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!

Cabela's Greenville Visit

Cabela's Greenville, SC. Photo courtesy of Cabela's

A couple of weeks ago I had mentioned that I hoped to visit the new Cabela's store in Greenville, S.C. on the way to Columbia for the Forrest Wood Cup. I did indeed get to make that visit happen and had a big time exploring the store. Upon arriving in Columbia, I jumped straight into Cup coverage, and I've sort of been playing catch-up ever since I get home. Thus the delayed report. Still, I'd be remiss to not share a bit about what I saw.

I turned right, upon entering Cabela's. That led me toward the camping department, which has a cool and distinctively regional décor. Wall displays highlight state parks and wilderness areas throughout South Carolina's mountainous Upcountry. Each includes images, basic park information and a piece of a topo map that provides a sense of what's there. I appreciated added the local flavor, and having enjoyed time in most of the highlighted areas, I found myself lingering there a while before continuing through the store.

Regional displays in camping area. Photo courtesy of Cabela's

Like any Cabela's, the Greenville store has everything an outdoorsman could ever want, a Bargain Basement, the feel of a giant outpost and gazillions of fish and game mounts throughout (including full-body mounts of North American game animals on a mountain side the back of the store). My favorite parts, though, and the places where I hung around the longest, were the fly tying section and in front of the aquariums.

The tying stuff actually caught me. My supplies at home lacked olive, which is pretty important to the way I like to fish, so I was unable to escape without olive bucktail, marabou and thread (plus a few other things) finding their way into my basket. I also made good use of the opportunity to pick from a lot of jigheads and get the head shapes and sizes and hook sizes that would work best for the bugs I like to tie. I've already had fun playing with that stuff since getting home.

Giant aquariums filled with game fish always fascinate me, and I can spend way too long watching the fish, dreaming about those I'd like to encounter in the wild and seeing how the species are true to their normal distinctive behavior patterns, even in a big tank. At Cabela's I thought it was cool that they had distinctive warm- and cold-water tanks, which together offered glimpses of a large representation of the freshwater fish we catch in this part of the country. I also had fun playing with my GoPro and got a couple of photos that I thought were pretty cool for aquarium shots.

GoPro view of the warmwater aquarium. Jeff Samsel photo.

Beyond specific highlights and sections, I liked just roaming around Cabela's, looking up, looking around, and happily realizing I was only an hour and a half from home. Next stop for me is the Acworth, Georgia store, which is even newer than Greenville and about the same distance in a different direction!

The Boat Ride

"This is the hardest rain I've ever seen," James Hall announced to his GoPro, which was likewise getting pounded with sheets of sideways rain.

I couldn't argue. I'm pretty sure I've never been wetter (even submerged), and the rain came so hard at times that it stung my skin. Adding drama, crosswind-formed waves kept the boat rocking, lightning flashed around us and the combination of the rain and the low cloud we were in made it seriously tough to see. Plus, we were deep in Sierra Madre Mountains on a wild and remote lake.

Our guide calmly persisted as we gritted our teeth, ducked our heads and laughed at the situation for lack of anything else that could be done. I'm not sure what our guide was thinking because he didn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish.  James speaks some Spanish -- enough to communicate as needed while calmly fishing. But given the situation, all we really could do was hang on and trust the man who was steering the craft knew which direction it should be pointed.

We had noticed the clouds gathering and felt the rain start. It looked like it would pass, though, and none of us minded getting wet. Plus we were fishing Lake Pichachos, Mexico's newest bass lake, and we only had a few hours that afternoon and a couple of hours the next morning to fish. We really didn't want to cut it any shorter than was necessary. By the time we knew the rain had set in to stay and we'd better get moving, it was coming down as hard as rain cold fall, and under those conditions, we were a good 20 minutes ride from where we needed to be.

By the time we got back, the lightning was notably closer and more frequent. The rain subsided a bit at the end, but we actually kind of missed it because it was a warm rain and the wind was cold on soaked clothes. The adventure continued with a truck getting stuck on a newly cut and rain drenched dirt road and us climbing the hill on foot in nearly complete darkness. We made it out safely, and having done so, I have to admit that I'm glad for the storm. It was an adventure I won't quickly forget.

Playing with the Bass

I really just wanted to take a few photos of the bass in the Dicks Sporting Goods tank at the Bassmaster Classic expo, but it didn't take long to see that the fish was tracking my camera with its eyeball and with its whole body when I moved the camera more. I'm fairly certain it was eying the red light on the #GoPro. So, of course, I had to move the camera around more to make it look like the bass was watching a tennis match.

"You ought to film that," Nathaniel said.

I agreed. I pressed the #GoPro button while he filmed with another camera. Then he put 'em together. Here's the result.

Georgia Ice Plow & Other Cool Stuff

Ever wonder what it looks like when a johnboat crunches its way through rare ice atop a Georgia pond? Lose no more sleep. Click below to see for yourself.

"Georgia Ice Plow" comes from the new Nathaniel Samsel YouTube channel. Nathaniel wanted a place to launch videos that aren't necessarily instructional in nature. Just cool or funny stuff he sees in his outdoor adventures and captures a clip  of with his phone, the GoPro or another camera. He'll still produce and manage the videos on the Jeff Samsel channel. Those are mostly fishing how-to or destination oriented, but now he has a place for more fun stuff.

All Dressed Up & No Place to Go

Photo by Nathaniel Samsel

I guess it was a foolish notion, but when I finished a project with only a bit of afternoon remaining, Nathaniel and I started looking at the snow and thinking how pretty the pond would be. If we could get even a fish or two to take a vertical presentation during the final hour of daylight, it would be well worth the quick trip. In fact, it would be fun and the photos would be nice even if the fish wouldn't bite.

So Nathaniel gathered junk while I wrapped up work stuff and turned on the truck so it could begin to warm, and then we began piling on layers. My outer layer was waterproof so the snow wouldn't get me wet, and I had GoPros and my waterproof point-and-shoot in my pocket, gloves on my hands and a beanie on my head. All seemed perfect.

Perfect, that is, until I tried to back out and made my tires spin a faster than the truck was going backward. Turned out there was more ice under the snow than I expected. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten out, had I persisted, but I decided pretty quickly that if I was sliding that much in front of the house I probably shouldn't test four miles of road to go somewhere I didn't really need to go. Not even to go fishing.

Given reports I've heard from all over the South, I sort of think it was the right call. That was yesterday afternoon. This morning I resolved to just stay home and write fish stories today. Roads will thaw eventually, and there's nowhere I really need to go.

The Photo Game

As much as I enjoy catching fish, I also find big fun with a camera in my hand when I'm out on the water. I'm continually looking at the light and thinking about what might make a nice shot.

The photo part has been especially fun this week because of my new GoPro Hero 3, which I've only had for about a week. I love the effect of the super-wide angle, and I continue to be amazed by the quality of photo a GoPro takes. Mine has WiFi and can be linked with a phone app, but I haven't done that, and I don't have the photo viewing accessory. Therefore I just hold the camera out and press the button, hoping that when I put them on my computer I like what I find. So far, I have.

This morning's photo work was extra fun and easy because I spent a couple of hours with Alton Jones, who I consider one of the best in the business from a photo standpoint. Enough writing about taking photos, though. The afternoon light is about to get good, so it's time to start shooting again!

Cameras, Cameras, Cameras

If Nathaniel and I fail to deliver images or video clips when the fish start biting, it's surely not due to a lack of cameras. The camera arsenal includes a new waterproof Pentax that allows us each to have one handy when we're wading or floating and really cool pair of i-KAM XTREME sunglasses, which have a built in video camera right in the center.

The cameras (not all of which are pictured) almost seem like overkill, but they really do all have different jobs. The Canon SLRs still get the most work, but the weatherproof cameras stay ever handy and help me get way more photos in streams. The GoPro gets video from Nathaniel's head and is also cool for extreme wide angle, water-level shots. Our phones allow for immediate posting on blogs, Facebook and Twitter, and the glasses can film everything that goes on and are apt to get us some really cool footage of things like topwater strikes.

The big challenge, of course, is bringing and keeping up with all the corresponding power cords and memory cards and getting cameras recharged and images downloaded at night. However, I'll take the challenges for the opportunities these cameras will provide.

Cool New Headgear

Nathaniel is spending increasing amounts of fishing time with extra hardware strapped to his head. He likes the "head cam" option for our GoPro Hero2 not only because it makes him look cool but because it looks wherever he does and captures whatever is around him while keeping his hands free for fishing and doing other stuff.

Nathaniel's most recently produced video, "Life From the Top of My Head," brings together a few fun clips he has gotten with the head-mounted GoPro, including his own loss of footing as he descended a seriously steep slope and Asher making the term "backcast" extra literal by hooking me in the back. It also includes the GoPro video that was being shot in the photo above. The video is well worth the couple of minutes it takes to watch.

To see more of the videos that Nathaniel has produced, please visit our YouTube Channel.

Chattooga Whitewater This Morning

Photo courtesy of Southeastern Expeditions

Less then five hours from now, Nathaniel and I will be helping tote rafts and other gear into the gorge of the of Chattooga National Wild & Scenic River for a trip down Section IV! This section pours through several steep and technical Class III to V rapids and finishes with  Five Falls, which is a string of five big big rapids. Remote, rugged and strikingly beautiful, Section IV twists and turns among house-sized boulders, forested slopes and sheer cliffs. I'm really excited about this morning's outing because I haven't rafted the river for several years, and Nathaniel has never been down it. I'm bringing my little waterproof point-and-shoot and my GoPro, so I have big hopes of returning with some cool photos and hopefully some videos as well.

GoPro Ready to Go

The FedEx truck brought a cool new tool/toy yesterday that I suspect will serve me well in Costa Rica. The GoPro Hero2 is a high-definition video camera that also shoots 11 MP still shots and is designed to to wherever you want to take it. It's compact and easy to operate, comes housed in a box that is waterproof to nearly 200 feet and is designed to attach to a huge range of mounting accessories.

I think I'll use mine mostly on the headband, so it films wherever I'm looking. In Coast Rica, that approach could get me video of jumping billfish that I am fighting and of cool stuff in the rainforest as I swing through it on a rope. However, you can also put a mount on a helmet, the front a kayak, bike handlebars... Pretty much anywhere, with the right accessory, best I can tell.

I haven't put it to the test yet, so I won't make any claims about the photos and the videos. The cameras get great reviews, though, and some of the the stuff that has been shot with one that's posted on the GoPro website is pretty amazing. Soon we'll see what I'm able to do with it.