Nolan Minor knows it wasn’t his time when he lost last year’s College Bracket event to Nick Ratliff, who earned the Classic berth. Minor, who attends West Virginia, said being so close was difficult, but he’s thinking about what might have been less and less with time passing.
But at the time, it stung. Does he wake up in a cold sweat thinking of things he might not have done to secure the coveted spot?
“I don’t have nightmares. I used to think about it a lot more than I do now,” he said after weighing in 13-9 on Day 1 on Bulls Shoals. He and teammate Casey Lanier sit tied for 77th and hope for a better second day. Minor knows there’s always another day in fishing, another chance. That’s how he looks at his painfully close miss that provided such drama on the special edition of Bassmaster LIVE.
“It’s kind of a goofy thing to say, but Jordan Lee didn’t do it his first time either,” Minor said of two-time Classic champ from Auburn University. “That makes me feel a little bit better.
“I guess it wasn’t my time. Maybe next time.”
One hungry bass
Minor shared an interesting story about his day on Bulls Shoals on one that wasn’t about to get away. A slow morning had him and West Virginia teammate Casey Lanier switch to Ned rigs.
“We hadn’t been throwing it. We only had one fish in the livewell. So we roll up on this point. I think it was Casey’s first cast,” he said.
The two cast their baits about 10 feet apart when somewhat of an oddity happened. They found one hungry bass.
“We weren’t on top of each other at all,” Minor said. “I think I picked my bait up and was letting it fall back to the bottom again. And he set the hook and I set my rod down.”
Lanier hooked the fish and brought it into the boat. That’s when they discovered Minor’s line was also coming from its mouth, and closer inspection showed it had eaten both their baits.
“My Ned rig was in his crushers,” he said. “Mine wasn’t even hooked, but I had to get pliers to get it out.” It was worthy of the photo. Yet this wasn’t the first time that it’s happened to Minor. Fishing from kayaks a while back, he and a friend cast drop shots close to a dock.
“The fish jumped between us. ‘You got my line.’ ‘You got my line,'” he said was their exchange. After the fish fought for their bait, they fought over the fish.