5 Who Should Win

It ought to be fun tomorrow.

With one day remaining in the 2015 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro, the top five anglers in the standings are separated by less than 2 pounds. Making things even more interesting, every angler in the top 5 is someone who you could say "should win" and make an excellent case for that assertion.

Leader Takahiro Omori is a past Classic champion, and his 2004 Classic victory came in the Carolinas (Lake Wylie, which straddles the NC/SC border). He likes to crank shallow, so the warmer temps and rain in tomorrow's forecast seem like they should play into his hand.

Dean Rojas, only 2 ounces back, hasn't won a Classic, but he has four B.A.S.S. wins and has proven repeatedly that he can get it done. He brought in a huge bag on day one and backed it with a limit today, but failed to get the same quality. Interestingly, his best previous Classic was fourth place in 2004 at Lake Wylie.

Mike Iaconelli has eight B.AS.S. wins, including victory in the 2003 Bassmaster Classic on the Louisiana Delta, and when he's on something, he is tough to stop. He's brought in two good bags, with toady's a little larger than yesterday's.

Randy Howell is the reigning Bassmaster Classic champion, so the sweet taste of victory is fresh, and of the three former Classic champs in the top five, he's the only one who won a February event. And apparently some live footage of him fishing shows that he's spending at least part of the time cranking bridges, which was how he won last year at Lake Guntersville.

Rounding out the Top 5 is Casey Ashley of Donalds, South Carolina, which is only about 1/2 hour from Lake Hartwell. Ashley was virtually everyone's pick going into the event, so it would be hard to discount him when he's less then two pounds out going into the final day.

Making things even more exciting, the super close weights don't end with the fifth spot. Bret Hite is only 7 ounces behind Ashley, and Coby Carden is only 7 ounces behind Hite. In fact, Skeet Reece, who is in 10th place, is only 4 1/2 pounds off the lead.

So what does all that say? You'd better be watching tomorrow when they bring the fish to the scales because pretty much anything could happen!

Sabine Survived -- On to Falcon

Todd Faircloth of Jasper Texas won the Elite Series opener on the Sabine River with a four-day weight of 49 pounds, 6 ounces. BASS photo by James Overstreet

I feel safe saying that most Elite Series pros are happy to have put the very challenging Sabine River Challenge in the rear-view mirror and to be beginning practice on the legendary big-bass waters of Falcon Lake. Falcon, from my understanding, is not quite what it was in 2008 when Paul Elias broke the four-day record with his 132-pound, 8-ounce winning weight and everyone was hauling in monster bags. It's still Falcon, though, and when contrasted with the stingy Sabine and its muddy equipment-wrecking waters, Falcon is likely to look mighty grand.

Todd Faircloth won the Sabine event comfortably, topping second place finisher Dean Rojas by 6 1/2 pounds. Despite the big winning margin, Faircloth's four-day weight of 49 pounds, 6-ounces was the second lowest winning weight in the history of the Elite Series. The same weight at Falcon would have landed him in 51st place and outside the money at Falcon in 2008.

To give a better picture of the Sabine River event's toughness, 12th-place finisher Dennis Tietje weighed in 31 pounds, 5 ounces over four days. The last time the pros were at Falcon, the biggest single-day bag would have outweighed Tietje's four-day catch by more than 10 pounds. The weight for making the cut after two days and cashing a check at the Sabine was 10-pounds, 11 ounces. That meant catching a limit each day of fish that averaged a little more than a pound. If an angler was catching 2 pounders, three fish per day was sufficient to take away a check.

I don't know exactly what Falcon's fertile waters will produce this week, but I'm pretty sure that 1- and 2-pounders won't do the job.