The sky’s the limit on what Edwin Evers might accomplish this season. Evers just won the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro, and there’s more of a chance that long-awaited title will propel him more than fulfill him.
“Man, I’m really excited about” the Elite season, Evers said. “I’m fired up to get back, get the season started. Going forward, I can’t wait. I’m kind of taking it as a challenge just to go have a good season and get the year started off right.”
Evers was unloading groceries Sunday night into Cliff Prince’s parents’ house, where he and Jason Christie will stay this week for the season-opening Bassmaster Elite at St. Johns River presented by Dick Cepek Tires & Wheels.
While the smoke hasn’t even cleared from his name being engraved on the Classic trophy, he agreed one major title can make an angler hungrier for more. His next major target undoubtedly is the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year title, which he’s narrowly missed the past few years.
Christie also mentioned the phenomena that anglers who already qualified for the next Classic can go for broke during the regular season. They can fish differently, not worrying about points, take risks.
“It’s kind of scary because everybody thinks after he won the Classic, he’s going to sit on the sidelines and coast this year,” Christie said. “This will give him the freedom to do things out of the ordinary, like he did on the St. Lawrence. It gives him the freedom to just go fishing. I wouldn’t be surprise if he doesn’t win another one.”
How about topping last year’s two regular season Elite victories?
“He might. I wouldn’t put it past him,” Christie said. “He’s the kind of old grizzly bear you don’t want to wake up, and somebody woke him up last year. He’s pretty mad right now. I don’t want to bother him.”
Mad at the fish maybe, but pretty happy with life. His whirlwind as Classic champ has been interview after interview, but he’s found time to visit the classroom of his son, Kade, and he even made a humorous Facebook post.
He wrote he was helping with his wife, Tuesday, pick out a prom dress for daughter, Kylee. He asked readers to pick between his two choices – a long-sleeve, non-form fitting dress you might see on Little House on the Prairie, and a nun’s habit.
That’s dad approved humor right there … and our real sentiments.
Evers really hasn’t had much time to even talk with his Elite Series running mate. Evers has been pulled in every direction for this TV appearance, that photo shoot, this interview. He had to cut short a Sunday night talk for an hour-long radio commitment, but Christie was free to talk about their first extended meeting since Evers’ huge final bag last Sunday.
“He had to overtake somebody on the last day and it just happened to be me. I knew it was going to bother him,” Christie said. “I told him, don’t worry about that, you did what anybody would do and what I would do. We’re buddies, but we’re competitors, too.”
Christie has repeated many times that Evers in fact earned and truly deserved that Classic victory. Evers’ magical day, with a flurry of 29 pounds, 3 ounces that allowed him to make up a 6-5 deficit on Christie, will go down among the greatest comebacks in Classic history.
Other friends have contacted Christie with worries about his mental state, which he said is sound. He’s been asked numerous times if he was really all right, or does he “feel like driving his truck off a bridge?”
“That’s just not the case,” he said. “I might have felt different if I got beat by a pound, or a few ounces, or if I felt like I did something wrong. I did nothing wrong. He just beat us. Honestly, there’s been a lot more people that have thought that. No disrespect to the event, I just haven’t dwelled on it.”
GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP …
That’s Christie (above) pictured in Tulsa’s BOK Center as he waited to weigh in on Day 3 of the Classic. He’s shaking the hand of good friend, Jonathan Henry, who surprised the two-day leader by flying in from Alabama and sitting with Christie’s family in hopes of watching his buddy win the title.
The Daily Limit was there watching Christie’s reaction to Evers’ big bag, which he admits might have been worse if not for Henry.
“It was a shot to the heart,” Christie said of Henry showing up and his rig being parked right in front of his family. “The whole thing was. He thought I was going to win, but it turns out he was there for a totally different reason.”
The two became tight several years back when Christie planned a demanding schedule of fishing two tours. Henry offered to serve as Christie’s driver in hope of learning how to fish better.
Last year Henry, a guide on Lake Guntersville, became ill with a rare cancer, Synovial Sarcoma. His latest chemotherapy was near the end of January, and Christie appreciated his efforts to make the last-second trip to Tulsa. It also threw some perspective Christie’s way as he was about to weigh in as runner-up.
“Had he not been there, I probably would have ate myself up a little bit,” Christie said, “but seeing him, just knowing what he went through just to get there, that takes away any excuse I have for not catching a bass.”
The photo was rather fortuitous. Christie posted on Facebook about Henry, and it wasn’t until looking back at photos in the darkened arena that Christie’s interaction “with fans” was really much more.
Christie said when he saw Henry there, any negative thoughts about missing a great opportunity to win the Classic kind of went to the wayside. He said it made him think of “what’s really important and what’s not.”
DID BILLY REALLY FISH FOR BOBBY?
Jerry McKinnis opened his intro by saying it was really Billy Murray who fished to victory in the 1971 Classic, not twin brother Bobby. Like he did for a moment during that Bass Fishing Hall of Fame induction March 3, Billy Murray played along during his visit to the Bassmaster LIVE set last week.
“Not many people know that,” he deadpanned. “It’s been a secret for a long time.”
You wish.
“Yes, I really do,” Billy said, adding that he has swapped places with his mirror twin at times. Billy said his photo has been used instead of Bobby’s in recognizing the two-time Classic champ.
McKinnis doesn’t have any issues telling them apart. He met the Murrays while fishing on Arkansas’ Lake Greeson and asked if either wanted a job on The Fishin’ Hole. Billy took him up and was a cameraman for years before venturing out on his own to create the Bass Fishing Institute.
“My love of the fishing industry is, I love catching them and I love teaching people how to catch them,” Billy said. “Right now we have a really good opportunity with the younger generation because high school fishing is getting big and college is already there.”
Billy, who hopes more and more aspiring anglers can use their fishing abilities to gain college scholarships, said his induction means a lot to him. He’s really just rejoining all his close friends, those early pioneers of the bass fishing industry.
“The Hall of Fame is all my friends – it’s just a kind of a validation of everybody,” he said, “because nobody in this business does anything by themselves. You’re always getting help from other people, networking. If you’re in the fishing industry. It’s always that same core group.”
And McKinnis is chief among them. He saw something in the Murrays’ dedication when they first met, and he even learned to tell them apart, a remarkable feat considering they’ve had people very close to them who couldn’t.
“My mother could not tell us apart,” Billy said. “She put our names on our shirts so we wouldn’t have to fight over them.”
THE CLASSIC HONEYMOONERS
You have to give it to Todd and Sara Kradel (above, center), who spent their altered honeymoon at the Classic. They arrived in Tulsa on Thursday from Butler, Pa., and reported they were enjoying the event.
They were married in September and had planned to go to Mexico on the first stage of their trip but worries of the Zika virus canceled that. The Classic remained.
Todd fishes club tournaments and loves all things bass fishing, and Sara isn’t far behind. She was asked, as they waited near the front of the line to get into the BOK Center on Day 3, if she was OK only honeymooning in exotic, faraway Tulsa.
“I’m perfectly fine with it,” she said. “Fishing is one of our big things we do as a couple. We go out a lot. I like going out on the boat.”
While Todd has years of experience on her and also the big fish between the two, Sara quickly took claim to another title.
“He definitely has the biggest fish, but when we go out together I usually outfish him,” she said to oohs and ahhs from the crowd.
“That’s her story,” he said to laughs.
“Wow, are you guys going to make it through the weekend?” was said to a group guffaw.
Those folks seemed hard up for some entertainment, and they definitely got some that afternoon.
GEICO GECKO PHOTO BOMBS LIVE
The GEICO Gecko, the official mascot of the 2016 Classic, crawled on top of about every rock in Tulsa for appearances, including scampering onto the LIVE stage to photo bomb Tommy Sanders, Mark Zona and Davy Hite on Day 3. They took selfies.
The TV version of the insurance company’s cheeky, iconic lizard always has plenty to say, but this taller version was mum, so Patrick Judge of the Martin Agency was asked to speak for him.
Ok, as an angler, in what instance could you use a plastic gecko?
“Spawning bass?”
Now, if you Texas rigged a 27/0 Mustad circle hook in your guy there, which species could you potentially catch, Patrick?
“Probably a great white, maybe a tiger shark, maybe a hammerhead,” Judge said.
Ok, you pass.
Now tell us about what other reasons the Gecko might make bass fishermen smile, after they save 15 percent or more in under 15 minutes deal – everybody knows that.
“He represents saving anglers money on more than just car insurance,” Judge said. “He’s everywhere. On the water, in a car, in a boat, an RV, everywhere.”
And Judge tells us he’s been around longer than most might imagine. The Gecko is approaching his 20th birthday.
“Our team at Martin Agency out of Richmond, Va., has done a tremendous job of helping him grow,” Judge said, “and we don’t plan on losing him anytime soon.”
The bass fishing folks don’t mind seeing the Gecko at all either, especially as title sponsor of the Classic. And many of the anglers do in fact keep documents that might include his picture, as well as miniature plastic versions for certain fishing situations, in their boats.
CULLING
- Rick Clunn continues to show his thoughtfulness, this time in a Facebook post aimed at Evers. Clunn said long ago he could see Evers’ enthusiasm, excitement and commitment to the science of fishing. He calls his will to win “indomitable.”
- Evers responded respectfully to the “nice words from one of my all-time heroes.” Evers said he has long looked up to Clunn, who has taught so many so much about the sport of fishing.
- Tyler Wade comes up with the goods, and here’s the headline from the latest goody she sent: Weirdest Study Ever Finds That Nearly Half of Women Are Attracted to Men Holding Fish. I don’t think I can even explain that, so just go see it.
- You ready to see some big fish? Most everyone hopes that’s the case when the Elites open this week on the St. Johns River. Matt Lee (below) gives us a preview of what might be as he caught these Florida gargantuans at an undisclosed spot on an undisclosed lake. We’ll get you the St. Johns spots this week on Bassmaster.com.
