With the start of the Bassmaster Classic drawing near, Russ Lane of Prattville, Ala. has been under the media microscope. He's a local heavy hitter at Lay Lake (site of the Classic), and has been pegged by many as the overall favorite.

And why not? He knows the lake better than anyone in the field, which may mean even more now that the weather's warming. The bite is changing almost daily, and he'll have past knowledge to fall back on if a brand new lake appears Friday morning.

But there are a few reasons why he maybe shouldn't be the overall favorite, foremost of which is the jinx. An angler has never won a Classic in his home state.

So how does Lane feel amidst all the interviews, TV cameras and past Classic history staring him in the face? He feels pretty darn good.



Just Another Tournament

Lane fished the Bassmaster Elite Series last year and checked in 10 of the 11 events. The only time he didn't check was at Rayburn, when he finished 51st – one spot out of the money. It was a lunchbucket type of year, but made stronger by the fact that it was a sophomore outing.

This is the Bassmaster Classic though – a 3-day shootout for all the marbles. The biggest event in fishing.

"I'm not nervous," Lane said of his emotions right now. "It's hard to get (the Classic) out of my mind, but I'm actually pretty laid back right now.

"I'm waiting to see what the weather does, but I don't know – it just kind of feels like another tournament right now."

He's gone through some of the exercises other Classic winners have performed – he's visualized himself holding the trophy, for one. And it's definitely his "dream" to win the Classic, like most of his peers. "That would be the pinnacle, right there," he said. "I could die and go to heaven after that."

Local Support

One of the factors that affects a local angler fishing a Classic is boat traffic. Already, Lane's been swamped with media – both local and national – and he'll no doubt have a flotilla of boats following him on the water.

He's never experienced that to any great degree, but is looking forward to it. And he does like the spike in notoriety he's achieved around town the past few weeks.

"I've gotten a lot of support around Central Alabama," he said. "I worked a boat show a couple of weeks ago in Birmingham, and all the guys I fished with around here for years gave me plenty of well-wishes.

"Everybody's been great, and I sure hope I can win."

Can He Win?

According to Lane's longtime tournament partner Chris Rutland (Montgomery, Ala.), he can definitely win.

"He can do it all," Rutland said. "He's very, very versatile. He likes to do two or three things, but he's good at anything he does."

The two grew up in the same neighborhood, and fished together in their teens. They later went their separate ways, but reconnected after college. In the past 3 years around the Birmingham area, they've won more than 100 tournaments together.

"Russell can catch them as good as anybody I've ever seen," Rutland added. "He's definitely the best angler I've ever been in the boat with. He can really figure out what they're doing very quickly, but he can figure out what you're doing and catch them really quickly too."

Which might be what it takes to beat the rapidly changing bite at Lay – quick decisions, with some added knowledge of what Lay fish do under certain conditions and water temperatures.

If this Classic comes down to that – the confidence to make quick adjustments and stay positive when one decision fails – that tips the scales even more towards Lane, at least according to Rutland.

"If he makes the right mental decisions, he can definitely win. He and I have won a lot of tournaments on Lay Lake – we've been fishing it a long time, and we've fished it in every month of the year.

"It's just going to come down to Friday and Saturday, when he needs to read the conditions and let the conditions tell him what he needs to do."

Notable

> Rutland on whether the Classic will be won deep or shallow: "If we get a substantial rain in the middle of this week, a warm rain, then I think it'll be won shallow. If we don't, I think it'll be won with some fish caught shallow early, then the rest of the fish caught 6 to 12 feet deep. Right now, I think 14 pounds a day would be good. But if we get that rain, then I think it'll probably take 17 to 18 pounds a day."