It wasn’t business as usual for Yamaha Pro Cliff Pace as he did his best to interest the lethargic largemouth bass of Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees in Tulsa, OK, last Sunday. In fact, Pace described his day on the water as one of “the toughest days I’ve ever had,” after boating only four fish with a combined weight of 11 pounds, 8 ounces. Still, that proved enough for the Petal, MS, angler to grab bass fishing’s championship crown at the Bassmaster Classic as he finished with a three-day tally of of 54 pounds, 12 ounces.
“My day started good,” explained Pace, a five-time Classic qualifier and runner-up in the 2008 event, “and I caught a nice bass at each of my first areas. Then I fished for six hours without catching anything. Finally, about 1:30 this afternoon I caught two more. Those were the only strikes I had all day.”
“The lack of wind also dictated our lure choices,” added runner-up Brandon Palaniuk, who in just three Classic appearances has notched 2nd and 4th place finishes. “A lot of anglers came here planning to fish jerkbaits, which are normally excellent cold water lures, but they’re much more effective in windy conditions because it brings bass up off the bottom where they can find the lures easier.”
%pullstart%“My day started good,” explained Pace, a five-time Classic qualifier and runner-up in the 2008 event, “and I caught a nice bass at each of my first areas."%pullend%Pace fished three primary lures during the tournament, a jig, a crankbait and a jerkbait, relying mostly on the jig. He caught the majority of his fish in water depths of 10 feet or less near small, rocky points at the mouths of creeks and coves where the bucketmouths had presumably stopped en route to shallow spawning flats.
“I was extremely fortunate in how things worked out,” said Pace. “I visited Grand Lake in early December just before the lake went off-limits, and spent two days just looking for places I thought bass might be now in February. I never picked up a rod or made a cast, but instead, studied my electronics and mapped about 150 waypoints on my GPS. As it turned out, the bass were exactly where I thought they would be, but they were certainly more difficult to catch than I anticipated.”
Pace. who led or shared the tournament lead on all three days, outdistanced three other Yamaha Pros en route to winning. They included Palaniuk, who finished second with 51 pounds, 8 ounces of bass; rookie Hank Cherry, 3rd, with 49 pounds; and 2003 Classic champion Michael Iaconelli, who finished 4th with 48 pounds, 5 ounces. That’s one great performance from a team stand-point.