By Lynn Burkhead
OSG Senior Digital Editor
If Steve Kennedy doesn’t win the 2021 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Ray Roberts, it's quite possible that weather will have been a big factor.
That’s because of a 2-hour plus delay in getting the anglers out on the water during Saturday’s second day of competition that was caused by an MCS—a Mesoscale Convective System, or organized group of thunderstorms, that rolled across much of North Texas just before the sun came up.
While overnight storms had been a possibility in Oklahoma, the weather forecast for the Pilot Point area near the Ray Roberts State Park Isle du Bois Unit boat ramp caused no looming concerns for Classic anglers and organizers. In fact, not one angler mentioned the possibility of having to deal with inclement weather on day 2 as they held court with the media on Friday evening.
But that all changed in the pre-dawn hours Saturday as the complex surprisingly held together, made a push south of the Red River, brought a severe thunderstorm warning to the Ray Roberts area and swamped the lake with heavy rains, high winds, some hail, and a lot of vivid and potentiall deadly lightning.
So inclement was the early morning weather that just up the road in the Lake Texoma area, the same storm complex caused a boat slip to go under, nearly taking down a regional tournament competitor and some striper guides who had sought refuge under the newly constructed facility.
There were no such incidents on Ray Roberts, but the severe weather and subsequent delay in getting the anglers out on the water took nearly 2 hours of competition time away and left anglers like Kennedy scrambling after the early morning shad bite was lost.
That bite was very important to Kennedy – who also lost a huge fish later in the day to compound his misery – since he did most of his damage on day 1 in the first hour of competition. In fact, Kennedy capitalized on the shad spawn bite so well that day that he had 17-pounds-plus in the boat scarcely 30 minutes into the 51st Classic.
Weather has been a frequent topic all throughout this Classic process here in North Texas. In fact, B.A.S.S. angler Greg Hackney, who is not competing in the event this year, quipped the other day that his 2021 Classic experience was getting to take forecasters from the Weather Channel out on the lake for day 1.
That’s a humorous story that Hackney told with a smile, but truth be told, aside from the coronavirus outbreak that affected the dates, weather has played perhaps the most significant role in the event.
That all started earlier this year with a severe arctic outbreak in February that froze significant portions of Ray Roberts and left several inches of snow covering the ice in a scene more reminiscent out of a Minnesota ice-fishing camp than a Lone Star State bass fishery.
Then there was a historically late freeze in the North Texas region in April, right in the heart of the springtime bass spawn at Ray Bob. That was followed by weeks of cloudy, rainy, cooler than normal weather that left water temperatures below normal and the lake flooding miles of shoreline vegetation as the 2021 Classic came to town.
On the morning of the final day of competition, the weather was different again, dawning bright and sunny, although another group of thunderstorms loomed well to the northwest of Ray Roberts. That group of storms appeared destined to stay in southern Oklahoma, but it’s possible that some scattered cloud cover could move south of the Red River as the morning rolled along.
Weather has played a key role in a number of memorable Classic outcomes.
In August 1991, the late Ken Cook outlasted the field during a week of topsy-turvy weather conditions to win the event on the Chesapeake Bay and its surrounding tidal marshes and rivers that drain the landscape near Baltimore.
While many will remember Cook – a former Oklahoma fisheries biologist turned Bass Fishing Hall of Fame member – surging from 9th place on day 1 to 1st place on 15 bass weighing 33-02, those with long memories might remember the event more so for an unwelcome visit from Bob.
As in Hurricane Bob, an infamous tropical cyclone that threatened the Eastern Seaboard and forced the cancellation of a Classic practice day as it pushed northward after brushing the outer banks of North Carolina. While the storm eventually missed the Chesapeake Bay region, it did bring wind, rain, and higher tides to the area as it surged northward and became one of the costliest hurricanes to ever strike New England.
The weather at the 2013 and 2015 Classics was just about as polar opposite as could be, and the pun is intended since winter storms were the issue, not hurricanes.
In the 2013 derby on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake, frigid weather in the days leading up to the event caused some ice cover on the Sooner State reservoir and a good snowfall blanketed the host city of Tulsa a few days before the event began. While conditions improved during the Classic itself, it was still a chilly event with cold water and air temperatures in the 40s as Cliff Pace captured the Classic crown.
Two years later in South Carolina, the coldest Classic in history went down as a frigid arctic air mass enveloped the Southeastern U.S. with historically cold temperatures. Overnight temperatures heading into day 1 dropped to 10 degrees and left bass rigs frozen to their trailers.
In 2001, it was the threat of a tropical storm and hot, sticky, summertime weather in the New Orleans area that dominated conversation in an event that became the first of Kevin VanDam’s four Classic wins. The July derby featured typical weather in the Big Easy region – temps well into the 90s, humidity readings in the 90s, and a sultry southerly breeze off the Gulf of Mexico as Tropical Storm Barry loomed and caused higher than normal tides.
For Steve Kennedy, if this 2021 Classic crown gets away from him on day 3, he will forever remember what might have been and the storm that scuttled his shad-spawn pattern. If he does end up with a “What if?” story and a beef with the local weather prognosticators, then the Auburn, Ala. angler can take solace in the fact that he isn’t alone.
Because at Ray Roberts and beyond, when it comes to the Bassmaster Classic, it’s quite often a story of weather or not.
