*photos courtesy of Bassmaster
Wow, what a derby, not just for champion Lee Livesay, but for the entire B.A.S.S. brand. Fork shone brightly, not only because so many big bags were caught, but also because of the way that they were caught – when was the last time so many members of the field, especially the Day Four crew, were throwing massive swimbaits and topwaters? Not to take anything away from Paul Elias, whose catch at Falcon is still the GOAT, but from a viewer’s perspective it’s one thing to do it with a worm and a crankbait, another altogether to do it with topwater. A 9-02, on top, on film, on Championship Sunday? That means you are living right.
Here are my thoughts and questions, in no particular order:
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Zaldain’s sunglasses looked like they came from the 1984 ski racing comedy “Hot Dog…The Movie”
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How good is Patrick Walters going to be? How good is he now? Not even 26 years old, already has four B.A.S.S. wins and two century belts in the past six months. In his last 14 Bassmater events he’s finished in the top 12 on eight occasions, in the top four in five of them, and has won twice.
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The swimbait cult was going crazy on social media this week. A decade ago, with no “Live” coverage, we might not have been able to dissect the baits the field was using, but now secrets are much harder to keep – and the big bait crew dissected the footage like the Zapruder film.
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Taku Ito continues to cement himself not only as a star, but also as one of the most likeable and endearing characters in the game.
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Zaldain broke off a $275 bait. Assuming he can get another at that same price, does that hurt worse than losing an inexpensive lure, but one that’s no longer readily available?
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Seth Feider doubled up on two studs on camera, and it was only like the 10th best highlight of the day.
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In his third year on the Elite Series, Quentin Cappo was still a mystery to many fans, but now he’s had a moment in the sun, and he did it with an oversized squarebill, much like Clunn did at Fork last Fall.
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With the tour heading north in the near future, Feider’s four point lead in the AOY race will lead to a lot of media coverage. Don’t rule out the kid lurking in 7th, one BP.
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I still can’t believe that as good as it was, no one weighed in a double digit.
And while I’m about 99.44% sure that Livesay’s never going to read this column, I’d like to think that the piece I wrote about the Texans’ failure to get it done at Fork in recent years might’ve inspired his charge.
