Sumrall pleased with catch on first day of Bassmaster Classic

Published 1:21 am Sunday, March 8, 2020

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — Lake Guntersville’s recalcitrant bass were spoilers for Caleb Sumrall and many others on the water for the first day of the 50th annual Bassmaster Classic on Lake Guntersville. 

The Bassmaster Elite pro from New Iberia was pleased three solid bass did go after either his lipless crank bait, bladed jig and swim jig, in that order, and wind up in the livewell. The ones that didn’t bite left him piqued but didn’t take away his sense of humor.

Minutes after weighing those three bass at 9 pounds, 9 ounces, on stage inside the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center, Sumrall met up with veteran and award-winning B.A.S.S. writer Don Barone near the Media Center. The two have a good relationship and the journalist took advantage of it to draw a smile from Sumrall.

“You know, you need five, huh?” Barone said with a smile before other media interviewed the 32-year-old New Iberia competing in his second Bassmaster Classic. And he pointed out that first-day leader Hank Cherry of Lincolnton, North Carolina, stuffed a whopping 29 pounds, 3 ounces, on the scale for emcee Dave Mercer and tournament director and weighmaster Trip Weldon.

Sumrall chuckled and said, “I’m giving him a head start.”

Following a day in which his game plan choices backfired for the most part, Sumrall accepted it and started looking forward to the second day of the three-day tournament on Saturday. Day Two was scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. with the weigh-in set for around 4:30 p.m. at the BJCC.

He was in 39th place in the star-studded Bassmaster Classic with an uphill battle to make the Top 25 cut and fish on Championship Sunday.

“I need a big bag (heavy five-bass limit) tomorrow. I’m going to change up my rotation a little bit,” he told another outdoors writer in the Media Center.

That meant he planned to travel far upriver, which is where he spent the middle hours of opening day and caught bass estimated at 2 ¾- and 3 3/4-pound, rather than starting near the boat launch at Civitan Park near Guntersville. A large crowd braved the bone-chilling wind and temperatures and lined the shoreline to watch the Elites take off Friday.

His starting point was a road bed in the middle of a large bay near a marina. He plied it with lipless crank baits, crank baits and Zman Jackhammers.

There were no takers. He made another short move, then another, and, nearly two hours after starting, he boated a 2-pound class bass on a reddish orange Spro Wameku lipless crank bait . It bit on his first cast in a grassy area that gave up no more bass.

He covered that stretch thoroughly before making the decision to haul it way up the river before stopping in a shallow, grassy area that could be mistaken for a bassy area back home in the heart of Cajun. A few casts later he slammed the steel home on the 2 ¾-pound bass with his signature hookset, fought it quickly and flipped it in the boat.

Again, though, he was unable to coax another bite while fishing a long stretch, pausing at choice spots by lowering the Power Poles. There wasn’t another tournament boat within sight.

“Yeah, I just need a couple more fish to show up,” he said.

They never materialized. He cranked up the Yamaha Show on his new Xpress X21 Pro Series aluminum boat and traveled even farther upriver, turned into a winding bayou and roared into a sprawling lake. He had high hopes for the area, where he kept a punching jig in his hand most of the time.

The minutes ticked away, cutting into his time. About 40 minutes later, he said, pleading, “C’mon, fish!”

Five minutes after that, he strapped down his fishing rods on the deck, a number that grew from 12 that he began with to 14, he said as he got ready to hit the hot foot, “This was a big ol’ waste of time. That was my best area of practice.”

He worked his way back to the 2-foot depths that gave up the 2 ¾-pounde. Just before noon, he whipped the fishing rod back and set hook on his biggest bass of the day, one that smacked a Cajun Boss Swim Jig.

He retraced his path downriver, revisiting the place he began the tournament, and couldn’t draw a nibble. That convinced him of one thing.

“Welp, they’re not right here,” he said.

He raced downriver and hit several spots before settling on another Louisiana-looking area. Bassmaster Classic contender Scott Canterbury, an early favorite to win the world championship of bass fishing, was there with a limit and caught another bass in the distance.

Sumrall offered a plastic lizard, the lipless crank bait and swim jig. He swung at two bites with no results before heading back to make the check-in.

Waiting in the choppy water to put his boat on the trailer, driven by his “caddy,” Daniel O’Chery of New Iberia, he said he stayed focused all day on trying to get bit. He was disappointed in most of the areas he counted on.

“I wasted a lot of time going there and not fishing productive areas,” he said.

Louisiana’s other Bassmaster Classic qualifier, Darold Gleason of Many, finished the first day in 23rd place with five bass for 14 pounds, 4 ounces.