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SHREVEPORT, La. — On Friday, the 51 anglers in the 39th Bassmaster Classic will take to the Red River in northwestern Louisiana in pursuit of $500,000 and the most coveted title in bass fishing.
Whether you’ve followed the run-up for months or are just now cramming for the weekend coverage, here are 39 facts to bring you up to speed.
1. The Classic is the biggest event in bass fishing. Past champion Mark Davis, who’s fishing this tournament, says “history is made every time we fish a Classic.”
2. Enter the counterpoint by angler Kenyon Hill. “Crying doesn’t help anybody,” Hill says. “Getting nervous doesn’t help anybody. It’s just another bass tournament, and you do the best you can.”
3. Hosting its first Classic this year is the Red River, which isn’t so much one straight, flowing body of water as it is a series of oxbows, ponds, backwaters, creeks and potholes formed over centuries by the meandering water. To reach many of the best fishing holes, anglers have to push their boats through shallow water and brush.
4. On that note, Aaron Martens says: “I want to win this one more than any other Classic because it’s the Red River. It’s going to be a tough son of a bitch.”
5. The Bassmaster Classic is a three-day event with 51 anglers. Everyone will fish Friday and Saturday, but the field will be cut to 25 for Sunday’s final. Anglers get just over eight hours of fishing time and can weigh in a max of five fish each day.
6. The winner of the Classic gets $500,000. The rest of the field splits $700,000, and nobody goes home with less than $10,000. Full payout
7. The favorite going into the 39th Classic is Louisiana’s Greg Hackney, but pundits also seem to agree on perennial favorite Kevin VanDam and river expert Scott Rook.
8. Kevin VanDam is the consensus top angler in the world, and has finished in the top five in each of the past five Classics. That’s a good showing in everyone’s opinion except his own. “I think I’ve fished 18 of them now and I’m 2-for-18, which is not very good,” VanDam said. “But this is a tough tournament to win.”
9. The Red River went off limits on Dec. 15 to all the Classic anglers, but they had three full practice days over the weekend and a shortened one on Wednesday.
10. There are seven nonprofessionals in the Classic. Those spots are saved to give amateurs a chance to fish with the best in the biggest. Six are from the BASS Federation Nation tournament series and one is from the Weekend Series.
11. Everyone says it every year, but angler Mike McClelland makes a good point when he says this could be the year that another Federation Nation angler wins — which happened only one time, in 1994.
It comes down to boat traffic, largely. “A lot of the favorites have been picked,” McClelland says, “but this is a body of water where you could put a guy on the right spot and he could shock you.”
seven former Classic champions
more stories than you can read
total weight record might fall on the Red River this year
killed later that year in a plane crash
every close call, shoulda, woulda and just didn’t