WEST MONROE, La. - There's still one day of bass fishing left at the Bassmaster Open Series Championship, but for five talented anglers, a mountain has been climbed. They've each earned a berth in the 2005 Bassmaster Classic after battling the cold and muddy waters of the Ouachita River for three days. Two of the anglers will be first-time Classic competitors, while the other three have been to the big dance before.
Leading the way among the Classic qualifiers is Texan Bradley W. Stringer, who grabbed the top spot from Louisiana's Greg Hackney, the leader after each of the first two days of competition. Stringer has a three-day cumulative catch weighing 34 pounds, 13 ounces, giving him a one-pound lead going into the final round as he fishes for the title of Open Series champion.
Stringer has been casting a Stanley spinnerbait and a Carolina-rigged plastic worm to backwater bass in five to 12 feet of water. With water temperatures falling and water levels rising on the river, his deeper water fish may be just the ticket to an Open Series championship.
But perhaps more important than the Open Series championship is the fact that these top five finishers have just earned a slot at the 2005 Bassmaster Classic in Pittsburgh, Pa. It'll be the first Classic for Stringer and one that he's dreamed of for years.
"That's the goal of every angler," Stringer said. "Making the Classic is what we all shoot for, and it's great to be qualified so early."
Greg Hackney is in second place going into the final round. The "Hack Attack" has been flipping and pitching backwaters with Rattle-Back jigs for his bass. After leading the tournament for the first two rounds, he managed only a small limit weighing seven pounds, 13 ounces on Day Three.
Hackney will be fishing his third Classic when the bass tournament visits Pittsburgh and the famed Three Rivers area next July.
In third place is Edwin Evers of Oklahoma with 29 pounds. Evers qualified for his fifth Classic by flipping a four-inch black neon Bass Pro Shops tube with a 5/16-ounce sinker to backwater bass in about five feet of water.
"The bite was really slow today," Evers lamented. "I had to really soak the bait to get my four bites." Fortunately for Evers, he put all four fish in the boat and made the cut for Sunday's final round and a berth in the Classic.
Fourth place going into the final round belongs to young Cliff Pace of Petal, Miss., with 25 pounds of bass. The 24-year-old spent the first two days of competition casting a ½-ounce jig in black, brown and amber to bass tucked into a backwater area.
"My fish haven't moved up into the shallows," Pace said. I'm catching most of them in 10 to 12 feet of water. That may change though as the water keeps rising."
On Day Three, the jig bite died for Pace, and he picked up a solitary keeper on a spinnerbait. It was enough to keep him in the top five and give him his first ticket to the Classic.
Chris Baumgardner of North Carolina earned the fifth and final Classic berth by taking 24 pounds, four ounces of Ouachita River bass over three days. Like the other qualifiers, Baumgardner is fishing backwater areas, and, like most of them, he's pitching and flipping.
"I'm using a Zoom Baby Brush Hog in root beer with a 5/16-ounce slip sinker and a 4/0 hook," said Baumgardner, who's targeting woody cover he finds along depth breaks.
"It's getting tougher and tougher to catch my fish," he admitted, "because they're in the thick stuff, and it keeps getting deeper and deeper as the water rises. On the first couple of days there just wasn't as much water and cover to pull them out of, but today I broke off a four pounder that really would've helped me."
While the top five boaters have fished their way into Sunday's final round and a Classic spot, the Open Series champion was crowned today on the non-boater side of the competition. That title belongs to Wade Grooms of South Carolina.
Grooms took the top spot in interesting fashion. Fishing with Bradley Stringer, now the boating division leader, on Day One, Grooms brought a five-bass limit to the scales that weighed nine pounds, seven ounces. On Day Two, when paired with another boater who was not on fish, Grooms zeroed, but managed to hold on to fourth place in the non-boater standings on the strength of his first round catch.
Amazingly, in the final round of competition for the non-boaters, Grooms again found himself paired with Stringer. Grooms' magic returned when he stepped into the back of Stringer's boat. He caught nine pounds, five ounces of bass for a three day total of 18 pounds, 12 ounces and the Open non-boater crown.
Grooms, a Department of Defense engineer, had nothing but praise for Stringer.
"Bradley bent over backwards to help me catch my fifth bass on Day One," Grooms said. "He's a great sportsman and a terrific fisherman. I was thrilled to draw him again on Day Three."
The final round weigh-in will be held on Sunday at 3:00 p.m. CT at Lazarre Point Recreation Area.
The Open Series Championship will be broadcast on ESPN2 on Jan. 8, 2005 at 10:00 a.m. ET.
2004 Bassmaster Open Championship BO 12/02-12/05 , La. (BOATER) Standings Day 3 Angler Hometown No./lbs-oz Pts Total $$$ 1. Bradley Stringer Huntington, Texas 15 34-13 $1,000.00 Day 1: 5 12-11 Day 2: 5 11-02 Day 3: 5 11-00 2. Greg Hackney Gonzales, La. 13 33-13 Day 1: 5 16-09 Day 2: 3 9-07 Day 3: 5 7-13 3. Edwin Evers Mannsville, Okla. 14 29-00 Day 1: 5 9-02 Day 2: 5 12-12 Day 3: 4 7-02 4. Cliff Pace Petal, Miss. 11 25-00 Day 1: 5 12-02 Day 2: 5 11-03 Day 3: 1 1-11 5. Chris Baumgardner Gastonia, N.C. 12 24-04 $1,000.00 Day 1: 5 9-08 Day 2: 5 13-02 Day 3: 2 1-10 6. Kurt Johnson Cedar Rapids, Iowa 11 19-08 $8,000.00 Day 1: 5 7-08 Day 2: 5 10-15 Day 3: 1 1-01 7. Chris Lane Winter Haven, Fla. 10 18-12 $7,000.00 Day 1: 4 7-01 Day 2: 5 9-05 Day 3: 1 2-06 8. Chip Hawkins White Hall, Ark. 6 18-08 $7,800.00 Day 1: 4 15-09 Day 2: 0 0-00 Day 3: 2 2-15 9. Art Berry Lakeside, Calif. 8 17-09 $6,500.00 Day 1: 2 3-02 Day 2: 5 12-12 Day 3: 1 1-11 10. Peter E Thliveros Jacksonville, Fla. 10 16-03 $6,000.00 Day 1: 5 8-09 Day 2: 5 7-10 Day 3: 0 0-00 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Purolator Big Bass Day 1 Chip Hawkins White Hall, Ark. 5-08 $1,000.00 2 Chris Baumgardner Gastonia, N.C. 5-08 $1,000.00 3 Bradley Stringer Huntington, Texas 2-09 $1,000.00 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals Day #Limits #Fish Weight 1 14 184 318-10 2 16 175 309-00 3 2 22 37-05 ---------------------------------- 32 381 664-15 2004 Bassmaster Open Championship NB 12/02-12/05 , La. (NON-BOATER) Standings Day 3 Angler Hometown No./lbs-oz Pts Total $$$ 1. Wade Grooms Bonneau, S.C. 10 18-12 $13,000.00 Day 1: 5 9-07 Day 2: 0 0-00 Day 3: 5 9-05 2. Mike Williams Delhi, La. 9 17-03 $7,000.00 Day 1: 4 7-07 Day 2: 3 6-04 Day 3: 2 3-08 3. Larry Cundiff Dunnville, Ky. 5 15-02 $5,400.00 Day 1: 3 12-12 Day 2: 0 0-00 Day 3: 2 2-06 4. Mike Campbell Oak View, Calif. 7 14-07 $3,000.00 Day 1: 5 10-00 Day 2: 2 4-07 Day 3: 0 0-00 5. David Kilgore Jasper, Ala. 8 13-09 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 7-15 Day 2: 0 0-00 Day 3: 3 5-10 6. Wesley Coy Clarkmills, N.Y. 5 8-03 $2,500.00 Day 1: 5 8-03 Day 2: 0 0-00 Day 3: 0 0-00 7. Mike Pickett Brandenburg, Ky. 5 8-00 $2,400.00 Day 1: 5 8-00 Day 2: 0 0-00 Day 3: 0 0-00 8. Sieg Taylor Fresno, Calif. 7 7-13 $2,200.00 Day 1: 4 4-01 Day 2: 2 2-15 Day 3: 1 0-13 9. Takeshi Iizuka Saitama 360-0813, Japa 4 7-03 $2,000.00 Day 1: 2 4-04 Day 2: 2 2-15 Day 3: 0 0-00 10. Brian Stafford Fairfield, Calif. 5 6-03 $1,800.00 Day 1: 5 6-03 Day 2: 0 0-00 Day 3: 0 0-00 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Big Bass Day 1 Larry Cundiff Dunnville, Ky. 6-04 $400.00 2 Jeffrey Graham Augusta, Ga. 3-08 $400.00 3 Wade Grooms Bonneau, S.C. 3-04 $400.00 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Totals Day #Limits #Fish Weight 1 6 74 127-05 2 0 54 79-04 3 1 13 21-10 ---------------------------------- 7 141 228-03