FORT WORTH, Texas — Based on the obvious, Lee Livesay is considered one of the favorites to win the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour. The obvious factors? He’s from nearby Quitman, Texas, where he’s won two Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments on Lake Fork, which was constructed much like this year’s Classic site – 29,000-acre Lake Ray Roberts. And Livesay is quite familiar with this lake.
“I’ve fished it quite a bit,” he said Tuesday during the angler’s Classic registration. “I actually won my first major regional tournament here (a Bass Champs event). As far as techniques, it fishes somewhat like Lake Fork. But it’s a different lake. We’re almost in Oklahoma. This place has great big smallmouth, some big spotted bass and great big largemouth. The population is different than Fork.
“Here you don’t get a lot of bites. When you do, they’re definitely big.”
This marks Livesay’s fifth Bassmaster Classic. He finished eighth at Alabama’s Lake Guntersville in 2020, 11th at South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell in ’22, 15th at the Tennessee River in Knoxville in ’23 and fifth at Oklahoma’s Grand Lake last year.
Aside from the results on paper, the 39-year-old Livesay is riding a wave of good vibrations.
“I’m fishing good right now. My confidence is sky high,” he said. “I’ve already fished five major tournaments this year, and I’ve done good in all of them.”
In the two Elite Series tournaments this year, Livesay was 17th at the St. Johns River and 22nd at Lake Okeechobee. In an MLF Toyota Series event at Texas’ Sam Rayburn three weeks ago, Livesay weighed a Day 1 bag of 34-11 before finishing seventh in the three-day event.
“I’ve been knocking on the door all year,” he said. “I’m just waiting to do it here.”
