HOUSTON, Tex. – After leading Day 1 of the 2017 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’s Sporting Goods, Brent Ehrler probably did not stay up late to watch the conclusion of Saturday night’s NCAA basketball tournament games. Nevertheless, he channeled a bit of March Madness of his own on Saturday, heeding the advice of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden to “be quick, but don’t hurry.”
Indeed, Ehrler took his time on Saturday once again, working a key area for most of the day. That same zone of the lake was also being fished by top pros including Greg Hackney, Keith Combs, Todd Faircloth and Steve Kennedy. All of them have won Bassmaster Elite Series events, one of the few accomplishments in the sport that Ehrler has yet to achieve, but if his steady approach to this event holds up one more day, he’ll be the first in the feared group to earn a Classic trophy.
Like Wooden, who also lived much of his life in Ehrler’s home state of California, Ehrler has championships in his blood. He’s already won the Forrest Wood Cup and an individual Toyota Texas Bass Classic championship. If he adds a Classic trophy to his mantel, he will become the first angler to grab that trifecta. To borrow another quote from Coach Wooden, “Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.” Watching Ehrler all day today, his character shined through. At times when his confidence could have slumped, his posture remained ramrod straight. At times when it would’ve been easy to deviate from his game plan, that too stayed on a straight and narrow path. He didn’t catch a near 10-pounder like he did the first day, but he continued to do the little things, landing the fish he needed and not making any unforced errors.
When the bite slowed in the late morning, he could’ve gone on a wild goose chase, fighting the Saturday boat traffic to hit isolated spots. That’s the tendency for most anglers, to engage in what is known as an “action bias,” but as Coach Wooden advised, “Never mistake activity for achievement.” Ehrler took the time to retie when necessary, pitched multiple times at likely bedding spots and acted more like an angler fishing for his own satisfaction than for a six-figure check.
If he can keep that up tomorrow, and gets a break in the form of no other angler vaulting from behind like Edwin Evers did last year, he’ll give himself every chance to cut down the nets at Minute Maid Park. I know that’s a mixed-sports-metaphor, but you get the picture.
That might not take him to Wooden’s level of greatness, but it would bring the angler Randall Tharp respectfully dubbed “The Meter Man” one step closer. After all, the Wizard of Westwood won 10 NCAA Championships in a 12-year period, including seven in a row. One of the most important happened during the 1967-68 season, when his UCLA team barely lost to a University of Houston team led by coach Guy Lewis and superstar Elvin Hayes in what became known as “the Game of the Century.” Later that year, in a rematch during the NCAA tournament, UCLA got their revenge, blowing out Houston by 32 points en route to the championship.
Ehrler has not yet experienced sufficient adversity this week to make a possible win that kind of comeback. Indeed, with only a 2-pound, 3-ounce lead, on a lake where that can be eclipsed in one bite, it’s hardly a slam dunk for him to claim his own victory over Houston. Nevertheless, he’s made tough on-the-water accomplishments into layups for years, and he’s bearing down on another.