bassmaster classic

Classic Dock Talk

Find out what the Classic anglers have to say as they return from the final practice day before the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Toyota.

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Photography by
Andy Crawford
Captions by
Craig Lamb
Welcome to the world championship edition of Dock Talk. It’s Wednesday, March 22, at Ned McWhorter Park in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, host city of the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Toyota. 
On this official practice day, a slow-moving low-pressure system was passing across the upper Tennessee River, and with it, a steady drizzle with a seasonable high in the upper 40s. That’s going to change drastically by the first day of competition on Friday. Another significant front is coming, with temperatures reaching the high 70s on Thursday and Friday, more rain and some gusty winds. 
How does that factor into the competition? We report, you decide. That’s our motto with Dock Talk. 
Brandon Lester
“I don’t let the broken-up practice days stress me out. I try to keep an outlook and feel for what the fish are doing.”
“When I started the first round of practice, I focused on looking for where the fish will be coming to,” Lester said. “With an 80-degree day between now and the first day, I’m hoping that more bass will come to those places.”
“I figure if I can get a bit there in the cold weather then I should really do well when the weather warms up.”
Jason Christie
“The main focus of a Classic practice is scouting, looking around, getting familiar with the lay of the lake. On the first day of the tournament, you have to take what you learned and just make your best guess.”
“There isn’t really a calculated approach that you can take,” Christie said. “If you are able to get onto something, being familiar with the lake from what you learned in practice allows you to do a lot of things, make patterns in potentially multiple areas.”
“Practice doesn’t mean a lot to me, because of how much it changes during the tournament.”
Brandon Cobb
“Based on the warmup, I’ve been looking more at what and where I can catch fish on that I haven’t fished for. It’s more about betting on the come.”
“I’m not so worried about what I caught them on today, and how to make that work on Friday,” Cobb said. “The way this lake lays out the fish group up, but I’ve been more focused on isolated cover, staging areas, where I can pull up on one spot and catch one with confidence.”
“It’s playing out to be a situation where you are going to be trying to intercept fish on the go.” 
Carl Jocumsen
“It was easy for me because this is different from the Elites, because I wasn’t out there trying to find the winning spot during practice, and sustain it over four days. So much is going to change with the weather. For me it was about looking for where there were fish, but could be a lot more fish as they start moving in to spawn.”
“I wasn’t looking for any magical spot,” Jocumsen said. “Instead, I spread myself out over a broad area to see all of the lake so I have lots of options.”
“Someone is going to pull up on a spot where there were none during practice, and there will be a huge group of them there to win the tournament.”
Tyler Rivet
“I found an area where I feel like they will be coming to, so I’m going to bet on it.”
“I think it will be a place where fish will stack up during prespawn,” Rivet said.
“It’s that kind of place. But the reality is that anything can happen here. It’s changed every day.”
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Gerald Swindle
“I think you just have to not put as much thought into it as what I have in the past. It’s still not game time. Normally in an Elite Series when practice is done today, then I have to compete tomorrow.”
“So your mind goes into overdrive processing what to do that next day, and here, we have another off day before game day. I’ve changed my mind set to where you don’t put a lot of emphasis on what you are going to get locked into.”
“I know where I’m going to start, and then fish from there,” Swindle said. “Usually what I do is analyze it by the hour and you just can’t do that in this practice format. You just go fishing, go from there, less stress.”
Matt Robertson
“I practiced totally different than I have for any other tournament in the past. I only threw big baits.”
“I stayed away from areas where I know the fish are going,” Robertson said. “I basically wanted to see how big of a bait that I can get bit on, because you can’t hold anything back with the Classic.”
“It starts out as a two-day tournament and then if you make the 25 cut on Championship Sunday then you get a third day. It’s not like an Elite event where you can pace yourself. You have to go all out from the start. We have less current and lower water and these river bass need more of both to get really active. I think you are going to have to just fish your gut.”
Austin Felix
“I spent most of my regular practice down lake and today, just looked at last minute areas to make final stops at before check-in time, if I have any. I basically eliminated the first 15 miles of the river, at least for my style of fishing.”
“With the changing weather I think there will be a lot of fishing by the seat of your pants,” Felix said. 
“How the lake changes based on the warmup will also be about how much the water rises, bringing prespawners into shallow water.” 
Cory Johnston
“The water temperature has stayed consistent. It’s definitely going to warm up and that will help the fishing. It’s hard to say whether the bass are moving a lot. I think on Friday, Saturday we’ll see a difference in what the fish are doing. But as far as practice they have been doing the same thing. You have to go with your gut in this situation where we have practice days broken up with off days, let the weather dictate what the fish are going to do, go with that,” said Johnston. “It’s a bit of a guessing game. You get out there Friday and find out if they stayed or moved, and where they went. You have to figure it out on the fly.”

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