Sumrall Classic-bound

Published 6:30 am Sunday, October 29, 2017

BY DON SHOOPMAN

THE DAILY IBERIAN

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NDERSON, S.C. — Practice makes perfect for people who ride it to victory.

Perseverance and versatility also are keys to winning championships, though, even when practice isn’t perfect, something Caleb Sumrall proved with an exclamation point at Lake Hartwell on his way to winning the Academy Sports + Outdoors B.A.S.S. Nation Championship presented by Magellan Outdoors a week ago Saturday. The 30-year-old New Iberia bass angler who started fishing competitively five years ago completed his B.A.S.S. Nation run against insurmountable odds to qualify for the 2018 Bassmaster Classic and earn free entry into every Bassmaster Elite Series tournament in 2018.

“It’s, ummmm, unbelievable. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I’m trying to get a grasp on the whole deal. It’s still unbelievable,” Sumrall said Wednesday morning, three days after returning home from Anderson with his 20-2 Eyra Bass Cat.

The Westgate High School graduate, a golfer in high school, also won a Skeeter ZX200 bass boat outfitted with a Yamaha SHO 200 outboard motor, Minn Kota trolling motor and Lowrance electronics. He topped a field of 61 anglers from 47 states and five continents.

That he’ll be fishing in the Super Bowl of bass fishing in mid-March against some of the best bass anglers in the world is intimidating, Sumrall admitted.

“Absolutely. It’s very intimidating,” he said. “But I promise you one thing, if I fail it won’t be because of lack of effort.

Mostly, he’s turning his attention to the first Bassmaster Elite Series tournament Feb. 8-11 at Lake Martin near Alexander City, Alabama.

“I’m more focused on getting the Elite Series taken care of so I can do it comfortable,” he said.

Sumrall, the son of Steve Sumrall and Patti Delcambre, said he welcomes any and all sponsors that he will work with enthusiastically during that Elite circuit in 2018. His current sponsors are Missile Baits, Kistler Rods and Cajun Bass Lures.

His dream-come-true all started here Oct. 19.

Sumrall checked in the first day of the three-day tournament with a limit of five bass weighing 11 pounds, 5 ounces, to put him in ninth place. He made a big move on Day 2 with a limit weighing 15 pounds, 10 ounces, and boated a clutch limit late in the day on Saturday to weigh in 9 pounds, 13 ounces in an emotional scene on the stage manned by emcee and B.A.S.S. Nation Director Jon Stewart (see related story on Page A1).

He finished with a three-day total of 36 pounds, 12 ounces.

The sequence of events  despite a forgettable practice the week he scouted before the cutoff period. The 56,000-acre lake was imposing.

“I prefished it for a week before it went off-limits. I had one of the worst practices I ever had. Actually, it was t-o-u-g-h,” he said.

As a result, his confidence level was at an all-time low going into the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship.

“I didn’t even think I’d catch a limit,” he said.

He prefished the four allowable days before the tournament, too.

Sumrall’s fortunes eventually hinged on cloud cover on Day 1. He remembered something fellow Louisianian Jamie Laiche said about a successful pattern Laiche used during 2008 the Bassmaster Classic on Lake Hartwell.

“A patch of clouds came over and I recalled a tip from a friend about casting a (Zoom Super) Fluke into schooling fish under those conditions,” Sumrall told bassmaster.com immediately after the tournament.

Sumrall was fishing a main lake shoal in 11 feet of water with hydrilla growing within 4 feet of the surface, he said.

“I’m a Louisiana boy and that made the spot even sweeter for me,” he said.

He used a Zoom Super Fluke with a ¼-ounce Gamakatsu Superline EWG Weighted Hook and a plastic rattle glued inside the hollow part of the body to catch a limit that Thursday.

He returned at the start of Day 2 and took advantage of low-light conditions to catch the ‘15-10’ bag, including a kicker weighing 5 pounds, 15 ounces.

“After I caught that big bag the second day, I thought I was within reach of winning it,” he said this past week. “I had a great second day. I had a big bass, 5-15. That fish was a blessing right there.”

Going into the final day, he said, “I knew I had a shot. Going out the third day, I knew anything could happen. I really wasn’t gunning to win it. I really was trying to get a limit and make the Classic.”

Sumrall missed bass after bass on the day of reckoning and as of 1 p.m. had one lonely 2-pound class swimming in the livewell. He cranked up the Bass Cat and ran to a different deepwater spot that gave him another keeper, then filled out his limit in a flurry of bites.

At the final weigh-in, Sumrall told Stewart it was a day of highs and lows. He described how bass were following a drop-shot presentation down but refusing to eat it, then talked about the move and the second keeper that bit.

“I didn’t really know how it’d turn out. The second place guy gave me a run for the money. It turned out just fine. I had enough weight to win by a couple pounds,” he said.

Watching the weigh-in streamed live on bassmaster.com were his immediate family at his home in New Iberia, as well as many others, including New Iberian Jimmy Gaspard, who Sumrall calls “Uncle Jimmy.” (Gaspard’s wife, Maxine, is the Classic qualifier’s godmother.)

Gaspard, 68, was oh-so proud of Sumrall, who he took under his wing to fish competitively about five years ago.

“I was watching that thing. I followed it all three days rooting for him. Just to watch him up on that stage, I was so happy. I was emotional. It couldn’t happen to a better kid, a good man, a good family man, and a good fisherman,” Gaspard said Thursday night.

“Nobody deserves it more than Caleb Sumrall in this area. You know, through ups and downs, he never gave up. He worked from Sandy Cove (a popular springtime bass fishing spot in Lake Fausse Pointe) to the Bassmaster Classic in, what, five, six years? Unbelievable!

“Those Elites better watch out, he’s coming. He’s going to make a lot of friends out there. He’s a likeable guy.”

He also called Sumrall a “natural” who adapts to fishing the swamps and marshes around here as well as he does the big lakes such as Toledo Bend and Lake Hartwell.

“I remember fishing with him when he first started bass fishing. He had that burning desire to learn everything. I could tell there was something special about him,” Gaspard said. “I was always impressed with his enthusiasm, also.”

Sumrall remembers those early days in competitive bass fishing, including the popular Hawg Fight series of evening bass tournaments in the Teche Area.

“I love fishing Hawg Fights,” Sumrall said, noting there are some good “sticks” who fish those mini bass tournaments.

“They’re good fishermen, absolutely. They kind of helped me cut my teeth and helped make me better, that’s for sure,” he said.

Sumrall had to quit fishing them, he said, because his former Schlumberger job took him to Fourchon. He was laid off in August.

“I missed them,” he said about the Hawg Fights.

“I actually started fishing tournaments with Damien Clements and Uncle Jimmy. Hooked? Oh, absolutely. I started fishing more and more and slowly started working my way up and bought a boat (Allison Craft),” he said. “I slowly started taking bigger steps and taking bigger risks, traveling more and doing new stuff, whatever I could do to catch fish.”

With the last tournament victory, Sumrall took a giant leap.