By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
For a fair number of Bassmaster Elite Series pros, this is it – last call. Glory’s last shot.
This week’s Oneida Lake tournament marks the final opportunity to collect the necessary points in order to qualify for next year’s Bassmaster Classic. Others have sealed up berths through victories in the Elites or Opens and others still will have all but locked up spots once they catch a couple limits of fish this week. However, for the vast majority of Elite Series pros, or about two-thirds of the 99 full-timers, time’s up after this one.
While many eyes will be trained on the top of the points standings to see who walks away with the Angler of the Year title and the $100,000 bonus, the race for those precious final Classic berths should prove to be just as dramatic.
Among those on the bubble are Classic vets Rick Clunn (29th place), Steve Kennedy (30th) and Mike Iaconelli (31st) along with those seeking their first trip like Britt Myers, who’s currently 37th, just seven points behind 32nd-place Marty Robinson, who would be the last man into the Classic if the season ended today.
Oneida represents the final hurdle in Myers’ quest to add the Classic to his fishing résumé. Earlier this season, he appeared to be a lock to head to Grand Lake in Oklahoma next February after a string of four straight Top-50 cuts, including back-to-back runner-up finishes at Bull Shoals Lake and Douglas Lake.
However, finishes of 73rd (Mississippi River) and 85th (Lake Michigan) in June dropped him from 11th place after Toledo Bend (fifth event) to the brink of elimination.
“If it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be,” he said late last week. “If you’d have told me at the beginning of the year, ‘Britt, here’s the scenario: We’re going to put you in 37th in every tournament, with one left,’ I’d take it.
“Given the year I’ve had, I should be walking into the Classic, but it’s been a roller coaster. That’s exactly what it’s been.”
Oneida Unkind
Myers’ track record at Oneida would lead one to believe his chances of closing the gap on Robinson or passing him are slim. In four trips there, including three Elite events, his best result was a 51st in 2009.
It’s not that he flat-out misses the bite there, though. In 2008, he was 3rd after day 1, but didn’t have a backup plan since his practice was cut short. He blanked on day 2 and plummeted to 92nd.
“I’d only been able to practice for 1 day because I was sick with food poisoning,” he recalled. “I found one shallow-type of deal and wound up in the Top 3 after the first day. I went out on the second day and ran the same water and didn’t catch squat.
“I didn’t know that many smallmouths lived there. Having only practiced 1 day, I could’ve gone out and caught 10 pounds of smallmouth and made the cut. You just have to be smart up there and you can’t put all of your eggs in one basket in one area.”
Knowing the smallmouths can be just as big of difference makers there as the largemouths, he wants to get dialed in on patterns for both this week.
“I’ve been there and I understand how to fish it. I just have to fish it smart,” he added. “It wouldn’t blow my mind to see smallmouths win it this time around. Several times, smallmouth have finished 2nd there. Most people will be fishing shallow for largemouth, but I know what those can do to you. If you can catch them for 4 straight days, you could really have a shot to win.”
Down, Then Up, And Down Again
While he made just three 50-cuts and finished no higher than 31st in 2011, Myers called it his most consistent season as an Elite Series pro and had him eager to see what 2012 had in store.
“What’s crazy is I knew this year was going to be a good year. After last year, I felt like I was starting to get it,” he said. “I started in this sport really green. I’ll be the first to tell you I had no real idea what I was getting into traveling the country and competing against these guys. Last year, I really started to learn the lakes and techniques and ways to catch ‘em. I came into this year super excited.”
That excitement was snuffed out with a 99th-place (dead last) finish at the St. Johns River, where he just couldn’t unlock any sort of a sight-fishing program.
“To come out and bomb there, that really got to me,” he said.
His turnaround the following week at Okeechobee, where he wound up 16th, was astounding and touched off a four-event stretch during which he could do no wrong. He slugged it out with Brandon Palaniuk in a cranking fest at Bull Shoals before finishing 2nd. He led for 3 days at Douglas Lake – another deep-cranking bonanza – then succumbed to Jeremy Starks on the final day to settle for 2nd again. A 31st at Toledo Bend capped off the best four-tournament stretch of his career and saw him climb to 11th in the points.
“Any time I can get offshore, I feel like I’m fishing in my wheelhouse,” he said in reference to Bull Shoals and Douglas. “Each day, I’d just catch fish after fish and all of sudden I’d get a big one on and it was like, ‘It’s happening again.’ The big ones kept showing up.”
Speaking of the big one, of the current Elite Series pros only Yusuke Miyazaki has gone longer (11 years) without a Classic appearance than Myers, and there’s a strong chance Miyazaki will qualify this year, as he’s 23rd in points. Starks, who like Myers has gone without a Classic appearance since joining the Elite Series in 2006, will end his Classic drought next year thanks to his win at Douglas.
“I want to cap the year off with a good finish. If I miss the Classic, it would negate what I did this year,” Myers said. “It would be awesome if I made the Classic. I’d probably be happier than whoever wins Angler of the Year. That’s how happy I’d be.”
