The Elites might know of the fisheries, but the revised schedule due to the coronavirus has them boldly going when few have gone before.
The pandemic forced B.A.S.S. to move three events to the fall, when many in the 88-man field have never competed on those bodies of water. Yet all look forward to exploring the new worlds.
“One thing that makes the unknown kind of cool, I feel like it gives everybody a fresh look,” Stetson Blaylock said. “2019 was a fresh look, a very fresh look for all of us, on the Bassmaster Elite Series.
“It’s not about getting back in the grind or routine. This kind of throws that all out the window. Now it’s going to be another new experience. It just keeps everything interesting and fun.”
The pros are amped to return to competition, as the national lockdown to prevent COVID-19 spread has kept them out a full four months. It will be 121 days from the final day at St. Johns Elite to the first day of the DEWALT Bassmaster Elite at Lake Eufaula, June 10-13. The revisions made by B.A.S.S. send the field into some unknowns.
“It’s all in perspective of what we’re faced with this year,” Blaylock said. “I think new bodies of water are always exciting. But it’s kind of like not knowing your schedule even when your season’s already started. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing; I’m just saying it changes the way you prepare, changes the things you do, your mindset.”
B.A.S.S. worked closely with local hosts in shuffling the dates, placing two events in October and one in early November. It will be the latest in the year the Elites Series has competed. The most recent top circuit Bassmaster event held in November was the Louisiana Tour on the Red River in 2001.
Personally, Blaylock said he would have liked an earlier end to the season, but he understands the efforts to work in all nine events while also resetting the Opens schedule.
“That’s for everybody. All of us, our sponsors, our fans, we have to look at it in the big picture,” he said. “My take is I’m just glad we’re fishing a full season.”
Anglers were anticipating the original schedule that promised big fish and the possibility of topping 100 pounds at almost half the venues. Tournaments on Lake Chickamauga, Santee Cooper Lakes and Texas’ famed Lake Fork were postponed from the big bag potential of spring to when things get tough in the South.
Second-year Elite Patrick Walters ain’t scared, even though, like most of the field, he’s never competed in a major tournament in autumn.
“I love tough tournaments,” Walters said. “I love when you’re getting seven bites a day. I do love slugfests, but I always love finding sneaky little hidden patterns. In tough tournaments, it gets you a bite and limits.”
Walters offered a highly illogical statement, but his explanation speaks to the competitive nature of the field.
“I hate them, and I love them,” he said of stingier events. “When you’re fishing and it’s 2 o’clock and you have two fish, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do?’ You’re hating that moment in time. There’s sweat running down your brow and you’re just like, ‘Man, it’s time to buckle it up.’ This is what we fish for.”
Like Walters, Brandon Palaniuk, the 2017 Bassmaster Angler of the Year and winner of three Elite events, hasn’t fished much past September, yet he also relishes unlocking new challenges. He sees great possibilities to rise in the fall.
“I’m almost going in like a rookie,” Palaniuk said. “It offers you the ability to look at a body of water and find things that other guys might overlook, which I think is when you sometimes have your best chances to win.”
With no historical events to refer to on the final three fisheries, mapping out a winning pattern will have to be done from scratch. The age-old adage of fishing the moment will be put into play. Fall fishing is certainly less predictable, and it should unlock different techniques.
Keith Combs said he likes the changes, and that widely known patterns won’t be prevalent. The Texas pro, who will fish his 101st Bassmaster event at Eufaula, said exploring fisheries at new times appeals to him. The circuit heads to New York in July with consecutive events at Cayuga Lake, St. Lawrence River and Lake Champlain before moving to Lake St. Clair in late August.
With September off, action resumes Oct. 8-11 on South Carolina’s Santee Cooper Lakes then moves to Chickamauga Lake in Tennessee, Oct. 16-19. The season finale will be the Nov. 5-8 Toyota Texas Fest benefiting Texas Parks and Wildlife on Lake Fork, where Combs still predicts a Century Belt will be earned.
“We’re going to have a new shot to make some history,” Combs said. “The New York stuff will probably be pretty consistent, but Santee Cooper, Chickamauga and Fork, those are at times when there’s not a lot of national televised events to look at online … None that I can think of. Guys will have to go out and kind of do it old school, which is awesome.”
The grizzled vets might feel more comfortable going off script and unlocking the mysteries, but young guns like the 25-year-old Walters said he relishes deciphering potentially difficult conditions.
“Those are the ones you remember most, because that’s when all the little tricks come out, the little stuff everybody is doing differently,” he said. “You learn more. You get more involved instead of when everybody is catching 5-pounders on the show, bam, bam, bam, bam. You don’t learn anything.”
Even though he’s fished plenty in fall and learned its nuances, Blaylock said it’s been a few years as he unwinds postseason, spending time with his young family and hunting. Blaylock had a great run before the shutdown, finishing in the top 10 in his past five tournaments. Go back five more, and he has a win and a runner-up finish.
“I’m not worrying about the break, it’s just getting back into it, making those right decisions and picking up where I left off,” he said. “I didn’t circle the calendar and say this is going to be awesome fishing the fall.”
Unlike Combs, Blaylock said Lake Fork won’t be nearly as fruitful as it would have been in June.
“Fork in the fall is brutal,” he said. “It’s very weird how that lake is as good as it is and produces as many big stringers as it does, but unless it’s a super strange year, the weights are going to be tiny compared to what they should have been.”
While Chickamauga will be off from the spring, Blaylock said there are so many fish there it should still be an enthralling tournament. Much is dependent on conditions and weather, but Blaylock is curious how the season will play out, who will catch them and how, in a finishing stretch filled with unknowns.
“One thing it gives everybody is a different look at our sport and a different look at the Elite Series and what we have to offer,” Blaylock said. “These guys are not just February through August fishermen. They do know what’s going on.”
Those who conquer the new worlds will live long and prosper.