“From here on out, it’s all about the points, maintaining the consistency needed to stay inside the Classic.”
That comment by Stetson Blaylock is a reminder of how challenging just doing that will be in the remaining three events of the season. Here on Santee Cooper and next week at Lake Chickamauga, keeping inside the Bassmaster Angler of the Year cut for the Classic will be the goal.
The nemesis will be the fall turnover and transition. It’s like a plague of bass fishing anywhere in the South during this time of the year. The fishing is just overall lousy. For guys like Blaylock, currently in 18th, that means just one thing.
“Sure, I want to win, but the goal is to maintain consistency, just catch a limiti every day, even if it’s only 12 pounds or so every day,” he said.
Believe it or not, that will be a challenge, but if you can do it, staying inside the cut is doable.
Further down the AOY points at the cut line, there is more on the line, as usual. What’s different this year is the season won’t wrap up in the smallmouth-rich waters of the Midwest and Northeast, as it has in past seasons. Back then, a guy could make up ground, leveraging the strength of the great fishing. Down south, gaining ground will be more difficult.