By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Scott Clift has already had a memorable December, with Christmas and his 40th birthday still to come.

The concrete cutter and cattle rancher from Dadeville, Mo. locked up the final berth in the 2017 Bassmaster Classic by winning the Team Championship Classic Fish-Off at Kentucky Lake. He established a big lead on the first day of the 2-day event that featured the six anglers that comprised the Top 3 duos in the preceding Team Championship, then closed out the victory with another solid bag on the final day.

"I can't even explain how it felt," said Clift, who'll celebrate his milestone birthday on New Year's Eve. "I thought I was going to choke up or cry right there on the stage.

"It still hasn't sunk in yet. I'm not used to having guys call me for interviews."

His 30-10 total outdistanced runner-up Barron Adams of Tennessee by more than 7 pounds.

He's never been to Texas' Lake Conroe, which will be the site of the Classic in March, but he plans to enjoy his visit.

"I've heard they (fish crankbaits) a lot in Texas, and I'm not great at that. I'll try to find something they'll bite and that's what I'll feed them."

Following are some of the details on how he earned how he earned the right to compete in the sport's premier event next spring.

Practice

Clift had been to Kentucky Lake for tournaments several times over the past 15 years and once won a boat in an American Bass Anglers championship event there. However, he and Team Championship partner Ashley Medley (who's also his brother-in-law) were both busy with work and domestic responsibilities leading up to last week's derby and didn't get any homework done.

"I got finished with the cattle the Sunday before at about 10 o'clock and I threw a few rods and some tackle in the truck and we headed to Kentucky Lake to have a good time," he said. "We were hoping we could find something that would get some bites and we'd get on a pattern, and that's what happened."

They caught decent fish on buzzbaits on the stormy first day of practice from a rocky place where a small flat dropped off into deeper water in the Blood River. They moved to the Big Sandy River the next day and found similar action on Wiggle Warts, as most of the fish seemed to have backed out to put a bit more water over their heads.

By that afternoon they were hooking up with jerkbaits, and that's all they threw the rest of the way.

"We probably had four places that we really had faith in and we saw five or six other banks they should've been on, but we couldn't get bit. We thought those places would be good if we got the right wind, and they ended up being the best places we had once we switched to the solo deal."

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 17-08
> Day 2: 5, 13-02
> Total = 10, 30-10

Clift and Medley finished 2nd in the 2-day Team Championship, just 7 ounces behind winners Ty Faber and John Gardner of Colorado. They'd boated a near-5-pound fish and another that was close to 3 late on the second day to make a run at the crown, then shared their best locales over the ensuing 2 days.

They started the first day of the fish-off on opposite banks of the Big Sandy. It took Clift about an hour to get his initial bite and his first three opportunities evaded him. One of those was a 5-pounder.

"I was about devastated," he said. "We'd only been getting seven or eight bites a day and I'd had three and didn't have any of them in the boat.

"I finally caught one and that kind of grounded me, and I had a limit not too long after that."

That limit comprised all of the 17 1/2 pounds he'd eventually take to the scale. He made one more pass over those fish and then left the area to search for similar locales, but that quest proved fruitless.

"We'd been kind of bouncing into fish every day and I wanted to find a fresh bank – it seemed like the bite was moving down the lake. I totally bombed on that and I only caught four or five shorts. I never did stumble across anything good."

With a big lead, he didn't sleep well Friday night – he estimates he might've caught 4 or 5 hours. When the final day got under way he returned to the bank that had produced the day before, but didn't get bit for the first 90 minutes.

"That was sort of the way it'd gone the day before. I thought it was going to get sunny, but it just kept getting cloudier. I finally got one on and lost it – I think it only had the back hook – so I switched to a color that I thought would be better for a cloudy day and I caught a keeper on my second cast."

He'd been throwing a Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait in the color called elegy bone, but changed to the M shad color. He popped his second fish, a 3 1/2-pounder, about 5 minutes later.

"I kept thinking if I could just catch a limit, I'd be fine. I hammered down on them and just fished slow – it felt too slow."

He left that bank in favor of another and quickly caught two more solid keepers. He then lost a 3-pounder before completing his limit with a run-of-the-mill keeper.

Later on, he boated a skinny keeper that didn't help him and lost one in the 3 1/2-pound class right at his boat. He knew he'd had a fair day, but wasn't completely confident that he'd done enough to win.

"I kind of expected somebody to really sack them on that kind of a day," he said. "I really expected my partner to catch a scary sack – 25 pounds can happen real quick at Kentucky Lake.

"I just knew I'd done everything in my control."

Pattern Notes

The banks that Clift fish were covered in various sizes of rock.

"Fist-size to head-size is what I'd call them," he said. "Every bank was a little different, but it needed to have rock. It was better if there was a shallow flat nearby and it rolled into a pocket."

The fish were right on the rocks in the early part of the event and he'd just throw the jerkbait and begin twitching it. He began having to reel it down before starting to twitch as the week went on and the fish moved deeper.

"They'd moved out to 15 feet by the last day."

Winning Gear Notes

> Jerkbait gear: 7'3" medium-action Lew's Custom Pro Speed Stick rod, Lew's Tournament Pro G Speed Spool casting reel (6.4:1 ratio), 12-pound Lew's APT fluorocarbon line, Megabass Vision 110 jerkbait (elegy bone or M shad).

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "Probably just staying patient and not spinning out when I wasn't getting bit. I got lucky catching a nice one early on the second day and that made me stay put on two or three banks the rest of the day."

> Performance edge – "I used one of B.A.S.S.' boats and it ran great – everything on it was perfect. The Lew's stuff, as always, was perfect and you can't beat a Megabass jerkbait."

Final Standings

1. Scott Clift -- 5, 17-08 -- 5, 13-02 -- 10, 30-10

2. Barron Adams -- 4, 9-02 -- 5, 14-03 -- 9, 23-05

3. Trevor Prince -- 2, 4-12 -- 5, 16-08 -- 7, 21-04

4. Ashley Medley -- 3, 6-02 -- 5, 13-00 -- 8, 19-02

5. Ty Faber -- 2, 8-07 -- 2, 5-08 -- 4, 13-15

6. John Gardner -- 0, 0-00 -- 1, 1-14 -- 1, 1-14

Much of the tackle referenced above is available at the BassFan Store. To browse the selection, click here..