It’s doubtful anyone thought this possible prior to the Bassmaster Classic at Grand Lake, but all you needed to do was catch a 5-bass limit the first two days to be in contention for the title Sunday. Granted, that’s been much more difficult to do than could have been imagined.
Only 9 anglers in the 55-man field caught limits both Friday and Saturday, and they’re all in the top 12. The three guys with the one-more-fish regrets are 3rd-place Edwin Evers, 6th-place Alton Jones and 11th-place Casey Ashley, the defending Classic champ. They’ve weighed 9 bass in two days.
Jones literally has the biggest regret – a 5-plus-pounder that he saw, but lost after the bass choked a jig and Jones somehow failed to get a hook in. A 5-pounder on an otherwise 4-bass, 11-12 day would have put Jones in 2nd place, 3 pounds behind leader Jason Christie.