By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Jonathan Henry’s wife didn’t want him to go. His doctors probably would’ve preferred he stay home to rest, too, but there was no stopping him. Not when a close friend was on the cusp of winning the Bassmaster Classic.

So on Sunday morning, five weeks removed from his (hopefully) final round of intense chemotherapy to treat Synovial Sarcoma, one of the rarest forms of soft tissue cancer in the world, Henry boarded a plane in Huntsville, Ala., and flew to Tulsa, Okla., where he was hoping to watch Jason Christie close out a wire-to-wire win at Grand Lake.

The trip and ensuing time he spent wandering around the Classic Expo sapped much of Henry’s energy as he chatted with fishing industry pals and sponsors – Henry runs a guide service on Lake Guntersville and won the FLW Series event at Guntersville in 2014 – but he got another jolt of energy when he met up with Christie’s family Sunday afternoon at the BOK Center and was seated in the front row for the weigh-in. Christie, by design, had no idea Henry had made the trip.

Henry and Christie met each other in early 2012 in Florida during the Lake Okeechobee FLW Tour event. Henry was fishing as a co-angler and was staying at the same house as Christie. The two hit it off immediately and eventually Henry offered to drive Christie's truck and boat to and from tournaments if Christie would let him practice with him. Christie agreed and because of Christie’s hectic schedule the next year – he was competing on both the Elite Series and FLW Tour – Henry became an important part of Christie's success. Henry offered to do the driving for free, but Christie insisted on paying him.

“The more I’m around you the more I’m going to learn and the better I’ll be when I start fishing professionally,” Christie recalled Henry saying at the time. “There’s no telling what I learned from him in the boat.”

They worked out an agreement and in 2013 Christie went on to have a breakout year (three wins) while competing on both circuits.

So when Christie took a 5-pound, 11-ounce lead after day 2 of this year’s Classic, Henry got the itch to fly to Tulsa for the day-3 weigh-in.

“After I watched weigh-in on the second day, my wife caught me looking at plane tickets 10 minutes after it was over,” Henry said. “I knew it would cost a fortune to fly out there on short notice, but 10 minutes later I was still looking and my wife said, ‘I guess you’re going, huh?’”

Henry said he felt like it was the right thing to do to be there to support his friend.

“I can’t really explain it,” Henry said. “I felt like I had to be there. It hadn’t even crossed my mind after day 1. I never thought about it, but after day 2, I was like, ‘I have to go out there.’”

While the boats for the final six contenders were pulled into the BOK Center prior to the Super Six portion of the weigh-in, Christie’s boat came to rest right in front of where his family was sitting.

“It worked out kind of crazy,” Christie said. “I have talked to him since he was sick, but I haven’t seen him. At one point, they parked me and I looked up and my whole family is in the front row and he’s sitting there and I’m like, ‘What are you doing here.’”

It was a welcome distraction after a tough day on the water.

“To be honest, I had come to the realization on the way back from the lake that I wasn’t going to win so I was prepared for that,” Christie added. “Then I come into the arena and see all the fans and I start wondering how am I going to handle this. Whenever they parked that boat and I look over and there’s my mom and dad and my wife and kids and Jonathan – when I saw them, everything went away. I didn’t think about any of that other stuff. I thought about the things that are important.

“Sunday was not a great day for me, but I’ve had a lot worse. Then you look at someone like Jon and I think some of my worst days in fishing are some people’s dreams. It’s hard to sit up there and feel sorry for myself.”

Henry said he was still glad he made the trip even though Christie didn’t win.

“It turned out to be for a different reason,” he said. “Maybe I was supposed to be there because he didn’t win. It’s kind of weird. I’m 100 percent glad I went. I’m friends with his whole family – his little girls were happy to see me. It was a good trip, definitely worth it.”

Henry was due to fly back to Alabama on Monday, but Christie offered to pay the change fee so he could stick around until Tuesday. That gave them time to catch up and just hang out.

“He’s been there for me since day 1 and didn’t have to be,” Henry said. “He could’ve brushed me off like anybody else, but he didn’t.”

“It worked out better the way it did,” Christie added. “I haven’t thought about fishing a whole lot in the last couple of days. He’s a special guy. He’s a fighter and he’ll come out of it and get his chance to fish. I’m pretty confident in saying this and have spent enough time in the boat with him to say he’s a better fisherman than me.”

Henry said he felt better than expected after the trip, his first significant travel since he finished chemo.

“I’m just really weak and it’s hard to do a lot,” he said. “That was by far the most energy I’ve expended in months, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.”