A B.A.S.S. first: Two Oregonians in final

Yes, there’s an international flavor to this final day at Lake St. Clair with Canadian anglers Cory and Chris Johnston and Japanese pro Taku Ito making the top 10. But we’ve seen that before. In the last Elite Series tournament, Ito and Cory Johnston made the top 10 at Lake Champlain. The week before that, Chris Johnston won and Ito was sixth at the St. Lawrence River. What’s never happened before is two anglers from Oregon making an Elite Series final.

“That’s never happened,” said Jay Yelas, the 2002 Bassmaster Classic champ from Lincoln City, Oregon. “There’s never been two Oregonians in the top 10 of a Bassmaster tournament. A lot of our friends back home are pretty excited. They’ve been calling me. They’re cheering for us.”

The other half of “us” is, of course, 36-year-old Cody Hollen of Beaverton, Oregon.