The Bassmaster Classic ended with Kevin VanDam winning his third championship title in an event forecasted to be one of small weights and tough fishing.
However, that didn’t pan out. Here is what some of the competitors had to say about the tournament:
Cliff Pace (14th, 16-3)
“I kind of had to scramble around while fishing, and I only got bites on one or two groups of fish. I came here to try and win this event, not to get one bite here and one bite there. Leaving the bass was tough when I was on a group of bass that had the potential to win like those I was on the first day – especially when I was in a big tournament like the Classic. But things weren’t working out my way at that spot. If everything would have lined-up right for 30 or 40 minutes on a place like that, I could really have done well. Those bass are still on that site where I caught the big bag of bass the first day. However, I just never could get them to set back up and bite. But that’s just part of fishing. I caught all my bass this week on a 1/2-ounce V&M Football Head Jig in the green-pumpkin color. I probably caught eight bass today, but I’m only bringing in four keepers.”
James Niggemeyer (18th, 26-12)
“I went out and did the same thing today as I’ve done the past two days, but today I never got a quality bite. Usually I’d get at least one 3-pound bass to bite each day; however, not today. I was fishing with a Strike King Rodent in the Bama bug color and a Strike King finesse worm. I fished the finesse worm early in the morning, and then I flipped and pitched the Rodent into the heavy matted grass later in the day.”
Shaw Grigsby (21st, 25-9)
“I caught five little squeakers today. I caught most of my fish on the Red Eye Shad, but I did catch two on the watermelon-red Smokin’ Rooster with a 5/0 hook. The bass were moving up. The guys ahead of me were running a couple of banks I would have liked to have run, but I wouldn’t fish those banks because those anglers were ahead of me. Watching the leaders catch bass after bass was tough. I had a good day on the water fishing this great tournament. I just didn’t have enough pounds of bass to win.”
