Moving day at the Classic lived up to the billing. Some guys stumbled like Boyd Duckett, but a bunch of the anglers really stepped on the gas on Day 2. On day 1, Boyd had the loan 20lb bag, on Saturday there was a 20lb bag and three 22lb bags. For the most part, you needed to catch them better today then on Friday just to keep pace. Even though the air & water temps cooled, the cloud cover made the bass easier to harvest for most of the anglers.
I am very impressed with Jami Fralick’s consistency, looks like he has found a stellar area and has also been managing his fish. I some what expected to see him fade away much like Charlie Hartley did last year, but now I believe he will be right there at the end with a few other anglers. Other anglers like Kelly Jordan have eluded to catching their bags early and the going to new water, so we will see what pros have managed their fish well on Day 3. The bite sounds to be tougher on Sunday, but guys that have left their fish early each day, may be able to really milk those areas on Sunday to push for the win. We have the top 7 guys all hunting for their first classic and three former classic champs right behind them. I would say that there is a 80-90% likelihood that we will have a first time champ this afternoon.
Photo Courtesy of ESPN.com
The Federation Nation anglers are for the most part not in contention to win after today, but 3 of them made the cut, which is very respectable. There is a possibility for someone to make a big charge, because I get the feeling that the Red can very cruel, so a couple guys could stumble on top and someone could catch an 8lb bass and make a big threat. Alton Jones did tell a story about breaking off a 10lb bed fish twice at the end of the day. But I believe for all practical purposed, the Top 10 guys are ones with legitimate shots at taking home the $500k. Boyd & Ike are tied for 9th and sit just under 5lbs out of the lead.
Reports say most guys caught them on reaction baits yesterday, Skeet = Spinnerbait, Jordan = Magic Shad, Fralick = Swimming Jig, Davis = Crankbait, will those presentations work today with high skies or will they need to adjust? Will guys like Martens or Wolak who were finesse fishing soft plastics be able to keep their bite going better. One thought is that Kelly Jordan is fishing closest to the launch, so maybe he can get an early bite better with his reaction baits while his competitors are still running.
Photo Courtesy of ESPN.com
My Fantasy Fishing team rebounded a bit on day 2, while I only got 3 guys fishing on day 3, all of my guys increased their weights and moved up in the standings. Right now my score is 1171, which bumps me to 11th out of 34 in my group, 9643 overall, 68.6 percentile. I still think my guy KJ will come through and anchor my Fantasy Fishing team to a solid finish!
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Below is the unnoficial leaderboard at the end of the day, again you can see the large variance & for the most part, the top part of the field were all a bunch of sandbaggers today when it comes to the BassTrakk.
| Today | Overall |
| Rank | Angler | Weight | # of fish | Rank | Weight |
| 1 | Skeet Reese | 21-00 | 5 | 1 | 36-08 |
| 2 | Kelly Jordon | 19-10 | 5 | 2 | 35-04 |
| 4 | Dave Wolak | 17-00 | 5 | 3 | 34-06 |
| 15 | Jami Fralick | 14-08 | 5 | 4 | 33-11 |
| 13 | Aaron Martens | 15-00 | 5 | 5 | 33-01 |
| 9 | Edwin Evers | 15-10 | 5 | 6 | 32-10 |
| 29 | Boyd Duckett | 10-10 | 5 | 7 | 30-13 |
| 5 | Greg Pugh | 16-10 | 5 | 8 | 30-10 |
| 5 | Bobby Lane | 16-10 | 5 | 9 | 29-12 |
| 17 | Brian Snowden | 14-02 | 5 | 10 | 29-11 |
| 8 | Mike McClelland | 15-12 | 5 | 11 | 29-10 |
| 18 | Bill Lowen | 13-09 | 5 | 12 | 28-05 |
| 20 | Michael Iaconelli | 13-00 | 4 | 12 | 28-05 |
| 22 | Kevin Wirth | 12-08 | 5 | 14 | 27-11 |
| 7 | Mark Davis | 16-00 | 5 | 14 | 27-11 |
| 34 | Terry Fitzpatrick | 9-10 | 5 | 16 | 27-10 |
| 25 | Dean Rojas | 11-08 | 5 | 17 | 27-05 |
| 32 | Randy Howell | 10-02 | 5 | 18 | 26-05 |
| 28 | Bryan Schmidt | 10-12 | 5 | 19 | 26-01 |
| 10 | Terry Scroggins | 15-04 | 5 | 20 | 25-12 |
| 23 | Alton Jones | 11-14 | 5 | 21 | 25-03 |
| 27 | Brent Chapman | 11-02 | 5 | 22 | 24-05 |
| 16 | Casey Ashley | 14-05 | 5 | 23 | 24-02 |
| 14 | Shaw Grigsby | 14-11 | 5 | 24 | 23-06 |
| 43 | Fred Roumbanis | 5-00 | 3 | 25 | 23-04 |
| 41 | Scott Rook | 5-08 | 3 | 26 | 23-03 |
| 31 | Greg Hackney | 10-08 | 5 | 27 | 23-01 |
| 19 | Jay Evans | 13-05 | 5 | 27 | 23-01 |
| 3 | Kevin VanDam | 18-04 | 5 | 29 | 22-08 |
| 21 | Kenyon Hill | 12-09 | 5 | 30 | 21-09 |
| 43 | Mike Burns | 5-00 | 3 | 31 | 20-07 |
| 29 | Todd Faircloth | 10-10 | 5 | 32 | 19-12 |
| 23 | Waine Pittman | 11-14 | 5 | 33 | 19-07 |
| 11 | Gary Klein | 15-02 | 5 | 34 | 17-15 |
| 38 | Bernie Schultz | 6-00 | 5 | 35 | 17-03 |
| 26 | Peter Thliveros | 11-03 | 5 | 35 | 17-03 |
| 40 | Rick Clunn | 5-13 | 2 | 37 | 16-08 |
| 42 | Steve Kennedy | 5-04 | 3 | 38 | 16-02 |
| 36 | Rick Morris | 8-10 | 3 | 39 | 15-04 |
| 11 | Dustin Wilks | 15-02 | 5 | 40 | 15-02 |
| – | Matt Herren | 0 | 0 | 41 | 14-04 |
| 47 | Davy Hite | 3-02 | 2 | 42 | 13-14 |
| 49 | David Williams | 2-00 | 1 | 43 | 13-06 |
| 48 | Scott Parker | 2-08 | 2 | 44 | 12-15 |
| 35 | Kim Bain-Moore | 9-03 | 5 | 45 | 12-09 |
| 38 | Ish Monroe | 6-00 | 3 | 46 | 12-08 |
| 33 | Bryan Hudgins | 10-00 | 4 | 47 | 11-05 |
| 46 | Ken Baumgardner | 3-08 | 2 | 48 | 10-02 |
| 37 | Byron Velvick | 8-05 | 4 | 49 | 9-05 |
| – | Timmy Horton | 0 | 0 | 50 | 7-11 |
| 45 | Kotaro Kiriyama | 4-08 | 3 | 51 | 6-02 |
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!
