Paris Fishing

OK. I'm talking about Paris, Tennessee. Of course, I probably don't need to say that. With that particular Paris being on the banks of Kentucky Lake, half the folks who read this blog might think about bass or crappie fishing on the big lake before the Eiffel Tower or other French landmarks when they hear mention of Paris. In truth -- exception if I were somehow afforded the opportunity to take my daughter Sarah to the across-the-pond Paris, I'd much rather be headed toward Fish Tales Lodge on Kentucky Lake than France.

Good thing. Truck will be pointed toward Tennessee tomorrow morning for a couple of days of fishing and photo work with the Strike King pro staff. I actually won't fish much and may not fish at all. It's a gathering of pros and writer for the purpose of shooting photos and videos, doing interviews and spending time with guys like Mark Rose, Kevin VanDam and Shaw Grigsby. I've attended the same annual event several times in the past and always drive a way with a lot of good material. Most is long term, for magazines, but watch for blogs about the outing, stories on FINS'nTALES, new videos on the YouTube channel and updates on my facebook page.

From Paris, I'm headed south toward Lake Charles, Louisiana, which is Cajun Country and therefore a more genuinely French culture. More on that to follow.

Big Bass Fishing Names Battle in Texas this Weekend

Texans contend that everything is bigger in their home state, and I won't step into that debate. I do know that the list of anglers competing on Lake Conroe in this weekend's Toyota Texas Bass Classic includes many of the biggest names in the sport of bass fishing. Looking at the list of 50 competitors, which is built based on Angler of the Year final standing from the Elite Series, FLW Tour and PAA Tournament Series, I'm not certain there has been a more power-packed field with a blend of B.A.S.S. and FLW pros.

As the boats stage for blast off on Lake Conroe tomorrow morning, Kevin VanDam, Edwin Evers and Terry Scroggins will be right beside Brent Ehrler, David Dudley and Andy Morgan and many other best-of-the-best pros. Combined accomplishments of the TTBC field include more than 70 million dollars in career earnings, 22 Angler of the Year titles and 17 major championship wins.

I'll definitely be watching what happens throughout the weekend and posting updates on my facebook fishing page. Be sure to like that page if you have not done so already. To watch weigh-ins and follow live scoring, visit the TTBC website.

Another Auburn Showdown For Classic Bid

B.A.S.S. photo by Seigo Saito

A year ago, Jordan Lee's final-day battle for a spot in the Bassmaster Classic field was against his brother and Auburn teammate, Matt Lee, and Matt edged him out to fish the Grand Lake Classic. A year later, after a full season of competition against college anglers from all over the country, Jordan Lee has again made it all the way to the final round and will be battling for an opportunity to fish the Classic. This year, instead of fishing against his brother, Lee will fish against his longtime best friend and another Auburn teammate, Shane Powell.

No matter which teammate brings in the best catch from Michigan's Grand River today, the Classic's college representative will again come from Auburn, which is an extra exciting prospect to either angler as the Classic will be held on Alabama's Lake Guntersville.

Today's competition is head-to-head, with weights from the past two days erased, and looking back at the last couple of days tells little about who is most likely to win. Lee had the biggest bag of eight anglers on Day 1 with more than 15 pounds, but conditions changed notably yesterday, and his best Day 1 pattern didn't hold up on Day 2. Had they been competing against each other yesterday, Powell would have won, but only by about a pound.

We'll find out this afternoon at 4:00 eastern. That's when they weigh 'em. You can watch it live on bassmaster.com. And when the college anglers get done, Hank Cherry, Kevin VanDam, Edwin Evers and Cliff Pace will weigh their fish for the All Star championship.

Sorting Out All Star Week

B.A.S.S. Photo Seigo Saito

Twenty-two anglers are fishing two separate events on three largely unknown Michigan waterways this weekend, with the competition beginning this morning. Fourteen B.A.S.S. All Stars are competing for total purse of $100,000 ($50,000 for first place). Eight top collegiate anglers are competing for a spot in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Guntersville. The tournaments themselves, which are concurrent, both follow unique formats.

The All Star event begins with all 14 anglers fishing two days on Muskegon Lake. The top four from Friday's and Saturday's fishing will move onto the final round, with weights zeroed, and fish a single day on Sunday at nearby White Lake for the championship. All fourteen anglers got practice time on both lakes this week.

The All Star field includes the top eight anglers in this season's Angler of the Year Standings (Aaron Martens, Edwin Evers, Kevin VanDam, Bobby Lane, Keith Combs, Alton Jones, John Crews, Chris Zaldain); rookie of the year (Hank Cherry); 2013 Bassmaster Classic Champion (Cliff Pace) and four anglers chosen through fan voting (Brandon Palaniuk, Mike Iaconelli, Gerald Swindle, Skeet Reece).

The College Series Classic Bracket, which will take place on the Grand River, just south of Muskegon, includes the four two-man teams that finished highest in the College Championship on Lake Chatuge earlier this summer. The anglers won't competing as teams, though. Instead they'll fish as eight individuals in an elimination-style event that will finish with two anglers fishing head-to-head on Sunday for the chance to be the college representative in the Bassmaster Classic.

Learn more about how to follow both events at the unfold at www.bassmaster.com.

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.

Double Barreled Tour Action

Both the B.A.S.S. Elite Series and the FLW Tour are making stops this week, with both tours visiting storied northern destinations.

FLW anglers are fishing Lake Champlain, which invariably yields great mixed catches of largemouths and smallmouths. Sometimes one kind of bass dominates top catches. Often the winner has a pattern for each brand of bass or a spot and location that yield good mixed catches.

The Elite Series event, which is based out of Green Bay, probably would have been a smallmouth slugfest except that the Wisconsin DNR deemed a large portion of the best waters off limits. The pros still will  catch plenty of good fish, but the tournament clearly won't highlight the best the area has to offer. Kevin VanDam wrote an excellent column for Bassmaster.com that expresses his disappointment with the DNR ruling and in my opinion does a fine job of summing up the issues and the consequences of the decision.

Learning From the Best of 'Em

As Rick Clunn cast a topwater plug toward a Table Rock bluff and spoke of the things he likes best about fall fishing, I couldn't help but consider how fortunate I am to be able to make my living writing fish stories. I began this morning watching Brian Snowden pull a 5 1/2-pounder off an offshore hump as I learned about his favorite summer strategies. Yesterday started with an hour in Kevin VanDam's boat doing photo and video work, followed soon after with time on the water with Jimmy Houston, Edwin Evers and Ott DeFoe.

Tournament wins and TV time aside, each of these pros has spent thousands of hours on the water, so the opportunity to ride along, take photos and ask questions allows me to learn so much in such a short period of time. Beyond that, relationships with many of the pros and other writers have grown into friendships, and I'm thankful to get spend time with my friends at a beautiful lodge as a big part of my job.

I'm writing from the Branson airport, and I'm also thankful that I'll be back home tonight. Not for long, though. Nathaniel and I leave Sunday morning for Branson, Round 2.

To Branson & Back & Branson & Back

Tomorrow I hop on a plane out of Atlanta to fly to Branson, Missouri for a writers' event at Big Cedar Lodge on Table Rock Lake. This is a fun and productive event that I've attended before, where I get the opportunity to do interviews and photo work with top pros like Kevin VanDam, Rick Clunn and Edwin Evers, using the beautiful backdrop of an Ozarks lake and enjoying the comforts of an outstanding resort. The weather forecast looks good, so I expect to get a lot done in only a few days.
I get home from Branson on Wednesday night, and then on Sunday morning, Nathaniel and I hop in the truck and begin driving back toward Branson! Actually, we'll drive first to the Buffalo River in northern Arkansas, where we're looking forward to a couple days of float-fishing with friends. The main objective of the trip, though, is to attend the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association's annual conference in Branson.

While we're in Branson, Nathaniel and I are looking forward to trout fishing on Lake Taneycomo. I've long heard about the fine trout fishing on these waters, but I've never fished there.