CHRISTIAN BIERETH: PREDATOR FISHING USA STYLE bIG IN AMERICA
than 10,000 people in the stadium cheering for their fishing heroes. For Saturday, the second day of competition,
I planned to drive to the lake to meet a local angler who offered to take me out on the lake on his boat. I had doubts that I will hear the alarm early in the morning after the amount of time it took to travel, but fortunately, it turned out that I was awake almost all the night because of jetlag, so it was no problem to head to the lake earlier than most of the others. It was still very cold, but better than the day before. The ice on the docks and the boat ramp indicated less than 0° C when competitors arrived and put their boats into the water. Camera crews are interviewing anglers on the boat dock, loud music is playing from the stage, more and more fans are arriving to see their favourite anglers set-off. Just a few minutes before the start, the national anthem is played and the adrenaline is going nuts, even when you are only watching! The anglers are getting ready and start their
engines before the line up to start. All of them are wrapped up in high performance clothing to face the elements and the unexpected cold. The fact that it is still winter and that it was very cold, also made the fishing tough, but hey – everybody in a tournament has to deal with the same conditions. After all 55 boats left, we also hit the water to chase a few anglers and see what they were doing. We found out that anglers had very different strategies and we saw some people fishing in very shallow water, but also in deep water up to 12 metres. After finding a few pros with just their marshal
in remote areas, we moved to another area where we spotted many boats. It turned out that it was Mike Iaconelli, who was followed by at least 20 boats. The spectator boats left him enough space and kept watching what he was doing. We also spent some time to see what he was doing and also see him catching two bass while we were with him. He and also the crowd freaked out when he put a good keeper into his livewell. It was obvious that he is in a battle to win. He was standing in 9th position after day one and did his best to climb the top of the leaderboard. It is really impressive to see the pros working and how they approach things. Casey Ashley, is a local pro who is also
followed by many spectators he has a big fanbase in South Carolina. We saw him fishing very slowly with a swimbait and also vertically with a metal jig which is not very popular for bass. We then found my friend Ott DeFoe and his new Nitro Z21 in a creek. He was fishing very shallow and we saw him catching a bass, too. After that, we decided to head back to put the boat on the trailer and drive to town to see the weigh-in. After a 45 minute drive we entered the ‘Bon Secours Wellness’ arena with probably another 20,000 visitors waiting for the professional anglers to come in. In the opposite direction of the day one standing, anglers are coming into the arena with their favourite songs playing and stunning videos on the LED walls. They are sitting in their boats and being towed to the stage. Each angler can weigh in five fish per day
and the biggest weight wins. After Saturday’s weigh-in only 25 anglers can survive the ‘cut’ and fish on championship Sunday, to battle for the 2015 Bassmaster Classic Trophy. Every angler
What an advantage for foreign fans like me...! I stopped at the Nitro booth to check out the
new Nitro Z21 which Kevin VanDam introduced to me personally. As he did not qualify for the Classic (the first time in his career), he had some time to meet fans at the expo. I can recommend to check out the total new Nitros coming for 2016. The expo was on two floors and just huge. More than 100,000 people visited the expo during the tournament. Almost every company involved in the fishing industry showed their new products to the public. According to the unofficial weights that are
The American dream: I’m imagining it as I check out Nitro’s new Z21(top), while Casey Ashley lives it as Bassmaster Classic Champion 2015
has the chance to say something about the day on the water, and almost everybody mentioned the support of their families, which I found very impressive as tournament anglers are not home a lot during the season, but many families travel with the anglers from tournament to tournament. After everyone weighed in, we knew who
would be fishing the next day and after dinner I went to bed and slept like a baby.
The plan for the third day and final day of the tournament was to check out the big trade show that is held in the convention centre, but as I woke up very early after being worried to jetlag again, I decided to see the start at the lake first. Even more people were there on Sunday to
see the pros getting ready before the official start of the final day. Local Angler Casey Ashley had two solid days which put him into fifth place, Takahiro Omori from Japan had a great second day and started as leader into day three. Mike Iaconelli and my friend Ott also made the cut and while they started their battle on Lake Hartwell, I decided to head to the exposition to check out new tackle, meet some other pros and also check out the live video broadcast of the tournament. This year was the first year with a full live coverage, so that people can also follow the event online.
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shown on the live coverage, the local angler Casey Ashley was having a good day, but also Takahiro Omori had a good day dropshotting one big stretch all day long. So everybody at the expo was exited to see the final weigh-in and who was going to be the 2015 Bassmaster Classic Champion. I went to the arena with some of my Japanese friends. Even before the pros arrived from the lake, there was a great show to fire up the full stadium. Once again, the pros started to weigh-in in
reverse order to the overnight standings and it was unbelievably exciting right up to the very end. It turned out that Casey Ashley did have a good day and that there was only one angler left who could beat him: Bobby Lane. After a few dramatic minutes with Casey on the Champions seat it was clear that Bobby Lane couldn’t beat him and that Casey was going to be the 2015 Classic Champion. The arena turned into a huge party and everybody celebrated the victory of local favourite who made history that day. I have been fishing tournaments in Europe for
a few years, but I have never seen anything like the Bassmaster Classic, yet. But I am very happy that the interest in tournaments is growing in Europe and that we now have such a great event with the WPC in Europe. With 46 boats all fighting for the title of the WPC Champion this year and also more than 35 kayaks and 140+ Streetfishers, it will make this a huge event. I hope that everybody is going to enjoy the event and that the interest for competitive fishing will increase more and more over the next few years so we can establish fishing as an International sport in Europe. At Bass Boat Germany, we are proud to be
the official boat sponsor and hand over a brand new Nitro Z6 with Mercury F115 to the WPC champions of 2015. This is our way to contribute to something we truly believe in. Good luck to all competitors! n
CHRISTIAN BIERETH
anglers come into the arena with their favourite songs playing, stunning videos on the LED walls and sitting in their boats being towed to the stage
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