Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees has as many 4-pound largemouth bass as any lake in the country. Do some simple ciphering with me: 5 (the daily limit) X 4 (as in pounders) = 20, right?
So why was there only one 20-pound bag caught by the best 55 professional bass anglers in the world on Day One of the Classic? That is the $300,000 question.
It seemed Jason Christie, the man who caught that 20-pound bag, had the answer yesterday, but even he was a bit puzzled. There’s an annual tournament on Grand Lake the third weekend in March that draws about 200 boats. Christie and his father fished it one year when 21 pounds won it. The tourney pays the top 75 places.
“We had 17.76 and didn’t get a check,” Christie said. “That’s how many 4-pounders there are in this lake.”
Of the 184 bass weighed-in Friday totaled 541 pounds – an average of 2.94 lbs. So the question remains: Where are all the Grand Lake 4-pounders, or, better yet, why aren’t they biting?