Since the end of the Day 2 weigh-in for the GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro, there has been some chatter online about Trevor Lo — and a lot of it hasn’t been positive.
In case you missed it, Lo, the 21-year-old University of Minnesota angler who made last week’s event on Grand Lake O’ the Cherokees by winning the College Series Classic Bracket, failed to catch a fish.
He zeroed for the event — and a lot of folks online have been having some fun at his expense over it.
To those folks, I’d like to pose this question:
Any of you guys make the Classic?
Seriously?
Anybody?
If not, then what are we even talking about?
He was there making the daily trips from Tulsa to Grove, and you weren’t. He fished one of several routes for anglers to make the Classic, and he won.
End of story.
If I seem a little aggravated, it’s because I’ve become a pretty big fan of Trevor Lo in a very short time.
I had the opportunity to sit and talk with him when he visited our Birmingham offices last month, and I came away from the conversation with this thought:
“There’s no way I was that smart at that age.”
And he’s not just smart.
He’s courteous, well-spoken and humble.
You might even say he’s…professional.
I don’t know if professional fishing and the Bassmaster Elite Series are even truly part of his plan. It seems to me a young man with so much going for him could make a living doing a lot of different things.
But I know this: He’s fishing all of the Bass Pro Shops Opens this year — just like Matt Lee did after reaching the Classic from the college ranks.
And Jordan Lee.
And Brett Preuett.
Notice a pattern with those names?
They all qualified for the Elite Series after taking part in the Classic as college qualifiers.
But all of that’s irrelevant for the moment.
Let’s get back to the original topic of people picking at Trevor Lo for performing poorly in the Classic.
If you’re gonna poke fun at the people who struggled in this particular Classic, the list should include more than one name.
Three other anglers zeroed on Day 1, including Elite Series star Chris Zaldain, who told me two days before competition began that he felt like he had found some fish. Who hasn’t caught fish in practice only to have them disappear on tournament day?
Five anglers zeroed on Day 2, including perhaps the greatest of all-time, Kevin VanDam.
That’s right. KVD fished an entire eight-hour day during the Bassmaster Classic and didn’t put a keeper in the boat.
Anybody feel like ragging him?
I don’t know what’ll happen with Trevor Lo as his career progresses.
Maybe he’ll catch enough fish in the Opens this year to earn an invitation into the 2017 Elite Series.
Maybe he’ll decide the grind of a pro fishing career isn’t the way he wants to go, and he’ll decide to use his many abilities somewhere else in the fishing industry.
Maybe he’ll choose a different path all together.
I don’t know how that’ll all shake out.
But there’s one thing I know for sure:
This time next year, Trevor Lo will still have at least one more Classic appearance on his resume than the folks taking cheap shots at him online.