Old School Bassmaster Win for Jason Christie

Last weekend’s Bassmaster Elite Series event on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway had an old-school feel that made it really fun to watch, and Jason Christie epitomized that as he took down the title with a spinnerbait rod in hand.

For this Elite Series season, for about half the events, chosen preseason by random drawing, no forward facing sonar may be used. Tenn-Tom was one of those. Add a dirty, cover-laden river system with volatile conditions, and the situation dictated working trees, stumps and weeds with spinnerbaits, swim jigs, frogs and flipping baits. And old-school fish finding and patterning.

I should note up front that I am not an FFS hater. I’ve done a bit of it, mostly for crappie, and think it’s a lot of fun. And I’m not one who thinks it’s cheating and should be disallowed in every tournament. Success doesn’t require less skill. It’s just a different skill set. And I enjoy watching pros who understand what they are looking at read the fish’s mood and figure out how to catch the biggest ones.

That said, watching top pros make decisions about similar looking backwaters, strategize long runs vs extra fishing time, adjust for changing conditions and meticulously pick apart mostly-visible cover in dirty water was just plain fun.

Jason Christie is one of the most intuitive fish patterners on tour. He quickly figures out which cover to go right past and which to hit and the ideal angle and presentation for every piece of cover. He’s also a master with a spinnerbait and supremely confident when he’s throwing a BOOYAH Covert Spinnerbait (a series he designed).

Winning last weekend took more than cast and retrieve execution, though. Decisions about locations and adjustments were paramount, and Christie made several key decisions that helped him finish on top.

Interestingly, Christie commented some point that the Tenn-Tom felt familiar because it looked just like the Oklahoma section of the Arkansas River, which is about 20 miles from where Christie lives and where he largely honed his spinnerbait skills. Guess where the Elite Series is headed next!

 

Hartwell Fishing Great

Jason Christie brought 20 pounds, 14 ounces of Lake Hartwell bass to the scales to take the lead on Day 1 of the Bassmaster Classic. Bassmaster photo by Seigo Siato.

A very simple conclusion after one day of competition at the Bassmaster Classic is that Lake Hartwell is in good condition and producing well. The top of the board certainly shows that, with Jason Christie's 20-pound, 14 ounce sack and seven 16-pound-plus limits. Looking farther down, 32 anglers from a field of 52 weighed at least 12 1/2 pounds of bass, which is a solid 2 1/2-pound average for a five-fish limit, and 51 of 52 anglers brought a limit to the scales.

That shouldn't be a surprise, I suppose. The lake is fairly full, which hasn't been the case very often for the past couple of years, newly flooded grass is providing a lot of shallow cover along the edges, the fish are in a solid pre-spawn mode, and the weather has been warm and fairly stable. All very good things.

I will be interesting to see how things change as leaders have to contend with increasing numbers of spectator boats and anglers fishing "spots" or fairly small areas continue to target the same fish. One interesting thing this morning is that yesterday's leaders were among the first to fill their limits, so it really seems they are on to some specific things that the others might not be seeing.

We''ll keep watching!

Pro Web Live, an Inside View

No doubt you've heard the buzz about Pro Web Live, which delivers live seminars by top pros like Aaron Martens, Jason Christie and Edwin Evers into your living room, and maybe you've visited the site and seen the list of pros and schedule of seminars.

A couple of weeks ago, I got a closer look that gave me a sense of just how cool and personal these sessions will be. I sat in on an early testing and training session that was designed to help the pros learn how the whole thing will work and to gain feedback from visitors using various types of browsers and computers and with internet connections of all speeds. Several similar sessions are planned because site administrators are determined to work out any bugs and to make certain presenters have a full understanding of all they are able to do before any sessions begin.

Martens, Christie, Dave Lefebre, Shaw Grigsby and Ott Defoe were all "in the room" during that session, and it was pretty cool how much it felt like we were all sitting together because of functions like a chat room, attendee list and question-and-answer area. I mostly stayed in the shadows, just watching to see how everything worked so that I could offer feedback, but I did chime in briefly after Lefebre noted that I was signed in.

The session I attended included no seminar. Instead, they were talking about all the options the pros would have for putting illustrations on the screen, sharing documents, linking to products they discussed and interacting with attendees, and it looks to me like each seminar will be a seriously cool experience. Seems ideal for a handful of friends to sign up for together and put on a big screen, timed perfectly, of course, for the session to begin shortly after the steaks come off the grill.

Below is a cool little teaser. Visit the Pro Web Live website to learn more about how it all works and too see the list of speakers, topics and dates.

Something New Coming

Here's all I know, and it comes from FLW Tour pro Dave Lefebre:

"Something fresh and all new is coming to the fishing world very soon! On this Thursday, Jan 2, a brand new company will launch what it is calling a win-win-win for everyone involved and long overdue. A win for the pro anglers, a win for the angler's sponsors, and a huge win for you, the fans of the sport!" This announcement will involve several of the top professionals from the BASS Elite Series and the Wal-Mart FLW Tours, including current BASS Elite Series AOY, Aaron Martens, the current #1 Ranked Angler, Jason Christie, FLW Tour standouts, Brent Ehrler and Dave Lefebre, BASS sticks, Edwin Evers, Brandon Palaniuk, and Ott DeFoe, not to mention a popular TV personality or two."

I don't even know who is making the announcement, but I suspect you could begin with Dave or any of the other names listed and watch their Facebook pages or Twitter accounts on Thursday, you can stay ahead of the game. I'll share more when there's more to tell, but I may be fishing on Thursday, so I'm guessing you can get the news faster by watching for it directly!

Christie Continues Giving Back

Forrest L. Wood presenting Jason Christie the second annual
Forrest L. Wood Sportsmanship and Community Service Award.

A couple of weeks ago, I watched Jason Christie receive the Forrest L. Wood Sportsmanship and Community Service Award on stage at the Forrest Wood Cup. That came as no surprise, given all I've ever heard about Christie and his character and all I've seen in him as he interacts with fans or talks on stage in front of a weigh-in crowd.

Christie continues to back that solid reputation with his hopeful plans for the Bassmaster Toyota Trucks All Star Week. If he gets voted in, Christie plans to donate all of his All Star Week earnings to the Make-A-Wish America Foundation. Not 10, 20 or even 50 percent. 100 percent. That decision, when combined with his all-star fishing performance this year, easily earns my vote. With a week left in the voting, Christie sits in fifth, one place out from making All Star Week.

Ten anglers earned their way into All Star Week strictly through their fishing. Those ten include the top eight in the Angler of the Year standings, the Rookie of the Year (Hank Cherry) and last year's Bassmaster Classic winner (Cliff Pace). The other four are chosen by fans, who can vote for four anglers daily through Sept. 6. Click here to cast your vote.

By the way, do you know where you would find Jason Christie if you went looking for him this morning? He'll spend this morning pond-side at a children's fishing derby, signing autographs, posing with children in photos and encouraging young anglers.

Christie's Conundum

Jason Christie - B.A.S.S. Photo by James Overstreet

It's hard to not wonder what Jason Christie is thinking today as he works the smallmouth-rich waters of New York's St. Lawrence River.

On one hand he must be glad to have made the cut and earned a check for at least $10,000, and by theory at least to still be in contention to win the tournament. On the other hand, practice begins tomorrow morning for the Forrest Wood Cup, the FLW Tour championship that carries a top prize of 1/2 million dollars, and he's more than 20 hours drive away from the venue. And when it comes down to it, he's 20 places and more than 7 pounds back in a tournament where the guys in front of him have been absolutely whacking them, so he's chances of winning this weekend are pretty slim.

As of this morning, Christie was only a pound and a half out of the Top 12 cut. Were he to get a good bag today, he could easily move up just enough to be fishing again tomorrow. That would mean missing all of the first day of practice for the Cup and much of the second day, I would have to think. He's using the same boat for both events, so even if he could get an evening flight out, his boat wouldn't arrive in Louisiana for close to a fully day after it leaves New York. He has a friend helping with the driving, and last I knew he didn't know if he would fly or go with the truck and boat. I also don't know whether practicing in a different boat part of the time is a legal and legitimate option.

If today he were to catch them well enough to maybe make the 12 but didn't see himself legitimately in contention to win, I wonder if he'd even be tempted to cull a larger fish for a small one so he could get on the road. As a winner of another Elite Series event this year, he already had his Bassmaster Classic ticket punched. Meanwhile, the Red River, where the Cup will be held, is the sort of fishery where Christie seems to do the very best. Shallow, stained and thick with cover, it lends itself wonderfully to pitching a Wooly Bug, or bouncing a shallow Bomber or a spinnerbait off lots of cover. And again, it's the championship -- a career-changing event that's far bigger than the big check that comes with winning it.

I've not talked to Christie at all about any of this and honestly don't know him well, and I haven't read stories written since he made the cut that quoted him regarding his thought processes. It could be that he's far too competive to even think about the next event -- no matter what it is -- until he's done everything in his power to try to win the one he is fishing. I'm just curious what he's thinking about as he fishes today. Can he focus on catching smallmouths and trying to place as high as possible on the St. Lawrence, or is he strategizing Red River largemouths or mentally playing out every possible travel scenario even as he fishes for New York smallmouths?

Beaver Won, on to Bull Shoals, for Jason Christie

Jason Christie, Beaver Lake FLW Tour event winner, with his family immediately after the weigh-in. FLW photo.

Jason Christie is keeping on the run this year, but the full schedule seems to suit him well. One of a few of this season's two-tour pros, Christie was already was already doing well on the FLW Tour and in the Elite Series, but he punctuated that success this afternoon with an FLW Tour win on Beaver Lake.

Christie's second FLW Tour win earned him a check for $125,000, but he won't spend much time pondering how how he'll spend any of the money. Practice for the next Elite Series even begins tomorrow. Fortunately for Christie, that event is being held on Bull Shoals Lake, which is also in the northern part of Arkansas and only a couple of hours' drive from Beaver Lake.

It will be interesting to see if things learned at Beaver will help Christie at Bull Shoals. He won't be able to use the same strategy because he won Beaver with a YUMbrella Flash Mob, Jr., a five-hook rig that isn't allowed in Elite Series competition. However, both lakes are deep, clear impoundments of the White River that have been subject to the same weather patterns this spring. Therefore, it would seem like things that he (and other two-tour anglers) learned at Beaver should help at Bull Shoals.

Classic Stories: From Local Favorite to Maine First-Grade Teacher

Local favorite Jason Christie is in 6th place after Day 1 BASS photo by Gary Tramantina.

"I got goose bumps right there just talking about it," Jason Christie said after attempting to put into words what it would be like to win the Bassmaster Classic at home. The Oklahoma pro has been asked the same questions a million times, but he still doesn't know how to answer them becasue there's no way he can imagine how it would feel -- if it were to happen. In truth, it's probably hard for him to wrap his mind around his current emotions as he competes for his sport's biggest title on waters he is so familiar with and where he has had so much success.

After Day 1, Christie was in 6th place and in a solid position, but other names around him are some of the biggest in the sport: names like Kevin VanDam and Mike Iaconelli.

And then there are names like Jonathan Carter of Maine, who virtually no one knew anything about going into the tournament and who found himself in 7th place at the end of the first day. A BASS Nation representative who has never fished a pro level tournament with BASS, Carter is also a first grade teacher in his home state who had to use every ounce of grace he could get from school administrators to fish the necessary qualifying tournaments and the Classic itself and who almost missed a connecting flight on the way down that would have cost him a day of practice.

Mark Pierce, another Bass Nation qualifier, caught the biggest bass of yesterday. Pierce only weighed on fish, but that one fish weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces. Just being in the Classic was extra satisfying for Peirce as he had missed making the field as a BASS Nation represented by a single place a year earlier.

"Persevere," he told the Classic crowd. "I kept trying and here I made it to the biggest stage in bass fishing."

When all the fish have been weighed tomorrow afternoon, the biggest stories will be about who caught the heaviest three-day sack and has been crowned Classic Champ, just how big the winning weight was, and the lures and patterns that produced the winning fish. But to me the most interesting stories right now are the personal stories about the 53 competitors, how they got there, their perspectives going into the event and some of the little things that happen each day.

Yesterday the severe cold was also a major story at the weigh-in, although different anglers' takes on how it felt and how it affected the fish varied immensely. Florida anglers said they'd never fished a colder day, while northern anglers boasted that it wasn't really even that cold. Some said it really slowed the fish. Others suggested that it triggered a better bite.

I look forward to seeing how the stories continue to develop today. They actually are developing already as the pros have been on the water for two hours. I think I'll head on over to BASSTrakk before I steer toward the Classic Expo.

Oklahoma pro Jason Christie, winner of the Central Open at Fort Gibson Lake. B.A.S.S. photo by James Overstreet.

If any anglers in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic field did not take note of Jason Christie winning the Detroit River Open and securing himself a place in the Classic, I'll bet they took note yesterday when Christie notched his second open win of the summer at Oklahoma's Fort Gibson. The Classic will be held on Oklahoma's Grand Lake, which Christie considers his home lake, and Fort Gibson is just down the road from Grand and similarly familiar to the Oklahoma pro who primarily fishes the FLW Tour.

Christie opted to fish shallow throughout the Fort Gibson tournament while many anglers focused their efforts offshore. He used a combination of a Rebel Wee-R, a Zara Spook and a YUM Wooly Bug to tally a three-day catch that totaled 40 pounds, 15 ounces.

Challenging Start for Jason Christie

Jason Christie - FLW Photo by Gary Mortenson.

We've all heard fishermen talk about being "snake bit" in a tournament. Well, Jason Christie started the Forrest Wood Cup spider bit -- literally. A spider, apparently a black widow, bit Christie before he left his home in Oklahoma to travel to Georgia's Lake Lanier, and the day before practice for the tournament was to begin, his leg started to swell. Not wanting to miss practice, Christie tried to ignore it, but he ended up going to a local emergency room, where they kept him for most of a day and gave him I.V. antibiotics.

Day 1 of the four-day championship event began this morning, with 46 boats blasting off at 7:00 a.m. to compete for half a million dollars. The pros in the other 45 boats had spent three days practicing on the lake, looking for groups of fish and figuring out patterns. Christie, who is fishing his fourth consecutive Forrest Wood Cup in his young career, will have to learn as he goes.

Watch the FLW Forrest Wood Cup homepage for live coverage throughout the tournament or follow @FLWFishing on Twitter.

Interesting Twist in Bassmaster Classic Plot

Jason Christie of Park Hill, Oklahoma, who won the B.A.S.S. Open out of Detroit this weekend, earned a spot in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic, which will be held on Oklahoma's Grand Lake. B.A.S.S. photo by David Hunter Jones.

Of the seven BFL tournaments that Oklahoma's Jason Christie won before he began touring nationally as an FLW pro, five of them were on Oklahoma's Grand Lake, which will be the venue for the 2013 Bassmaster Classic. By winning this weekend's B.A.S.S. Northern Open in Detroit, Christie qualified for the "home waters" Classic.

Christie, who worked grass patches at the mouth of the Detroit River with YUM 2ubes and Salleemanders throughout the Detroit event and brought 20-plus pounds to the scales all three days, has only fished half a dozen B.A.S.S. events, so his name is not super well known on the B.A.S.S. side. In only five years as an FLW pro, though, he has become known as one of the top competitors on the tour.

Oklahoma tournament anglers at all levels know Christie's name very well, and B.A.S.S. pros from all areas who anticipate making the Classic almost certainly have taken note of Christie's Classic qualification. Every qualifier brings unique strengths to a Classic field, and various anglers will be worthy of watching closely for one reason or another. Christie, though, clearly will be a popular pick as favorite to win the 2013 Bassmaster Classic.

Of course, Christie can't dwell too much on what he'll do in the Bassmaster Classic a half a year from now. In less then three weeks he will be competing in his fourth consecutive Forrest Wood Cup, and the venue is Lake Lanier, which is only about 50 miles from Lake Hartwell, where he notched his first FLW Tour win last year.