For starters, if you missed the link to this breakdown of the BASS salary cap, click here to read one by BP.

Much like the first 2 FLW tournaments are completely different venues, its probably even a greater difference between the Red River and Lake Amistad.  I have fished Amistad both for fun and as a Co-Angler in an Elite Series tournament.  Amistad is a very deep clear canyon lake that is chocked full of flooded brush and a good amount of hydrilla grass.

The one nice thing, is that BASS has been coming to Del Rio for the last 3 years near this time of the year.  So you got a solid comparison to work from, but its always a little different every time.  Plus you have a handful of new anglers from the Opens that can always make a splash.  In my mind, here are the patterns that could play depending on weather.  Swimbaits, Flipping or Cranking Bushes, deep structure with big worms or football jigs or if timing is right, bed fishing could loom large.  Picking BASS fantasy fishing lineups can be a little tricky, because you kind of get penalized for switching anglers, if a angler is fishing well, you want to keep him because you are locked in when you own them, if you drop them & try to pick them up, you could end up paying more.  I like to lock in my top 3 or 4 horses and then adjust the bottom 1-2 slots to match up the lakes.

Talked to my dad last week and he said the water is warming and fishing are moving shallow, a buddy of his caught a 10 lb fish pretty shallow over the weekend, cool weather & clouds could push some fish back.  Sight fishing will play a role, just not sure how big of a role at this point.

So below is my lineup, from the Classic I dropped Rick Morris and picked up Velvick, he is bound to well on his home lake, right?  KVD has been a stud at Amistad & will probably never leave my lineup all year, Hackney has been up & down there (like him at Dardanelle as well) & KJ loves big fish & TX.  As far as Lowen, he has had some success there, he has made the 50 cut every time at Amistad plus I can’t really find anyone I like that much in his price range or below, and he should do well on Dardanelle as well.

Rich’s Roster
Angler 1	Angler 2	Angler 3	Angler 4	Angler 5
Kevin VanDam Kalamazoo, MI	Kelly Jordon Mineola, TX	Greg Hackney Gonzales, LA	Byron Velvick Del Rio, TX	Bill Lowen North Bend, OH
MKT: $24.5 LKD: $24.5	MKT: $21.0 LKD: $21.0	MKT: $19.5 LKD: $19.5	MKT: $17.6 LKD: $17.6	MKT: $17.4 (+0.1) LKD: $17.3

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com 
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I would have to say it was an eventful and exciting Day # 1 from the Bassmaster Classic.  During the day, the online coverage was very good between Bassmaster.com & BassZone.com.  Seems to me Bassmaster.com really dropped the ball by not streaming the weigh-in, I wonder how few people have access to ESPN360.com, how am I supposed to switch cable providers in time?  It would have been better if it was something I could buy.  It was very frustrating to listen to Aaron Martens weigh in a 7lb bush panda and not be able to see it.  If someone wants to give me a username and password on their Verizon account, that would be really cool!

The TV coverage was about what I expected, it was positioned for the masses instead of the hard core fans, not sure why they do that.  Maybe they can really pull new fans in….  I just hope they do not replay all those Lowen, Bain, & non-fishing pieces all 3 days of TV coverage.

I am a little surprised that Boyd Duckett is leading, but I guess I shouldn’t be, I think we have learned that he shows up for the big events.  Maybe during the Day 2 coverage we will see if he is really throwing that Laser Lure crankbait.   The biggest surprise of the day has to be KVD’s poor weight, it will be interesting to see if he turns it around.  Aaron Martens is in great position to be another bridesmaid, we will see.  That is if he does not melt down in the crowds like he did on Falcon & Eerie this past year.

Photo Courtesty of ESPN.com
Looks like a lot of the leaders are catching their fish on soft plastics, see lots of guys fishing Beavers on texas rigs.  What beautiful cover they are fishing, makes me want to back the boat & truck and drive to the Red River to do some fishing!  Major props to Jami Fralick and Northern Division Federation Angler Terry Fitzpatrick, he is from IA and actually moved on from the same Northern Divisional event that I fished on Winnebago this past summer.  This is the 2nd time an angler from Northern Division that I fished with has made noise in the Classic, I also fished against Terry McWilliams the year he qualified for Lay Lake.  It makes watching the coverage more interesting and convinces me that I can make the Classic and compete when I get there.

I think we will learn more about the patterns and lures today.  I missed the BassCast feature on Basssmaster.com yesterday, not quite sure what to make of it….  BassFan.com has a very complete breakdown of anglers day, must read!

My Fantasy team got off to a dismal start, I am in the 40th percentile with 1099 points, overall rank of 18255 and my group rank is 27 of 34, not very good    But Jordan seems to be off to a great start today and is going to have a big day, plus Hack should move up today and KVD can’t have that bad a day again.  I think at this point, I need to hope 4 of my guys make the cut and continue to move up the board and that KJ wins!

I copied down the day unofficial standing, so that you could compare to the final day 1 standings.  You can then see who had big eyes, who was sand bagging, who’s observers made mistakes, etc.  I think this shows, that you will have to tune into the final weigh in, not matter what you read online all day.

Here is the unofficial standings from the online coverage

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Here are a few things that have recently been released and others I just found.  Take it as fun prep for you to read for the Classic weekend or maybe a couple nuggets to help you finalize or tweak your Fantasy Fishing Roster.

Mark Menendez Classic Picks – The Turtle, KJ & Faircloth
BassFan Scouting Report – Report on Final Practice Days from the Pros
Classic Photo Galleries – See them on the water during practice
Randy Howell’s Classic Secret Weapon – Here the audio!

Finally a cool pics I borrowed from the Classic galleries at Bassmaster.com that I thought were either cool or interesting:

Will Steve Kennedy fish from this boat?

Kelly Jordan fishing some cool looking water

KVD gets Zona as an observer, “Bad Draw”

There is still time to join my Fantasy Fishing Group.  Get your rosters locked by Friday at 8am Central.

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Bass Fishing Tackle Blog