Greg Hackney has boated a solid smallmouth to start Championship Sunday. This has been an odd event as it pertains to the presumed strengths of the anglers competing for the 53rd Bassmaster Classic.
Hackney, one of the greatest largemouth fishermen of all time, has been targeting big smallmouth in strong current below a spillway. Jay Przekurat, the all-time smallmouth heavyweight leader and first angler to ever enter the Bassmaster Century Club with all brown bass, has been targeting largemouth in muddy water less than five feet deep.
Przekurat is doing this, despite leader Jeff Gustafson doing exactly what we would have expected to see Przekurat do. But what Gussy found is nearly nonexistent across Tellico and Fort Loudon. And Przekurat had to resort to the largemouth bite, that he’s ridden to the Top 10.
Not only do these discrepancies illustrate just how well-rounded all these anglers are, but they’re also an indicator of how tough the fishing is here. There’s a lot of different things going on, but each technique is only effective in a very particular few areas and producing only a handful of bites each day.
