TULSA, Okla. — Jason Christie was considered the odds-on favorite to win the Bassmaster Classic this week on his “home lake,” Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees. After Day 1, he’s got some ground to make up just to make the Day 2 cut to the top 25 for the final day of the 54th annual Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Jockey Outdoors.
Christie’s is in a three-way tie for 35th place after weighing a 13-pound, 1-ounce five-bass limit Friday. The wind is predicted to shift to the north Saturday, and Christie, who knows this lake better than any other Classic competitor, believes his success will depend upon that wind.
“(Saturday) we’re supposed to get some wind,” he said. “I’m going to put one bait in my hand and I’m going to fish three circles around this lake. We’ve got a perfect wind, the exact wind I want, north wind. I just want to get to Sunday because Sunday it’s supposed to blow 40 (miles-per-hour). Somebody is going to catch a big bag on Sunday.”
The 2022 Classic champion, who is approaching the $2 million mark in B.A.S.S. tournament winnings, left his home lake somewhat confused Friday.
“I had good practice days,” he said. “But I’m still a little bit puzzled. I thought I could start in one place and catch a couple of good ones. They were schooling, and I caught a limit there, but they were all about 12 inches long.
“When it gets that way, if you’re fishing pre-spawn and you’re fishing pockets and there’s 12-inchers blowing up everywhere… I don’t know what causes that, but it seems like it’s never good.”
If anyone can rescue a poor start on Grand Lake it’s the 50-year-old Christie, a native Oklahoman who now calls Dry Creek home.
“I don’t know how many tournaments I’ve won here, and I say that as humbly as I can,” he said. “But when it’s these conditions in pre-spawn it’s tough to generate them.”
More wind, especially out of the north, changes that for Christie, who expects to have a spinnerbait in his hand most of the day.
“Usually, I can catch them on a jerkbait when it’s like this,” he said. “I tried it half-a-day in practice. I just can’t catch them that way. They’re just not set up for that. It’s like they’re past that point and they’re not on the next step yet.”
He’s banking on a north wind producing the change he needs. Jason Christie missing the final day of the Bassmaster Classic at Grand Lake would indeed be an upset.
“There’s a wind direction here that I like,” he said. “I’ve won a lot of tournaments when it blows in that direction. When you get a south wind, it blows in a lot of shallow flats. A north wind blows in a lot of channels and channel swings where they should be set up.
“If we get that north wind, I’m just going to go swing it.”
