Robert Gee’s senior year at Tennessee’s Christian Academy saw him playing a key role in his team’s 2017 high school championship victory. While he never hit a high school home run, he’s hoping Lake Ray Roberts offers him the opportunity to knock it out of the park.
Of course, achieving Bassmaster Classic glory means managing the week’s wind-whipped conditions. No secret, Ray Roberts has been a mess, but Gee’s intent on overcoming a dreadful practice with game time performance.
“My first goal is just to boat one bass and put a fish in my livewell,” he said. “These have been the worst windy days of practice that I’ve ever had in my life, and the worst practice I’ve had in my whole life. I didn’t catch a limit any of the days of practice.”
On the upside, Gee knows that Classic waters hold plenty of double-digit fish, so one bite could bring game-changing potential. Examining what he may find on a windy North Texas lake, Gee draws comparisons to a few common pitches.
The Fastball: Easy one here, it’s the big fan.
“The wind is gonna blow fast,” Gee said of the weekend’s blustery forecast. “This week, the wind has blown hard from every direction, so (many) banks are muddy.”
During windy scenarios, moments of opportunity will arise, but the law of supply and demand makes it difficult to capitalize.
“If the wind blows hard from one direction, it’ll clean up the area where it’s blowing from. When that happens, everybody’s in the area where the wind’s not blowing, but that’s kinda where you have to fish.”
Knuckleball: “That pitch is really hard to catch and, right now, it’s really hard to catch a bass on this lake. Also, a knuckleball shakes and moves all over the place and, in order for me to catch fish, I’m gonna have to move all over the place.”
Changeup: More of a word play here, Gee said he’ll need to make a change from the way his practice unfolded. In short, he’s scrapping what little he was able to do during the windy week and basically starting from scratch.
“I’m just gonna go fishing,” Gee said. “I’m gonna have fun and enjoy my first Classic. The conditions just haven’t been in the anglers’ favor this week.
“I don’t have any history on this lake, so I’ll just have to fish what looks good and try to generate bites. I haven’t caught much so far, so I have to change something up.”
