Fantasy: No surprise, but Reese was best pick for Guntersville

Skeet Reese wasn't the most popular pick in his bucket, but he did deliver the most points for his fans in Fantasy Fishing.

GUNTERSVILLE, Ala. — If you were set up for an all-locals team for your Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing game on Lake Guntersville, then you are probably wishing you hadn’t. With only one Alabama guy in the mix, here’s the perfect team:

Bucket A: Greg Vinson, 268 points

B: Michael Iaconelli, 309

C: Skeet Reese, 305

D: Jason Christie, 272

E: Byron Velvick, 295

Total: 1,449

No one achieved a score that high.

Bucket A: Vinson

Greg Vinson had among the lowest ownership percentages in the bucket at only 0.1 percent. But he performed the best with his eighth-place finish.

If you picked Dean Rojas instead, with 5 percent of players did, then you still did pretty well. He ended in 11th place and earned his owners 257 points. Similarly, John Crews earned 248 points for his owners, which was only 0.7 percent for the current leader in Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year points.

Many people really missed out on points in Bucket A with the “sheeple” picks, players who herded to the popular pros.

Chris Lane was the most popular sheeple pick at 28.6 percent, even though he said not to pick him. You should have followed his advice because he posted only 113 points, more than 150 points behind the Vinson pickers.

Aaron Martens was the next-most-popular sheeple pick at 24 percent. He posted 143 points. Other popular picks were Justin Lucas, 10.2 percent, 215 points, and the worst pick of the bucket, Greg Hackney, 11.7 percent, with 83 points.

Bucket B: Iaconelli

Players who owned Mike Iaconelli and were devastated to see him flounder on the last day should not feel too disappointed. Yes, he could have posted more points for you if he won, but his three 5-point bonuses for leading each day and his 40-point bonus for big bag pushed his 12th-place finish to a hefty 309 points. That’s good for the 20.1 percent of players who picked him.

Just behind him was Derek Remitz with 290 points. His residency on Guntersville boosted enough people’s confidence in him to gain him 6.1 percent of owners.

The top sheeple pick was understandably Randy Howell at 22.7 percent, after his win here last year during the Classic. He posted less than half of Iaconelli’s points, though, at 149.

Gerald Swindle was the second sheeple pick at 21.1 percent, and he earned 223 points for his players.

Casey Ashley, the reigning Classic champ, was owned by a healthy 9.2 percent of players, but he earned only 53 points.

Bucket C: Reese

You know now, of course, that you should have picked Skeet Reese for Bucket C. It seemed so obvious, with his 2009 runner-up finish here and his 2010 win, but only 11 percent of players went Reese’s way. He delivered 305 points for his owners.

The two sheeple picks were Kevin VanDam and Randall Tharp. VanDam, owned by 30.4 percent of players, earned 185 points, more than 100 points down from Reese. Tharp, owned by 22.3 percent, earned only 107 points, practically a third of Reese’s score.

If you picked Keith Combs, which 4.6 percent of you did, you did all right with 280 points. The 25-point difference between the Top 2 spots in this bucket makes Reese the overall best pick for Guntersville.

Bucket D: Christie

In Bucket D, the sheeple pick was the best pick. Jason Christie was owned by 24.4 percent of players, and he won the bucket with 272 points.

Not far behind were Brent Ehrler, 15.8 percent, with 264 points, and Chad Morgenthaler, 3.5 percent, with 260 points.

Brett Hite was the second-most popular pick of the bucket with 17.1 percent of owners, and he earned 251 points for his players. Kevin Hawk was the third-most popular with 15.6 percent, but he ended with only 89 points.

Bucket E: Velvick

Byron Velvick was owned by only 0.3 percent of players, but he performed best with 295 points.

David Walker was right behind with 285 points, and he was owned by a healthier 5.6 percent of players.

Bobby Lane and Edwin Evers were the top sheeple picks with 28.6 and 26.4 percent of players, respectively. Lane posted 219 points for his owners, and Evers posted 235. Those aren’t terrible, especially considering the percentages ahead of them — only 11.2 percent combined for the five anglers who performed better — were small enough that Lane and Evers pickers didn’t lose much ground.

The rosters for Sacramento are open now!