Christie leads with 20!
By Bryan Brasher
BASS PRESS RELEASE
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| Christie ready to win first Classic! (Photo: BASS) |
After one day of fishing on Lake Hartwell, the leaderboard
for the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by DICK’S Sporting Goods has a
familiar look.
Oklahoma angler Jason Christie leads the way, with Edwin Evers — a fellow Okie and Christie’s roommate on the Bassmaster Elite Series — sitting close behind in second.
Christie said a change in strategy near the mid-point of Day 1 helped him to his tournament-best weight of 20 pounds, 14 ounces.
“I’ve got two little deals going, and I did the first little deal for the first three or four hours,” said Christie, who claimed the GEICO Everyday Leader Award of $2,500. “But then it just kind of ran out.
“I changed it up and actually caught a 5-pounder — and that gave me a clue. So, I just ran with it and ended up culling everything I had.”
Christie said he caught fish all day, but patience was required for finding the type of big fish that helps an angler win the Classic.
“They’re all on the same kind of stuff, but you just don’t know where the big ones are going to come from,” he said. “You’ll catch a 2-pounder, a 2-pounder and then finally a 5-pounder.”
Evers, who brought in 19-9 Friday, got off to a fast start with a good early-morning bite that he said might have been due to bass feeding on blueback herring.
“I honestly don’t know what they were doing,” he said. “I got really lucky and found a place that had a bunch of fish in it. It was an early-morning deal. I caught them every cast.”
Like Christie, Evers caught his biggest fish — two largemouth that each weighed 4-10 — in the afternoon hours.
“Those fish came around 12:30 or 1 o’clock,” he said. “It made for a better day than I thought I was going to have. I thought I was going to catch 16 or 17 pounds and maybe get a couple of big bites to push that up — and that’s what happened.”
The last time these two anglers waged a close battle in a Classic was 2016 on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees in their home state. Back then, Christie led the first two days, only to see Evers overcome him with a giant catch on the final day.
Oklahoma angler Jason Christie leads the way, with Edwin Evers — a fellow Okie and Christie’s roommate on the Bassmaster Elite Series — sitting close behind in second.
Christie said a change in strategy near the mid-point of Day 1 helped him to his tournament-best weight of 20 pounds, 14 ounces.
“I’ve got two little deals going, and I did the first little deal for the first three or four hours,” said Christie, who claimed the GEICO Everyday Leader Award of $2,500. “But then it just kind of ran out.
“I changed it up and actually caught a 5-pounder — and that gave me a clue. So, I just ran with it and ended up culling everything I had.”
Christie said he caught fish all day, but patience was required for finding the type of big fish that helps an angler win the Classic.
“They’re all on the same kind of stuff, but you just don’t know where the big ones are going to come from,” he said. “You’ll catch a 2-pounder, a 2-pounder and then finally a 5-pounder.”
Evers, who brought in 19-9 Friday, got off to a fast start with a good early-morning bite that he said might have been due to bass feeding on blueback herring.
“I honestly don’t know what they were doing,” he said. “I got really lucky and found a place that had a bunch of fish in it. It was an early-morning deal. I caught them every cast.”
Like Christie, Evers caught his biggest fish — two largemouth that each weighed 4-10 — in the afternoon hours.
“Those fish came around 12:30 or 1 o’clock,” he said. “It made for a better day than I thought I was going to have. I thought I was going to catch 16 or 17 pounds and maybe get a couple of big bites to push that up — and that’s what happened.”
The last time these two anglers waged a close battle in a Classic was 2016 on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees in their home state. Back then, Christie led the first two days, only to see Evers overcome him with a giant catch on the final day.
