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
| Rank | Angler | Weight | # of fish |
| 1 | Scott Rook | 20-05 | 5 |
| 2 | Boyd Duckett | 17-10 | 5 |
| 2 | Jami Fralick | 17-10 | 5 |
| 4 | Aaron Martens | 16-01 | 5 |
| 5 | Michael Iaconelli | 15-14 | 5 |
| 6 | Randy Howell | 15-12 | 5 |
| 7 | Fred Roumbanis | 15-00 | 5 |
| 8 | Kelly Jordon | 14-13 | 5 |
| 9 | Bobby Lane | 14-05 | 5 |
| 9 | Edwin Evers | 14-05 | 5 |
| 11 | Mike McClelland | 14-01 | 5 |
| 12 | Bill Lowen | 14-00 | 5 |
| 12 | Dave Wolak | 14-00 | 5 |
| 14 | Brian Snowden | 13-10 | 5 |
| 15 | Dean Rojas | 13-08 | 5 |
| 16 | Alton Jones | 13-06 | 5 |
| 17 | Skeet Reese | 12-15 | 5 |
| 18 | Greg Pugh | 12-14 | 5 |
| 19 | Bryan Schmidt | 12-00 | 5 |
| 19 | Mike Burns | 12-00 | 5 |
| 21 | Davy Hite | 11-00 | 4 |
| 21 | Greg Hackney | 11-00 | 5 |
| 21 | Steve Kennedy | 11-00 | 5 |
| 24 | Brent Chapman | 10-14 | 5 |
| 25 | Rick Clunn | 10-06 | 5 |
| 26 | Kevin Wirth | 10-04 | 5 |
| 27 | Jay Evans | 10-02 | 5 |
| 28 | David Williams | 10-00 | 5 |
| 29 | Mark Davis | 9-08 | 5 |
| 29 | Matt Herren | 9-08 | 4 |
| 31 | Todd Faircloth | 9-03 | 4 |
| 32 | Casey Ashley | 8-15 | 5 |
| 32 | Terry Scroggins | 8-15 | 5 |
| 34 | Kenyon Hill | 8-04 | 5 |
| 35 | Waine Pittman | 7-10 | 4 |
| 36 | Ish Monroe | 7-09 | 3 |
| 37 | Shaw Grigsby | 7-08 | 5 |
| 38 | Bernie Schultz | 7-02 | 3 |
| 39 | Timmy Horton | 7-00 | 4 |
| 40 | Ken Baumgardner | 6-09 | 4 |
| 40 | Terry Fitzpatrick | 6-09 | 3 |
| 42 | Peter Thliveros | 6-00 | 3 |
| 43 | Kevin VanDam | 4-00 | 4 |
| 44 | Kim Bain-Moore | 3-13 | 3 |
| 45 | Gary Klein | 3-06 | 2 |
| 46 | Kotaro Kiriyama | 1-05 | 1 |
| 47 | Byron Velvick | 1-00 | 1 |
| – | Bryan Hudgins | 0 | 0 |
| – | Dustin Wilks | 0 | 0 |
| – | Rick Morris | 0 | 0 |
| – | Scott Parker | 0 | 0 |
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