Few Found Anything They Can Bank On At Still-Frigid Lay

Out of 51 Bassmaster Classic competitors, at least a handful of them must've found something to get at least a little bit excited about during the 3-day pre-practice period that concluded Sunday. Those anglers are difficult to identify, though, because with conditions at Alabama's Lay Lake as brutal as they are, the safest thing for them to do is cry the blues along with everyone else,

lest they get some unwelcome company in their "hot spots" on day 1 of the event.

This much is fact: Lay is too cold and too muddy to offer up a wide-open bite, and it'll probably stay that way through the Classic. But many of the best anglers in the world have assembled in Birmingham, and a few of them will figure out something (or stumble onto it) that'll produce bags in the mid-teens. After pre-practice, most would take a limit of barely-legal keepers and not complain a bit.

The field will get 1 more day on the water (Wednesday's official practice day) to formulate a gameplan for locating and enticing Lay's substantial but shivering populations of largemouths and spots. What they come up with that day will go a long way toward determining how the 40th edition of the sport's premier event will play out.

Meanwhile, here are some reports from the chilly 3-day weekend:

Pace Says 'Tough but Interesting

Mississippi's Cliff Pace is used to muddy water, but he's not used to freezing cold muddy water with shad dying left and right.

"I had a very limited amount of info given to me by this lake in practice, but I know it's going to be really tough," he told BassFan. "The water temperature's incredibly cold, shad are dying all throughout the lake, a lot of the lake's really dirty, and we're all facing the conditions we hoped we wouldn't have to face. It's going to be a tough but interesting week."

He noted that normally at Lay, a 5-pound bite might move you up the standings a few places. This week such a bite might move you up 20 places. Like everyone else, though, he's not sure how to go about trying for such a fish.

"I wouldn't ever deem any fish uncatchable – that can be the death of somebody at an event like this, because anything can happen and it does. The fish are still there. There's a tremendous population of fish in this lake. It's just a matter of which guy can figure out a technique to catch them. But you've got something working against you in every scenario. Muddy water is complicating the deep bite. The extreme cold weather is complicating the shallow bite. I don't think it's going to be an easy tournament for anybody."

Chapman Frustrated

Kansan Brent Chapman used his electronics to locate several large groups of fish, but trying to get them to bite was an exasperating experience.

"It's very frustrating to know how many fish there are in here and to not be able to get them to eat anything," he said. "I tried a little bit of everything I could think of, and then some, and not much worked.

"(On Sunday) I fished from 7:00 to 5:30 and got one bass bite in those 10 1/2 hours. But the best of the best are here and somebody will catch them. I'm done saying it's going to be tough for everybody because somebody always proves me wrong."

He graphed a lot of fish in the 20-foot range, but they were as dormant as a line of fence posts.

"I tried to figure out a way to snag some, but even that didn't work. I get in the type of areas where I feel they should be and then back off a little bit, and they're there – they just haven't moved up yet. But I haven't figured out a way to get them jump-started, and with so many dying shad, a fish that's hungry doesn't have to work very hard for a meal."

If he had to guess right now, he'd predict that the tournament will be won in relatively shallow water.

"I think the majority of the fish want to be out deep," he concluded. "But with the stained-to-muddy conditions, things aren't setting up for the deep bite to be productive."

Murray Not Confident Out Deep

It's a little odd to hear Arizona pro John Murray talk about lack of confidence out deep, but he just doesn't feel comfortable fishing muddy, deep water.

And he's pretty torn over how to fish shallow. Should he slow down and soak a plastic, hoping it lands on the nose of a bass, or fish fast in hopes of catching one or two active fish?

"I've caught a keeper each day of practice, and the most bites I had was four," he noted. "But with the drum and stuff it's hard to say what those four bites were. I figure most fish will be caught shallow, but where I launched the other day, the water was 37 degrees. It's just a grind."

About whether he'll fish fast or slow, he said: "There are two schools of thought. If there's one active fish per creek, you should fish fast and cover as much waster as you can to get that one bite. But if they're sitting there, maybe you should slow down and find them. I'm starting to think that covering water might be the way to go."

(Editor's note: Murray's writing a blog during Classic week on his site: JohnMurrayFishing.com)

Brauer Biding Time

Missouri's Denny Brauer didn't accomplish much in pre-practice, but he's not overly discouraged. Could that mean that the flipping guru has a strong inkling that this week's slightly warmer conditions will bring some fish to the banks?

"I'm really not down; I just felt like the conditions were very, very tough," he said. "I've been at this a lot of years and in conditions like that, you have to just put your head down and keep banging and hoping that you can piece something together. A lot can change in 2 or 3 days and the one positive is it can't get any worse.

"I look back over the years at past Classics and there were times when I knew I had my work cut out for me because I wasn't on the fish that I needed to win, but I always had something going. Or in other words, I had a clue. I think there's a lot of competitors right now who don't have a clue."

He said he was happy to get through pre-practice without catching pneumonia, noting that the extremely wet snowstorm on Friday made for one of the most miserable days on the water of his long career. He was looking forward to improved conditions for the official practice day.

"A lot of us need to get back out there Wednesday and find something that'll do us some good."

Klein's Anticipation High

Gary Klein, who'll compete in this event for the 28th time, is anxious for competition to get under way. That's not because he got onto anything special in pre-practice, but because it likely won't take anything spectacular to be in contention.

"At this time of year and with the conditions we have, if you can just figure out one little deal you can get ahead in a hurry, and that's what excites me," he said. "These fish are chunks, they're very healthy, but it's just hard to get them to bite. A limit's going to be very strong.

"Wednesday's probably going to be the most important day all of us have. This is going to be a very tough event, but the good thing about it is these kinds of events can be won very easily."

His focus is on shallow water.

"I think this tournament will be won in less than 10 feet. I could be off base, but I think the water is so dirty outside that I don't feel real good about a deep bite.

"I'll fish the shallows from dam to dam and see how it plays out."

Scalish: 'It's Slow'

Ohio pro Frank Scalish is used to the cold – he steelheads all winter long – but he said the mental drudgery of such slow bass fishing is tough to deal with.

"I didn't catch a bass for 2 days," he said. "I did figure out a little something (Sunday), but they're not big fish – not tournament-grade. So I have to do some tweaking, but overall it's been really brutal down here. The water's really muddy and it's the coldest this lake has ever been.

"I left all the snow and ice to come down south, and it followed me all the way down here."

Velvick: 'Anybody's Game'

Byron Velvick said the ultra-stingy state that Lay is in should level the playing field.

"It'll be an interesting tournament," he said. "No disrespect to the top guys here, but anybody can win this thing. Anybody could find something kooky, like a rockpile in 35 feet of water where they can catch them for some reason."

He didn't find anything good in pre-practice, but he's okay with that.

"I'll go out on Wednesday and just keep pounding, and over the last couple of years I've gotten comfortable with practicing during the tournament. Out of those three Top 12s I had last year, in two of them I didn't have anything going in practice.

"It's something that Skeet (Reese) has done so well for so long, and I understand it now and it's working for me. If I don't catch them Wednesday, then I'll still be confident that I can do it on Friday morning or Friday afternoon."

Bites Scarce for Browning

Arkansas' Stephen Browing got only two bites during pre-practice, so he'll basically start over again on Wednesday.

"I tried to fish with an open mind and I tried to duplicate the bites I did get in different areas, but I couldn't get anything going," he said. "I plan to use Wednesday to find something a little different and I might try some more finesse stuff to see if I can come up with a bite or two."

He's another angler who's sticking to the skinnier water.

"Some of the local boys might have a place or two up their sleeve where they can catch them deep, but I'm not a deep-water fisherman. I'll stick to my strengths and try to scratch out anything I possibly can."