“This is my 25th Classic,” Laker Howell said as he navigated the gifting suite for the 2026 Bassmaster Classic contenders. “I haven’t missed one since I was born.”
Implied but not explicitly stated was the fact that this is the first one where he’ll actually be competing. In all of the others he’s been there to cheer on his father, 2014 Classic champ Randy, as a spectator or to work a booth at the Outdoors Expo. So while he’s aware of the general soundtrack of the week, he now knows that until you venture onto the dance floor it’s impossible to understand all of the moves you’ll be required to make.
Indeed, the Classic is unlike any other tournament, not just in terms of its scope, but also in regard to its pacing. The field practiced Friday, Saturday and Sunday, had Monday off, and today included registration and a rules meeting. They’ll have one final day to hit the water tomorrow before Media Day on Thursday. The first casts of the tournament will occur one week after the first casts of practice.
If the folks at B.A.S.S. are still looking for an official sponsor for practice, perhaps they’d consider approaching the team at the made-for-TV product The Clapper — on off, on off, on off.
The question for the contenders, and especially those with no Classic history to rely upon, becomes how to make productive use of the time away from the water. There are only so many reels that can be restrung.
Tucker Smith – a first-time Classic qualifier but no stranger to winning six-figure purses – said he slept until 10:30 today, a rare luxury for a tournament angler, where 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. blastoffs are the norm. His road roommates and fellow Surge Squad members Emil Wagner and Andrew Loberg disputed that account, saying Smith probably didn’t crawl out of bed until closer to noon.
And why not? He didn’t have to be anyplace until 1p.m.
“I’m trying not to go at this like it’s a normal tournament,” Smith said, disregarding any controversy about his actual emergence from slumber. “I just try to keep a level head. I feel like I tend to be calmer in the bigger tournaments than I am in the regular tournaments and that helps me do well under pressure.”
The club of Classic rookies takes up nearly a third of the overall field, and many of them took the same approach as Smith, stocking up on REM sleep before it gets in short supply. Missouri pro Trey Schroeder, last year’s Open winner at the Tombigbee River, slept until 10, then took his girlfriend out for crepes and worked on tackle. He was still among the first competitors in line for the major league swag haul.
Cody Meyer, whose family has yet to arrive in Tennessee, likewise slept until 10 this morning. He’s a veteran of TTBCs, U.S. Opens, Redcrests and a double-digit dosage of Forrest Wood Cups, but he said he’s never experienced a pre-tournament ritual as drawn out or complicated as this one. You might blame his lengthy slumber on the past weekend’s time change, or the three-hour time difference between Knoxville and his West Coast home, but more than anything the widespread overindulgence on pillow time seems to be an attempt to avoid overthinking things.
“This is bizarre,” Meyer said. “I’m not nervous, but the way this is spread out makes it tough. If this was a summer tournament it wouldn’t matter, but in a spring tournament during a warming trend, it’ll be like a new lake by the time competition starts. What you found in practice won’t be there in the tournament.”
For all of the hurry-up-and-wait going on this week, it pays to play the long game. That’s what Howell said he’s done. Of course he recalls his father’s win over a decade ago – if he were to win this week, they’d become the second father-son pair after the Hibdons to achieve that feat – but perhaps more important to his own development as an angler was the 2019 Classic. That event, the first Knoxville Classic, ended with home-state hero Ott DeFoe hoisting the trophy.
“I promised my dad then that one day I’d be up there on that stage, too,” Howell said. Seven years later, that promise came true.
Five years before DeFoe won, Laker had been eating a biscuit at Waterfront Grocery at Guntersville when he got the call that Randy was onto something special on the Spring Creek Bridge. He hightailed it down the road and got to watch the winning fish get hauled into the boat. He knows the recipe. It’s just a matter of making it work once the timer starts ticking for real.
While these first-timers were all thrilled to be competing, none of them expressed the idea that they were just happy to be there. None milled around at the edges, sweaty hands in pockets, like the new kid at school. They all took the swag on offer and moved on, ready for the next step in this marathon that started over a year ago for some of them and continues in fits and starts.
“When we got the off day in the Opens, I didn’t care for it so much,” Schroeder said. “But I’ve grown to like it. It gives you more time to establish a game plan.”
If there was one thing they all have in abundance right now, it’s time to establish a game plan, but the lead up to the event – slow as it may seem right now – is fast approaching, and will be over before you know it.
