Additional Notes From The Field

Here are some notes from Bassmaster Classic anglers who were not included in BassFan's day-1 story.

12th (tie): Greg Vinson

> Day 1: 5, 14-03

Vinson went to Venice and felt his bag kept him at least in contention.

"I spent a lot of time in an area today that, from practice, I thought would be really good. I spent an hour in there and that was way too long. It didn't produce.

"We hit fog at the Mississippi and I'm glad I had my radar. Three or four different ships showed up that I probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. I picked them up far enough away that I could adjust my course and stay out of the traffic."

14th (tie): Kevin Wirth

Day 1: 5, 14-02

Wirth fished south of Venice and described his 14-pound bag as "okay."

"I maybe figured a couple of little things out. I moved and adjusted a little bit. I do think I spent a little too much time doing some stuff. I fished four different areas. I saw one boat in one of the places but never saw another boat other than that. There's still another six or seven places I haven't hit yet."

19th: Dave Wolak

> Day 1: 5, 13-02

Wolak fished Venice. He did practice Cataouatche, but never could establish as strong a pattern there, he said. But the main reason he chose Venice was he figured the Cataouatche Florida-strains would be too temperamental under rapidly changing conditions.

About his day 1, he said: "I think I did more pre-fishing than actually committing to an area. We had a 15-degree temperature change and so much was different.

"I have multiple areas and I probed around until I caught some better fish. I had to gas twice because I ran around so much and kind of wasted time. I think I have to manage my time better."

22nd: Derek Remitz

> Day 1: 5, 12-15

Remitz fished Cataouatche and saw the leaders fishing, but obviously his area wasn't nearly as strong.

"I was very happy with what I caught. I didn't know what to expect coming into today, but it ended up being a pleasant surprise. I fished just one area. I dropped the trolling motor and didn't pick it up again until weigh-in.

"I think it's a good area. More fish keep coming through – they're wanting to come in and spawn. It's just a good spawning area. I've got my work cut out for me for sure, but at least I still have a fighting chance."

28th: Gerald Swindle

> Day 1: 5, 10-10

Swindle fished Cataouatche.

"I stayed close. Unfortunately, I didn't catch 19 pounds like 'VD' – I just never had any big bites. I had an area or two where I'd gotten some bites on a jig fishing a little deeper grass. The water got to be a little bit stained and I caught a lot of shorts. I ended up moving and got in another canal and caught 40 keepers. I just never got any big ones.

"I didn't fish bad. If I was sitting here talking about all the ones I lost or stupid stuff I did, I'd be disappointed. But when you can come in and say you didn't fish bad, you just have to take this one on the chin."

33rd: Terry Scroggins

> Day 1: 5, 9-11

Scroggins fished Des Allemandes but it obviously didn't work out.

"The last day of practice I had 15 bites in this ditch. I was really feeling good about it. I thought I was really going to catch them in there. But the water came up 8 to 10 inches and I couldn't get a bite in there. I fished everywhere in there and couldn't get bit.

"Then I moved to my secondary place and caught a 3-pounder pretty quick, and lost two 3- to 4-pounders back-to-back. I was fishing extremely shallow and the fish came flying through the air out of the cover and came unbuttoned. It's a frustrating way to fish but it's the only way I could get bit."

34th: Terry Butcher

> Day 1: 5, 9-09

Terry Butcher caught 12 fish at Venice, but managed just a 9-09 sack.

"Two pounds was the biggest, and they were all that same size," he said. "The think I can't understand was I never caught fish that small in practice."

He noted that when he arrived at the place where he wanted to start, Kevin Wirth was already occupying it. Wirth weighed 14-02 and was in 14th place.

"I have to go back and try the same thing (on day 2) because that's all I've got."

35th: Mike McClelland

> Day 1: 4, 9-05

McClelland fished Venice but thinks he made a wrong decision when he got there.

"I decided to go long, but then I changed my mind and decided to go to the quickest area I had in the Venice area. There's some really good fish in that area, but you don't get as many bites. I had one canal there and I hit it first, but the tide had totally changed the canals. Mine was choked with hyacinth but the other canal next to it was clear. I got bit pretty quick, thought I had them found, but wasted a little time. Then I ran around the corner and Dale Hightower (6th place) was fishing there. He put the hurt on them."

36th: Shaw Grigsby

> Day 1: 5, 9-03

Grigsby fished "closer" and shared some water with 39th-place Sean Alvarez.

"I caught fish after fish – three limits, maybe more – and finally had a 3-pound bite," Grigsby said. "I just never got a big bite after that. The water looked beautiful. Crazy good. Everything looked perfect and I could see shiny little spots on the gravel. (Nine pounds) is definitely not what I expected."

42nd: Mark Davis

> Day 1: 5, 7-00

Mark Davis made only a 15-mile run to the Lafitte area, but couldn't capitalize on the additional fishing time that allowed him.

"There's a drain coming out of a marsh and I thought I could catch them there, but it was not the place to be," he said. "The water came up and it looks like they swam away – it gave them access back into the marsh.

"There were a whole lot of locals there, but it was a pretty day and I don't blame them for being out. It was just hard to move around because everywhere you went, there were boats."

43rd: Tracy Adams

> Day 1: 2, 5-02

Tracy Adams fished at Cataouatche and Lafitte and brought just two fish to the scale.

"The water was a little higher and it scattered them out," he said. "I only had five bites – three (short) ones and the two keepers.

"I had another area, but it was where (the leaders) hammered them."

44th: Ryan Said

> Day 1: 3, 4-15

Ryan Said didn't have a great day on the water, but he accomplished enough to ensure that he'd enjoy the weigh-in.

"I caught my first one pretty early," he said. "As soon as I had one to take across the stage, I felt like I'd won."

He fished within sight of the leaders and said he'd take pains to stay out of their way on day 2.

44th: Dean Rojas

> Day 1: 2, 4-04

Rojas enticed plenty of good fish with his frog fishing 67-degree water in the Des Allemands area, but only two mediocre specimens made it into his livewell.

"I had the bites to catch a big sack – over 15 pounds," he said. "They just weren't choking the bait. Some of them were just knocking it out of the water.

"I've seen them do that before and they could just as easily hit it hard (on day 2). They could flip-flop really easily."

48th: Steve Kennedy

> Day 1: 2, 2-06

Kennedy started in Cataouatche, real close to where the leading three fished, but was just a little off.

"I had one little spot in the back – a ditch leading back into a pond in Cataouatche, and I heard all the boats idling behind me and Kevin was already in front of me," he said. "I killed an hour and a half back there and caught one little fish. The fog lifted, I turned around and saw all the boats circling and never got in the middle of them.

"I decided to run all the way south to Venice for 30 minutes of fishing time. I got halfway to the Gulf and hit a stretch where the wind was ripping. It was howling. There was current coming down the canal and it stood up in the wind. I had to back off to 45 or 50 and wouldn't have had any fishing time. I turned around and circled around Kevin and Aaron the rest of the day."