Square

Written by Andy Whitcomb

I’m not there.

My stuff is still by the door; I’ll have to miss the 2011 BassMaster Classic in New Orleans.

I had the truck full of fuel, hotel reservations, maps, a big cold can of iced mocha, and my notebook with some questions for the anglers.

Last year’s Classic was great, but I didn’t want to return to see bass hoisted under a disco ball to “Sweet Home Alabama” blaring over the speakers. I wanted to return to shake hands again with the anglers. The more I have gotten to know these professional bass anglers, the more I like them. A great group of characters.

It was also going to be interesting to see if I could conduct an interview without it turning into a Chris Farley impersonation:
“Kelly Jordan?”
“Yes?”
“Mem, mem,… Remember when you broke your rod on The World’s Greatest Fishing Show and the bass was so big that you and Zona had to ‘hug it out?’”
“Yes.”
“That was awesome.”

The plan was similar to last year: drive 12 hours straight through the night, minimizing time away from the fam. But just couldn’t do it. I won’t go into the details, but it sounds like some of the anglers, like KVD, who was reported to have spent some time lying on the floor of his boat Wednesday, might be experiencing similar issues.

So over the weekend I’ll take my kids fishing instead.

And, I’ll be following the results from home, monitoring the live blog here: http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/classic/news/story?page=b_classic_11_liveblog, and watching the coverage on ESPN2.

Oh, and if you happen to see BassMaster Classic Emcee Dave Mercer ask to see an angler’s “bass thumb”… Maybe I was there after all. : – )