After a horrible start to the season in the T-H Marine Bassmaster Pick ‘em Challenge, I vowed to battle back and finish the season above .500. A modest goal, but it beats the alternative! After a 6-1 week at the Pasquotank River, I was finally even at 28 up, and 28 down heading into Lake Champlain. And now I am one game over .500, at 32-31, after going 4-3 last week. (Don’t let my official points on the website fool you, I forget to hit the “submit” button twice this year!)
So now, with the final event upon us, the challenge is to stay above that cut line…we need a winning week!
Match 1 is between the top 2 anglers in the insanely close Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year race, Trey McKinney and Drew Cook. Cook is really showing some great versatility this year, but in the end, he is a shallow water guy, and with the Scope back in play in this event, I have to stick with McKinney in this one.
Caleb Hudson and Fisher Anaya will battle it out for Rookie of the Year as well, and they are the Match 2 combatants. An Alabama guy, and a Georgia guy, on a river that borders Canada. What could go wrong? The Georgia guy (Hudson), is used to fishing deep for spots, the closer cousin to the smallmouth. This will be very close, but I’ll take Hudson by a whisker.
Match 3 brings us brotherly love, between the Johnston boys, who have made the St. Lawrence River their personal ATM machine. Cory is 2 points back in the AOY race, in an effort to make it 3 Johnston AOY wins in a row. These guys are a fishing business so Cory winning AOY helps the company bottom line. They both know all the spots on this body of water, but in the end, I think Cory gets it done!
Match 4 pits Justin Atkins, who has had a tremendous season and comes in 10th in the points, and Taku Ito who is 54th after an uncharacteristically tough season. He glossed this place Smallmouth Disneyland, and Taku’s only shot at the Classic (unless he fishes EQs), is to win this event. I think he has his best week of the year, and gets the win against Atkins. Ito is the pick.
In Match 5, Caleb Sumrall and Beau Browning are less worried about the Classic, and more concerned with locking up their spot on the Elites for 2027! Both of these guys fished Championship Sunday at Champlain, with Sumrall finishing 4th, while Browning was 8th. Sumrall was also 9th on the St. Lawrence out of Waddington a couple of years ago and that’s enough for me to take Sumrall in this one.
Match 6 is between a couple of Classic Bubble Boys in Shane LeHew and Bryan Schmitt, who won last time out at Lake Champlain. Momentum is confidence in bass fishing, and Schmitt has a boat load of that here…Schmitt happens in this one.
Finally, Match 7 gives us a couple of former champs on this waterway, Jay Przekurat and Patrick Walters. Both of these guys are comfortably in the Classic, at 8th and 13th respectively in the points. When in doubt, take the northern guy on the northern water…Przekurat is my pick!
It’s been another great season for the T-H Marine Bassmaster Pick ‘em Challenge, I hope you had as much fun as me!
