Plenty Of History Made In 2015

By BassFan Staff

As the light starts to dim on the 2015 calendar year, BassFan’s editors wanted to take some time to reflect back on the bright spots that shaped the past 12 months in the world of professional bass fishing.

From start to finish, there were multiple twists and turns, plenty of excitement and a few episodes of drama – and that was just off the water.

On the water, things were even better.

BassFans saw a good bit of history made this season, with Ray Hanselman leading the way. The fishing guide from south Texas swept the always-competitive Texas Division of the Rayovac FLW Series then went on to win the series championship on a river he’d never fished before – a 4-for-4 performance that may never be duplicated.

Aaron Martens and Edwin Evers both won twice on the Elite Series circuit with Evers’ wins coming in back-to-back events while Martens’ victories helped him punctuate another Angler of the Year championship.

Speaking of AOYs, Scott Martin knows plenty about winning points titles from his famous father, Roland, who won nine B.A.S.S. AOYs during his career. Now, Scott can say he knows the feeling, too, after he claimed his first FLW Tour AOY crown thanks to a string of five Top-15 finishes.

That’s just a sampling of the stories that gave the 2015 season a distinct historic vibe and over the next 2 days, we’re going to recap what we felt were the biggest stories of the year (in chronological order). As always we welcome your input and opinions – just send us your Feedback.

Toho Throwdown

The year was only 16 days old when perhaps the biggest story of the season played out at the Lake Toho Bassmaster Southern Open.

With boats starting to gather by the lock that provides passage between Lake Toho and Lake Kissimmee on the morning of day 2, Ish Monroe and Keith Poche engaged in a heated confrontation after Poche’s boat struck Monroe’s. Monroe boarded Poche’s boat and made contact with Poche, resulting in both men falling into the water.

Both men had different accounts of the altercation. Monroe felt Poche came into the area around the lock too fast and came off pad too late while Poche insisted his boat hitting Monroe’s was purely accidental. Monroe continued on fishing that day while Poche returned to the launch ramp to seek medical attention and report the incident.

Monroe was later charged with misdemeanor battery and spent several hours in the Osceola County Jail before he was released after posting bond. The matter was later dismissed.

Two weeks after the incident, both anglers were punished by B.A.S.S.. In addition to both being disqualified from the event, Monroe was fined $500 for unsportsmanlike conduct and was barred from the rest of the Bassmaster Opens in 2015 while Poche was hit with a $250 fine and had to sit out the final two Southern Opens. Both Monroe and Poche issued public apologies via social media.

Ray-zor Sharp

Ray Hanselman spent Valentine’s Day this year with one of his sweethearts – Lake Amistad and capitalizing on his years of experience on the water there en route to winning the first event of the Texas Division of the Rayovac FLW Series.

While his 50-14 winning weight over 3 days at the reservoir that straddles the Mexico-U.S. border didn’t raise many eyebrows, what he did the rest of the year certainly did.

Little did Hanselman know that a win on his home waters was about to set off an improbable and historic run that would see him sweep all three Texas Division tournaments and then win the Rayovac Series Championship on the Ohio River, more than 1,000 miles from home.

In April, he put win No. 2 in the book at Sam Rayburn Reservoir, where high water saw him catch fish transitioning in and out of drains.

In early May, Hanselman left the field in his wake at Lake Texoma as he completed the sweep with a 12-pound margin of victory over runner-up Bradley Hallman.

From there, it was off to Paducah, Ky., in late October for the series championship. Targeting smallmouths in current – just like he does at home by the Amistad dam – Hanselman capped off his spectacular year with an 8-pound victory.

Ashley’s Home Cooking

Many pros will say the hardest thing to do in bass fishing is win a big tournament on their home waters. It’s even harder when air temperatures fall into the teens (and lower), parts of the lake start freezing over and boats get stuck on trailers at the ramp because they’re frozen in place. The conditions weren’t to be taken lightly as shown by David Walker’s rescue of a local man, who’d fallen into Lake Hartwell while Walker was practicing.

That’s what Casey Ashley and the rest of the field were up against on day 1 of the 2015 Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell back in February when record-low temperatures in Anderson, S.C., forced a nearly 2-hour delay to the start of the tournament.

Ashley went into the event as the prohibitive favorite – he’d won the Lake Hartwell FLW Tour in the same time frame in 2014 – and had a great understanding of certain migration routes and preferred bass hangouts during the pre-spawn.

Once the competition got going, Ashley went about his business in a calm and unflappable manner, almost as if the conditions were playing into his hands. He was in 6th place after day 1, moved up to 5th on day 2 before catching 20-03 on the final day to pull off the home-lake triumph and claim the $300,000 winner’s prize. He targeted creek channels by standing timber and threw a bladed, horse-head jig his father poured for him with a Zoom Fluke threaded onto it.

Private vs. Public

What’s considered fishable water these days?

It’s a question that seems to pop up more and more during Elite Series and FLW Tour events lately. The most talked about example played out at the season-opening Sabine River Elite Series back in March when Mike Kernan was successful in the appeal of his disqualification from the event after B.A.S.S. had determined he’d violated two rules, including one that covers fishing in water deemed off limits.

It was the first known occurrence of a disqualification being successfully overturned.

The matter involving Kernan started when he was notified after the completion of day 2 of the tournament that his day-1 catch was under review. He was informed one of his competitors had filed a protest that Kernan was fishing in an area that was considered private property. B.A.S.S. proceeded to DQ Kernan, who filed an appeal and was later successful in having the DQ overturned by a 3-person panel.

Kernan’s finish was restored to 12th (his position after day 2), he claimed 12th-place prize money and AOY points. Later, Dennis Tietje, the angler who filed the protest and the angler who directly benefited from Kernan’s DQ (he moved up one spot into the money cut as a result) was restored to 54th and did not collect the $10,000 check he would’ve for his eventual 33rd-place finish.

Is This Thing On?

For years, those who are closely affiliated with pro bass fishing have been saying one of the things that’s been holding the sport back from potentially reaching and attracting a much larger audience is its lack of live broadcasts of the tournaments as they’re happening.

Live-streaming of weigh-ins on the Internet is great for BassFans who want to get a quick summary of the day from the competitors and follow the weights as they come across the stage, but what’s always been missing is that up-close, in-the-boat, as-it-happens vantage point.

B.A.S.S. provided that this year with the debut of Bassmaster Live. For several hours on days 2, 3 and 4 of Elite Series events (the coverage was used during the Classic as well), Tommy Sanders and Mark Zona skillfully anchored coverage from the JM Productions studio in Little Rock, Ark., while Dave Mercer added sideline reporter to his emcee duties with his on-the-water updates, analysis and antics (cannonball, anyone?) that kept audiences engaged and wanting more.

Using cellular signals to beam footage from cameras on the boats of select competitors, B.A.S.S. was able to give viewers of Bassmaster Live a strong feel for how the day was unfolding, complete with real-time commentary and interaction with the audience. The popularity of the streaming broadcasts was undeniable and it helped bring moments like Aaron Martens fishing in the reeds at Lake Havasu and his memorable 7-pounder at Chesapeake Bay to viewers around the world.

> End part 1 (of 2)