of the truck. I could easily write a book from here about the image we should all try to maintain but yall know what I mean.

[OkobojiEagle]

Originally Posted by kennethdaysale

El Salto Mexico won by Roland Martin with 187.54 lbs

Good to see Roland back in form...

oe

[CamG]

Originally Posted by Jrob78

Mercer is freaking terrible! He is the worst. I hate him. From "ARE YOU READY TO WEIGH IN?!?!?!" to "Boom Shaka Laka GGGGGGiant Bass!!" He couldn't be any worse.

This is exactly what I learned from the classic (I already knew this from the first tournament he MC'd) The guy is a d bag.

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by joedog

If you want to learn a lot, visit the WAR Room during next tournament.

Ok the technical things I learned.
The anglers DO NOT sandbag!
The Marshall's estimate the weights and there is only ONE rule, the angler CAN NOT tell the Marshall what weight to put.
The Bass Trax is in the Marshals boat, not the anglers.
Most anglers don't like the Bass Trax system. gives away alot of information not only about location but based on 'where' they are fishing tells you a lot about 'what' they are fishing.

Vast majority of tourneys on the Grand are won using the 'alabama rig'.
I can only tell you that not allowing the Alabama rig brought GREAT excitement to the final weigh-in if not the whole tournament.
Most of the Pros HATE throwing the Alabama rig. They do feel the 'Elite Series' should stand up to a stronger ethic or rules.
Only the Elite Series disallows the rig and I agree with the decision.
This year NO multiple lure rigs allowed, no double fluke, no drop shot with a jig as weight, one line, one pole, one lure.

Since the Alabama rig became so popular it has played a major role in early season tournaments on Grand. There are several winter jackpot tournaments on Grand and I check the results every week. I can't remember the last one that was won on anything other than the Alabama rig. However after the water starts to warm up and the fish start moving shallow it pretty much becomes a non-factor for the remainder of the year.

The anglers go to great lengths to hide that special color or lure.
To the extent of putting a different lure in the fishes mouth before a pic is taken. As with the photo with Ike and his catches lure in it's mouth didn't have a line tied to it.

Fronts on cold water lakes works the opposite of a Front on a warm water BOW. Many an angler knows this but RARELY is it talked about.
A quick water temp increase can shut down the bite just like a cold front in Florida shuts the bite down. "This may have been the most informative thing I learned."

I've always believed that small tweaks are BIG money makers.
The War Room solidified this for me. Anglers using a blue jerk or silver/black back jerk were doing a lot better than the traditional 'greens' that the MAJORITY were fishing.
WiggleWarts were kind of written off on Grand even though they are BIG on Lake Fork and others.
We see how that thought worked.
Even though traditional thought and past success figured this lure wouldn't be a good choice.

And I re-learned how tough and how much effort goes into being the BEST!
How much WORK is involved in being a PRO.
How many of you would/could make 800-1000 casts three 8 hr days in a row and continue doing the same thing after getting 6-8 bites, not catches, BITES?
How many would go against popular thought and do what they felt would work and again stick to it?
Wiggle Wart was discussed early and kind of written off by popular thought. Wiggle is BIG on Lake fork but not on the Grand.
It doesn't matter how many electronic gadgets you got, hydro-wave included, it still comes down to execution. Kevin was a great example of this.
Guys sleeping in Tundras and planning on doing the same in the future even though they are the 'elite'.
Anglers unhappy with their performance based strictly on how the public would view their sponsors.
How loyal to the sponsors the pros are. I've never heard the NASCAR drivers spend the majority of their speech talking sponsors.

Originally Posted by WatterBoy

See above...

I don't know, and in reality nobody probably will know how many fish were caught on Wiggle Warts in the Classic. But the second place angler caught a bunch of his fish on this bait and so I would certainly say that the statement that a Wiggle Wart was a good choice is probably as true as a statement could possibly be.

Originally Posted by joedog

Just remembered something.

Didn't Ike swap boats with the Marshal when his broke down.
I guess Kory could tell us if each boat has a Marshal in at Launch.
He was at launch I believe?

Iaconelli did switch boats on day 2. His boat had trolling motor issues and although he carries a spare trolling motor in his boat, after they dismantled the bow of his boat to make the switch, they ran into some problem that kept them from going any further. Kevin Ledoux who is an Elite pro from Oklahoma didn't qualify for the Classic but was being used as a media boat (camera boat). He offered to swap Ike boats for the rest of the day and after making a phone call to get permission from Trip Weldon (tournament director) they made the switch. They tooked the electronics out of Iaconelli's boat and hooked them up in Ledoux's boat, swapped tackle over, and got all of the other stuff Ike needed moved to the other boat. Ledoux ran Ike's boat back to City Ramp (the launch site) for Ike.

As far as a marshall being in each boat, I really can't say for sure. I do know that a lot of the anglers have camera guys hop in there boats for a few minutes to do some filming or an interview and then the camera man is back in his media boat getting ran around the lake for more footage of other anglers. I have seen in other Elite tournaments where a media boat will pull up to an anglers boat and the marshall will hop in the media boat until the camera man gets all the footage he needs and then they switch back. I would assume the Classic is no different but I can't say for sure.

[joedog]

Trip Weldon was the guy that they asked the 'who puts in the weight estimates'.
He's the one who said only TWO rules.

Who's the guy that does the scales on stage?
Is that Trip too?

[carolina-rig-01]

Originally Posted by joedog

Trip Weldon was the guy that they asked the 'who puts in the weight estimates'.
He's the one who said only TWO rules.

Who's the guy that does the scales on stage?
Is that Trip too?

Yeah Trip is the little bald guy manning the scales.

[joedog]

Thought so!

Thanks Kory.

[nmanley]

How abut a 12+ pounder from a Yumbrella rig on Grand lake last Sunday.
http://www.tulsaworld.com/blogs/spor...ounds/37-19314