TULSA, Okla. — Jason Christie is the last man the other 54 anglers wanted to see at the top of the leaderboard on Day One of the 2016 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro. Particularly bothersome for everyone else is Christie’s 20-pound, 14-ounce total and a nearly 3-pound lead over second-place Greg Vinson.
“If you’ve come to Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees anytime since about 1990, Jason Christie has kicked your head in nine times out of 10,” said James Watson of nearby Nixa, Mo. “He’s going to be the one to beat.”
Christie had a chance to kick in some heads during the 2013 Classic on Grand Lake. He caught 19 pounds the first day fishing a particular pattern, and he was among the leaders. He’ll tell you he blew that one.
“The second day, I had a couple of hours that weren’t so good,” Christie recalled. “I abandoned my pattern and started running to places I’d caught ’em in the past. The (large group of spectator boats following him) had nothing to do with it. It was all me.”
Christie didn’t have just a couple of not so good hours Friday. He had 4 1/2 hours of nothing. Christie had two fish in the boat and at 9 a.m., and it was 12:30 p.m. before he caught another one. But he never wavered from his pattern.
“I have one pattern,” he said. “I have one bait. I’m totally committed to what I’m doing.”
It paid off not just in filling a five-bass limit, but in culling his three smallest bass in the final 30 minutes to get him to that 20-14 total.
“I know a lot of fishermen talk about how you have to make adjustments, and you do sometimes,” Christie said. “But this is a lake where I have a lot of confidence in what I’m doing. And I don’t have a lot of options with the water color being what it is.
“As tough as the fishing is, I just feel like I need to have a bait in my hands that I’ve got a lot of confidence in, fishing a pattern I’ve got a lot of confidence in. You can go three hours without a bite, then you might catch three 5-pounders in 10 minutes.”
Christie noted that someone counted as many as 81 spectator boats following him at one point Friday. There are some anglers who think that will eventually take its toll.
“Christie is a nightmare,” acknowledged Matt Herren, who is in sixth place with 16-4. “But it’s going to get harder for him. If he wins this tournament, it will be the damnedest win by any pro I’ve ever seen.
“If he can win it, my hats off to him because he’s going to earn it.”
Win or lose, Christie claims he won’t waver from his game plan this time, like he did in 2013. He’s going to keep the big lumber in his hands and continue swinging for the fences.
As he’s said all week, “Babe Ruth didn’t bunt.”
It’s either going to be a home run or a strikeout this week for Jason Christie. And he’s fine with that.