Thursday, June 14, 2007
Bill Cochran's Outdoors: Bass tournament at Smith Mountain Lake was elite
Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.
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When a national bass fishing tournament comes to your home territory, you hope for several things:
>That the bass don’t suddenly get lockjaw.
>That the hometown entry won’t forget how to fish.
>That the community will support the event.
>That the media will show up.
>That the contenders will say nice things about your part of the world.
The weekend Bassmaster Elite Series Blue Ridge Brawl on Smith Mountain Lake aced all of these standards. The tournament goes down as a huge success, so much so that you have to figure BASS will be back for more of a good thing. Smith Mountain wasn’t included in the 2008 Elite schedule released this week, but that may not be the case in 2009. Lake officials already are thinking along those lines.
First off, while the catch at Smith Mountain wasn’t awesome, it wasn’t shabby, either. South Carolina angler Casey Ashley posted a four-day total of 57 pounds, 3 ounces to win the tournament. Eight contenders weighed in more than 50 pounds apiece. There were 184 limits. The average bass weighed 2.31 pounds. The largest single-day catch was 22 pounds, by Ashley, and the biggest bass weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces. Contenders saw a ton of fish they couldn’t entice, and they relished the challenge.
All this from a clear-water lake in June that was being pounded by recreational boaters under a searing sun. If the lake can be this good in June, some of the contenders said they’d sure like to fish it in April.
John Crews was the local favorite, because he is a nice guy who happens to live in Salem. But he had a horrible first day, catching four fish that weighed 7 pounds, 11 ounces. Many people gave up on him, even though it was difficult to overlook him in his bright red, Advance Auto Parts shirt that was featured on the water and in full-page ads of The Roanoke Times.
No matter what others thought, Crews had what counted and that was confidence in himself. He charged from 81st to 39th to 10th to finish eighth on Sunday with 50 pounds, 11 ounces -- good for $15,500. Monday wasn’t a bad day, either. He celebrated his 29th birthday.
Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times
Large crowd came to Parkway Marina in Bedford County to watch the final weigh-in for the Blue Ridge Brawl on June 10.
There was solid support for the tournament from the community, especially from Franklin and Bedford county officials who provided seed money and worked like crazy. Roanoke-based Advance Auto Parts helped with sponsorship and the company’s ads in The Roanoke Times gave the event credibility and a high profile.
More than 5,000 fans turned up for the final weigh-in on Sunday, and the four-day total was estimated to be 15,000. That’s the best attended Elite tournament of the current series, not bad when you consider there is only so much sex appeal to watching fish being weighed under a searing sun.
You can throw into the mix at least two idiots, who drove their boats between casting contestants and the shoreline. But that didn’t cause a Blue Ridge brawl. The pros simply turned the other cheek, saying the offenders probably didn’t know any better. No doubt they were right, but it would have been difficult for most of us to have been that nice.
Coverage of the tournament by The Roanoke Times was outstanding, often starting on the front and featuring pictures and a second story. Outdoor Editor Mark Taylor used a soft approach, emphasizing subjects of interest to non-fishing readers, not just fans who tune into the ESPN fishing shows on Saturday morning.
Taylor wrote about those nameless heroes, the non-boaters, who ride in the back of the boat, which is akin to fishing behind a vacuum cleaner. He told how the pros are caught up in a high-stakes, high-pressure rivalry, yet find time to miss their families when on the road. There were no technical essays about fishing deep structure for post spawners -- maybe later.
The newspaper put the package together amid competition from high schools' spring sports championships, golf, NASCAR and the NBA.
The pros liked what they saw. They liked the lake; they liked the attention from fans. The weather was a bit hot, and the boating traffic was intense, but most of the contenders appeared to leave happy.
None more elated than Ashley, a 23-year old rookie, who took home $109,000 in winnings.
