TULSA, Okla. — Cold, muddy water doesn’t ordinarily put a bounce in the steps of bass fishermen, but that was obviously the case during registration Tuesday for the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro. Some of the anglers were practically giddy about what could happen when the three-day tournament begins Friday.
“We’re on the verge of it busting wide open,” said Edwin Evers, who is one of the pros considered to have a “home lake” advantage since he lives in nearby Talala, Oklahoma. “Every day the sun shines, it’s getting better and better.”
Local knowledge and past history on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees won’t count for much this week. It’s a totally different lake than it was when the Classic was held here in 2013. And it’s unlike anything anyone has ever seen here in March.
“Normally, the lake is divided into three different parts,” said Mike Iaconelli, a contender for the title in ’13. “There’s the upper lake from Sailboat Bridge up the rivers. There’s mid-lake, from Sailboat to Duck Creek. And there’s Duck Creek to the dam.
“This week, there’s only two parts: from Sailboat Bridge up in the rivers it’s clear; from mid-lake down it’s stained. It’s even dirtier at the dam than it is at mid-lake.
“It’s flip-flopped from normal.”
That flip-flop was caused by a major high-water event in late December that filled Grand Lake to historic high levels.
The Classic competitors got three days – last Friday through Sunday – of pre-practice. The official practice day will be Wednesday. Here’s the prevailing theory, for now, about how this tournament will play out: Most of the field will be concentrated in the clear water, but the tournament will be won by whomever figures out how to catch fish in the colder, muddier water.
There’s generally 50-degree water in the clear parts up-lake; water temperatures are in the mid to upper 40s in the muddy stuff down-lake.
With Grand Lake off-limits from Jan. 1 until Friday, Jason Christie from nearby Park Hill, Okla., has been practicing at nearby Lake Tenkiller, where the water clarity and water temperature is similar to Grand Lake. Normally, cold, muddy water would send Christie elsewhere, but he’s had time to find a pattern, and, most importantly, the bass have too.
“The difference is it has been muddy for awhile, and those fish are used to it,” Christie said. “They’ll still bite in the mud. And they could be in different stages in the different colors of water.”
Christie said he knew his game plan for the Classic after Friday’s first day of pre-practice. He hopes to dial-in that plan even tighter during practice Wednesday. He sounds as if all that time at Tenkiller has paid off.
“I’ve got confidence that what we think a lot of times about rules on water temperature and clarity in wintertime isn’t always true,” said Christie, with a sly grin.
But in the next moment he offered this, saying, “Nothing is going to surprise me in this event as far as where it’s won. It can be won from the dam to Miami (Okla.), and it can also be won by someone fishing a different section every day, if they’re on a strong enough pattern.”
Grand Lake is known as a “pattern lake.” In other words, tournaments here are unlikely to be won in a particular spot. If you get on a strong pattern at Grand, you should be able to run it and catch bass wherever you find similar structure.
Chris Zaldain realized after studying his maps and waypoints from three days of pre-practice that he may have one of those Grand Lake winning patterns.
“Every single waypoint relates to a specific characteristic of the lake,” Zaldain said. “In the eight hours we’ve got (Wednesday), I’m going to try to run that pattern from the dam all the way up the lake, regardless of what the water clarity is.
“I think that’s the biggest thing – if you can figure out how to catch them in that dirty water. It’s no secret that the bigger ones live down the lake. And if you can figure out how to catch them there, you’re going to have a lot less pressure, a lot less traffic.
“I’m really anxious to expand on what I’ve found. It will tell me a lot. Wednesday is important.”