I have recounted many times the feeling I had going into the 1998 Bassmaster Classic on North Carolina’s High Rock Lake.
I was nearly a decade into covering professional bass fishing, and I had been a fan many years before that. I knew more than enough to feel like Missouri legend Denny Brauer — the hottest angler in the world at the time — was simply due.
So, when Brauer won the event by almost 10 pounds, I wasn’t shocked at all.
Neither was most of the press corps. It just seemed like … fate.
During the quarter-century since Brauer’s Classic moment, I’ve asked myself every year if fate had another Classic favorite. The answer has pretty much been no, but it’s still a question worth pondering with every renewal of the event.
When you look at this year’s field at Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees, two names come immediately to mind.
Greg Hackney, the legendary Louisiana pro and veteran of 222 B.A.S.S. events dating back to 1998, will be making his 18th appearance in the Classic this year. In the two previous Classics at Grand Lake, he finished 13th (2010) and 10th (2016).
Hackney has done about all you can do in the sport — from his six B.A.S.S. wins to his Bassmaster Angler of the Year title in 2014.
Another guy who’s cut from the same cloth is Idaho pro Brandon Palaniuk. Though he’ s fished fewer events than Hackney at 153, Palaniuk has matched his six victories and has two AOY trophies. He’ll be taking his 13th swing at the Classic crown.
When I think about the incredible resumes those two have put together, I can’t help but think back to another guy who seemed long overdue for a Classic victory when he finally broke through two years ago — Oklahoma pro Jason Christie.
Christie had made seven Classic appearances before that tournament on South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell — and though he’d been a force in past events, a second-place finish in 2016 and a third-place finish in 2018 were the best he’d been able to do.
Instead of feeling like he was a choice of fate, many had come to believe Christie was snakebit and might never break down the Classic wall. Even Christie seemed to let a little of that creep in toward the end of the Hartwell tournament.
“I’m getting older and the young guys are getting better and better,” he said after the Day 2 weigh-in. “I just kind of have to ask myself, ‘If not now, when?’”
Christie got the monkey off his back 24 hours after uttering those words, beating Alabama pro Kyle Welcher by a mere 5 ounces.
Now, ironically, he could be the biggest obstacle to the aforementioned veterans finally straining their arms and backs to lift their own chunk of Classic glory.
If fate has Hackney or Palaniuk as its favorite, then logic has to favor Christie competing on what is basically his home fishery without the pressure of never having won one.
So, let’s see how it shakes out.
Will it be fate?
Will it be logic?
Will a new character write his name in Classic history?
