Opinions Mixed On Decision To Cancel Day 1

Turkey hunting. Laundry. Boat maintenance. Shopping. Lunch at a fast-food joint. Bumming around with a couple of buddies from home. Eating Mexican food in Mexico.

What do those activities have in common? They were among the ways that anglers were spending their unscheduled day off at the Amistad Bassmaster Elite Series in Del Rio, Texas. Day 1 was called off due to the threat of powerful winds, and now all anglers will fish both Friday and Saturday, with the field cut to the Top 12 for Sunday.

Not everyone was appreciative of the unanticipated free time. Some felt that conditions today wouldn't have been as rough as on day 2 at Falcon last week, which went off without a major incident.

But others agreed with the decision. They'd seen forecasts that called for the heaviest gusts to occur late this afternoon – around the time of the weigh-in. And because Diablo East Marina faces dead into a north wind, that might've created unsafe conditions for anglers and spectators alike.

As noted above, today's wind was out of the north. It had blown primarily from the south during practice, and some of the south-facing banks that anglers had developed patterns on could be trashed tomorrow.

Following are reports from some of the competitors.

Casey Ashley

Casey Ashley picked up a couple of friends from South Carolina at the airport, and they planned to "chill out" around Del Rio. He'd rather have been fishing, though.

"I thought we could've gone out today," he said. "It doesn't seem that bad at all."

He missed a full day of practice due to mechanical difficulties and didn't find much in the other day and a half, so he didn't have a specific gameplan in mind for today.

"I was just going fishing. I can catch small ones – maybe 10 or 11 pounds a day. It's all going to come down to who gets the good bite."

Rick Clunn

Rick Clunn thought the decision to call off the day was hasty. When asked what he planned to do, he replied with a single word – "sulk."

"I think they made the call off the Austin weather report, and what they don't understand is you can fit three Alabamas in the state of Texas," he said, referring to the home state of BASS tournament director Trip Weldon. "Del Rio is not in Tornado Alley, and they got spooked by something that was 300 miles away and moving to the northeast.

"This is a normal west Texas day of weather – 2 out of 4 at this time of year will be like this."

He said the lost day wouldn't change his fishing plans at all.

"If we had (a tournament day) under our belt already, then that might affect things. But there's no frame of reference yet – nobody's had a chance to see what their pattern's doing or not doing."

Greg Gutierrez

Greg Gutierrez, who makes weather-related decisions all the time as a full-time fire captain in California, was disappointed in the cancellation.

"Maybe I'm missing it and the bad stuff is farther out, but every report I've seen had the wind speed adjusted down throughout the day," he said. "I didn't see any lenticular clouds (lens-shaped, sometimes swirling clouds caused by strong wind flow over rugged terrain) – everything's high and thin."

Fishing-wise, he said the lost day could hurt him. He said he'd spend it doing laundry, reorganizing his hooks and perhaps getting the tires on his truck rotated.

"I'd planned to go through a lot of fish and try to come in with 15-16 pounds – I thought that would be the safest way to do it. Now I might have to go for the bigger bites right away."

Tim Horton

Tim Horton was headed to a turkey hunt set up by Byron Velvick, who owns a resort at Amistad. He harvested one from Mark Davis' lease prior to last week's event at Falcon and also called one in for Davis' son, James.

"I always agree with the forecasting for stuff like this – we should err on the side of caution," he said. "It's blowing pretty good, and I heard the worst of it might come after 1:00.

"It won't change anything for me tomorrow."

James Niggemeyer

James Niggemeyer, who was spending the day in town collecting provisions with his wife and son, couldn't fault BASS for the decision to cancel.

"It's starting to kick up its heels now," he said. "Takeoff today would have been no problem, but now the trees are waving pretty good and the lake is really whitecapping.

"These decisions are tough for them, and all they can do is go off the forecast."

There will be no alterations in his gameplan for tomorrow. "I'll do the same stuff I was planning to do today and just judge everything by the conditions."

Ish Monroe

Ish Monroe hit a few tackle stores today and planned to spend the rest of it relaxing at Velvick's resort.

"I think we really could have fished," he said. "We're all professionals and we've been in bad conditions before. If it was a practice day, you'd see guys out there.

"But at the same time, I have to respect the decision to cancel for safety reasons. Guys are starting to worry about (making the) Classic, and some guys haven't made a check yet. That kind of stress can sometimes keep people from playing it smart."

He'll fish tomorrow the same way he would have today.

"I'm stuck on my gameplan. I didn't have a great practice, but I think it was probably okay for this tournament."

Kevin Short

Kevin Short spent the morning doing some housework in his camper and cleaning out his boat. Then he treated himself to lunch at Wendy's.

"That's not something I get to do very often," he said. "After this, I'm probably going to have to take a nap to recuperate from all the excitement."

He said he never questions a decision to cancel a day due to safety concerns, and that the shortened duration of the event might help him.

"I've got one area that I've got a lot of confidence in. I didn't catch a lot of big fish there, but I got a lot of the right-size bites.

"I was concerned about it holding out for 4 days, but that's not a problem anymore."

Byron Velvick

Byron Velvick planned to take a large party across the Mexican border for lunch. His opinion of the decision to cancel got more favorable as the day wore on.

"This morning, I thought it was a bad call," he said. "But (the wind) has been building and building, and the question is whether it's going to get to 40 (mph). It's still easily fishable, but if it pumps up to 40, you could see some docks get blown away."

He'll have to get a look at the water tomorrow before determining whether to change his fishing plans.

"There'll be some areas that are blown out. Fortunately, I'll have a good idea of where else to go."