This week marks my second Bassmaster Classic as a Marshal and my seventh Marshal trip over the years, not counting a couple rides as part of the media. It actually began Saturday after my trip to nearby Watts Bar where I added another month to my streak of at least catching one bass per month on a crankbait. Thanks to Jawjacker Baits that streak is now at 12 years and 3 months. On the way home, I circled through Knoxville and scouted out the route to the parking garage for the Marshals and boat yard. B.A.S.S. employees were there setting up the equipment.
They asked me for a little help measuring the parking area out with a bass rig hooked to a pickup truck and after that we did a test loop around the lower deck to see if pickup trucks would fit. As it turns out there is about a 4-inch grace on the advertised 6 foot, 6 inch limit.
Wednesday morning I got to ride in practice with Andy Montgomery. Andy is one I really wanted to ride with because he has a pretty similar hillbilly accent to my own and, as I found out when my friend rookie Elite angler Mike Huff showed up with a camera boat, Andy doesn’t care for Duke basketball either. Although I’m a Vol fan you can’t be from Kentucky and care anything about Duke, especially in March.
This morning, Thursday, was the marshal meeting and Media day. It didn’t start off the best in the world. On the way into Knoxville I ran into about 12 miles of snarled up traffic for an accident at the I-640 split and, having Marshaled before, I called Trip to let him know some might be late. There was one other Marshal stuck just in front of me. That said, it was time to renew a few acquaintances among B.A.S.S.
I ran into Bassmaster photographer James Overstreet. A few years back he supplied the photos for an article I wrote for Bassmaster.com. To be honest, that was an honor for me. It’s not often a hack writer gets the chance to team up with a professional who makes the hack look good.
Later I ran into another writer friend of mine, Don Barone. I jokingly told him he needed a hair cut. Don said he was allergic to barbers and something about Samson — nobody was cutting his hair.
I then ran into Ronnie Moore, the technical genius behind a lot of B.A.S.S.’s production. Being older and grey-headed my ability to deal with electronic gizmos rates with Sarge of the old Beetle Bailey Comic. I mentioned my telephone updated the camera app yesterday and now the two devices were not on speaking terms. Being the nice guy he is, Ronnie said he’d take a look at it for me. Thankfully, I now have brokered a truce between the two devices and will be able to do the photography part of the Marshal job.
Finally at the motel for the afternoon, it’s time to prep my gear for a cool, wet start tomorrow and on to meet a couple of my old roommates from my University of Tennessee days, one of which helped coach Ott DeFoe in high school football.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow. People ask me what is the value of being a Bassmaster Marshal. The value I get from it is seeing up close professionals fish waters I have and do fish myself. Like a second opinion of a medical procedure, seeing a good stick fish what you yourself fish will teach you a thing or three.
