Coby Carden should feel a lot more relaxed fishing in the 2015 Bassmaster Classic compared to what he experienced in the 2014 world championship.
The LA Po Boys club member got a double dose of pressure during the 2014 Bassmaster Classic because he was fishing the Big Show for the first time and was considered a local favorite because the event was being held in his home state of Alabama.
A veteran of 43 B.A.S.S. events, Carden recorded a respectable 24th-place finish in his first Classic, but felt he could have done better.
“I was pleased, but the competitor in me was a little disappointed in my performance,” he said. “I thought I had a pretty good game plan going into the event. The weather we had just totally changed things around and I didn’t adapt well enough.
“Looking back at it, I was happy for my first Classic that I got to fish for three days, which was awesome.”
Now that he has experienced the Classic as a competitor, Carden knows what to expect in his return to the Classic gala.
“I had several people tell me that the Classic week was so busy and to be prepared, so now I have a good understanding of the flow of things,” he said. “I think I will be a little more prepared mentally for all of the events we have to go to.”
Carden qualified for the Classic this year by finishing as the top Southern Division angler at the 2014 Old Milwaukee B.A.S.S. Nation Championship (BNC), an event he nearly won. The Alabama B.A.S.S. Nation angler said he was disappointed with his BNC performance after leading the event the first two days, to catch only two keepers the final day and slip to second place.
“It was just one of those things where I thought I made the right decision and it ended up not being that way,” said Carden, who still experienced a happy ending by clinching a Classic berth.
Cheering Carden on again in the Classic will be his wife, Jennifer, 9-year-old daughter, Chloe, and 3-year-old son, Caston.
“After last year, the kids have a pretty good understanding of the Classic,” Carden said. “I think they are as excited or more so this time that we made it back to the Classic.”
Despite competing in B.A.S.S. tournaments throughout the South for 15 years, Carden has never fished the Classic waters of Lake Hartwell.
“I think there is an opportunity there for me,” Carden said. “I understand it can be decent shallow fishing there with a lot of boat docks and stuff of that nature, so that would tend to fit my strengths — fishing fast and shallow power fishing — fairly well.”