“Christie fishes good mad.” This was Steve Bowman’s assessment of the vibe he was picking up from Jason Christie. The Oklahoma angler had just walked off from an impromptu visit to the Bassmaster LIVE Mix set yesterday morning during the fog delay. The Classic Champ was kicking himself after having made a wrong decision on Day 2. He was pleasant enough with the crew, but there was an underlying unrest that he was ready to address on the water.
Christie started in 4th, after a strong Day 1 performance. He stubbed his toe on Day 2, falling to 17th. But he rallied with the VMC Monster Bag by far of the event on Day 3 (23-0) and the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of the whole year, an astonishing 9-pound, 4-ounce monstrosity of a bass. Bowman was right, Jason Christie does in fact fish extremely good mad.
Christie was all smiles at weigh-in yesterday, as he gleefully showed off this once-in-a-lifetime Lay Lake bass. But he’s no doubt stirred up those old emotions from Day 2 to fuel the fire a bit for him today. If he’s to walk away with the title, he’ll have to chase down the only angler in front of him (Brandon Palaniuk) and hold off the local favorite who is hot on his heels (Will Davis Jr).
Palaniuk has done what no one thought could be done, and thus no one even tried. He’s leading the Whataburger Bassmaster Elite at Lay Lake from the most known community hole on the whole fishery, behind the bridge in Beeswax Creek. Will Davis Jr has run around all week tapping into his wealth of knowledge here, anchoring that milk run with the majority of his time spent beneath the Logan Martin Dam.
Can Palaniuk will another 15 pounds to bite? Has Christie figured something out on the home stretch? Maybe Davis has one or two things left up his sleeve? Or will someone in the remainder of the Top 10 chase them all down? We’ll know in about 8 hours. Watch it all unfold on Bassmaster LIVE.
