I first attended the Bassmaster Classic in 1988, driving up to Richmond, Va., for the final day of a tournament that was won by Guido Hibdon, edging hometown favorite Woo Daves.For about the next 15 years, the only Classic I missed was the one that Daves won on Lake Michigan out of Chicago; that was only because my wife was recovering from knee surgery, and I didn’t think she was far enough along to leave at the mercy of four kids for a week.
I was at the 1989 Classic, when Hank Parker rallied to win on the final day — but only because Jim Bitter was posing for a photo when his fifth bass jumped off the ruler he’d set up on his casting deck and back into the James River. The next year, the incomparable Rick Clunn won on the James River, overtaking Tommy Biffle on the final day.
I was in New Orleans when Davy Hite broke through and won in 1999 with an enormous three-day weight of around 55 pounds. I won the press tournament out of the back of Hite’s boat in 1993, the year my neighbor David Fritts won on Lake Logan Martin out of Birmingham, Ala., and became famous outside North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Shoot, we always knew he was the best crankbait fisherman in the world. It just took a little something to convince everybody else.
Oh, just in case you were wondering, my winning fish weighed 6-1; it was worth $500 to both me and Hite; and it hit a Hawg Caller spinnerbait.
It was in Birmingham that Hite fell short, losing to George Cochran on Lay Lake, and where Fritts fell short, losing by a few ounces to Dion Hibdon on Logan Martin because a bass he had his hands on at the side of the boat got off before he could grab it and fling it over the gunwale.
The late Bryan Kerchal won his Classic, the first ever for a Federation fisherman, on what were once my home waters, North Carolina’s High Rock Lake. On the third and final day, the Greensboro Coliseum was filled with more than 21,000 fans to watch men pull fish out of a bag and weigh them.
The Classic has lost a little bit of its luster over the years, in part because it is no longer Ray Scott’s to mastermind, in part because not all of the best bass fishermen in the world have an opportunity to compete. The splitting of the best bass pros in the country into two competing tournament circuits has siphoned off an awful lot of fishermen I’ve seen holding that huge trophy, taking a victory lap.
But it remains the “Super Bowl of Bass Fishing,” as it has been widely promoted for years. Finally, the Super Bowl has returned to South Carolina, after a 34-year absence. From Feb. 22-24, the Classic will be fished on Lake Hartwell, with Greenville serving as the host city. Daily launches will be at Hartwell, daily weigh-ins will be at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, and the accompany outdoors show will be just down the street.
A business professor from a university in Alabama once estimated that the Classic was worth more than $20 million to the economy of the local area where it was held. That may have fallen slightly since dates were moved from August to February several years ago, but there’s no denying that as a spectacle, the Classic remains on a pedestal far above any other fishing event.
If you’re in the neighborhood, you might want to drop in.
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