Lane, Pipkens with a late flourish

Chris Lane seemingly sealed his match against Chad Pipkens with a 3-pound, 3-ounce spotted bass at 10:20. It hit Lane’s old reliable bait – a bone-colored River2Sea Whopper Plopper. But...

McClelland vs. Swindle update

Mike McClelland just scored a bass weighing 2 pounds, 12 ounces, to take the lead over Gerald Swindle by 9 ounces. McClelland-Swindle is the top seed in the bracket, setting...

Lane sitting pretty

Chris Lane has certainly had a “Pow!” worthy morning. At 8:16 he caught the biggest bass of the week. About an hour later he added a 12-ouncer. With just three...

Quote of the tournament

Gerald Swindle has a special gift for putting things in perspective. These three-hour semifinal sessions go by in a flash, and the clock is ticking today. As Swindle said yesterday,...

When an 11-ounce fish matters

Gerald Swindle just joked about catching—and weighing—an 11-ounce bass. Normally that would be reason to laugh. On a weigh-in stage the tiny catch would be the target of laughs and...

Pipkens is the marathon man

Chad Pipkens is the only angler at the Classic Bracket who also fished last week at the Opens Championship. He had five days of practice there, and then two days...

Pipkens gets it started

Chad Pipkens just landed his first keeper of the morning. It was a 12 ounce spotted bass, weighed by his judge Alan Pierce. That gives him four fish for 3-12...

Carters Lake reveals a jewel

Carters Lake is reputed to be the best trophy spotted bass lake in Georgia, which is a big statement. Chris Lane’s 4-pound, 10-ounce spotted bass, caught at 8:16 a.m., showed...

Pipkens vs. Lane

This morning Steve Bowman and I are covering the Chad Pipkens vs. Chris Lane Bracket. Pipkens begins the day with a 13 ounce lead. Yesterday he had three fish for...

Topwater vs. drop shot

The Pipkens vs. Lane matchup will be a fun one to watch. Pipkens, the Bassmaster Elite Series pro from Michigan, is doing what he does best. That is dialing into...