Riding as observer at Bassmaster Classic

A year ago, Kevin Van Dam hoisted the Bassmaster Classic trophy over his head after fishing Lake Cataouatche. This year, Chris Lane claimed the trophy and the $500,000 that came with it after fishing the Red River in Shreveport.

Every fisherman in the state of Louisiana knows how February can be a very unpredictable month to fish. Last Wednesday on the Red River the temperature was in the mid 80’s. Thursday, the temperature spiked to 87 degrees and it looked like the Red River water was going to heat up and send bass into a pre-spawn period.

But Mother Nature intervened with a cold front that changed everything. Temperatures dropped to the mid 40’s for the opening of the Bassmaster Classic on Friday. That meant that most of the pro fishermen had to change their game plan from fishing shallow waters to fishing deeper waters. Spinner baits and shallow diving crank baits quickly changed to brush hogs, worms and deep diving rattle traps on opening day.

On the close of day one, Kevin Poche had the lead with 17.1 pounds.

“The day before the winds were blowing out of the South. Today, the temperatures fell and the winds blew out of the north and muddied the waters up,” Poche said. ” I was lucky to catch my bag of fish.”

On the second day, temperatures fell again as fishermen were leaving the Red River South Marina. Frost had formed on boat decks before sunrise. On this day, I was able to go out and ride as an observer on Brent Chapman’s boat. He was in 23rd place with 11.14 pounds.

We took off from the marina and headed south. The short, 7-mile run did not take long with Chapman’s 21-foot Triton cruising at 74 miles per hour. He was headed for an oxbow lake above Dam #5, known as Joe D. Waggonner Jr.

Reaching the back of the oxbow, Chapman quickly began throwing a white and chartreuse spinner bait, watermelon/red baby brush hog, some hand crafted balsa crank baits in shad color and a 7-inch worm in june bug, green and black/blue. Before 8 a.m., he had boated a 3.5 pound bass, along with a 3-pound bass and a 2 pounder.

“Man this is going to be a fantastic day,” he said. “This will help me fish on Sunday.”

For the next five hours Chapman did not boat another bass. Only taking time to eat or drink while moving the boat to a different location, he made every possible cast he could make. At 1:30 p.m., using a white/chartreuse spinner, Chapman managed to catch another 3-pound bass. Around 2 p.m., he boated another 3 pounder next to an old log along the shoreline.

“Now I’m excited, I’m going to fish on Sunday and this puts me back in the hunt,” he said.

Chapman had moved from the 23rd spot to 14th with a total of 27.8 pounds. But Chris Lane was in first place with 35.8 pounds.

On the third day, only 25 fishermen fished for the top spot. Lane stuck to his game plan and fished his area near Coushatta. He brought in a total of 51.6 pounds and edged out Greg Vinson by 4 pounds to claim the title.

 

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