We see it when winter thaws and spring’s flowers bloom brilliantly, and we see it when families are beckoned outside by the warm summer sun. It’s there again in autumn when cooler temperatures turn leaves from yellow to orange, then red, and finally brown. And it all starts anew when winter’s white thaws under the green of spring once more.
We see change too as a new season dawns in the 2017 Bassmaster Series.
It’s that time now as 400 anglers are gathered together on the historic Harris Chain of Lakes in central Florida for the first Bassmaster Southern Open of 2017. Half of that field are “boaters,” and are a collection of professionals both old and new. The other half are fishing as co-anglers, and they too are fishing for a glory of their own.
But let’s look at the assortment of pros that launched this morning from Venetian Gardens in Leesburg, Fla.
For every seasoned vet such as Shaw Grigsby, Terry Scroggins, Paul Elias, Ish Monroe and the legendary Roland Martin, there is someone who has only recently entered the national consciousness of bass fishing.
Consider John Garrett, who six months ago was a hotshot angler on the Bethel University bass fishing team back home in Tennessee. Now, he’s reportedly landing 10-pounders during a practice day for this Southern Open. If he keeps that up in competition, he’ll have more tongues wagging then he did when he was boating lunker bass on Kentucky Lake in the Carhartt College Series Classic Bracket – a tournament he won to earn a berth in the 2017 GEICO Bassmaster Classic in March.
And how about Jesse Wiggins, who at 27 years old, will soon be making his first start on the Bassmaster Elite Series? He got there with a win in the second Southern Open of 2016 on Smith Lake in his home state of Alabama. Still, he’s competing in this open tournament with a chance of even greater success and reward on the line.
The winner on this 80,000-acre collection of inland lakes will take home a prize of $51,400 in cash and prizes, not to mention a spot in the 2018 Bassmaster Classic. That kind of bounty will bring out big names, and it will unearth the unknowns.
Every one of them has a chance. The big bass that call these waters home assures that.
It’s a new season, and for one angler, a great change is coming.
You can feel it.