“I had a game plan and it worked out. It just wasn’t enough.”
Story
by Pete Robbins
Posted
- February 24th, 4:48am CST
Birmingham, Ala.
- Russ Lane said that it was a positive attitude, not local knowledge, that propelled him to a 4th place finish in this past week’s Bassmaster Classic. Unlike the 2007 Classic, where he admitted that he allowed the pressure and the hype to get to him, this time he entered the event calm, cool and
collected.
“My mindset was a lot different going into this one,” he said. “For the last six to eight months I’ve really had a different approach. It wouldn’t have mattered where it was.”.
Photos
by Mark Jeffreys & Matt Pangrac
Indeed, while he ultimately finished behind winner Kevin VanDam, runner-up Jeff Kriet and third place finisher Todd Faircloth, Lane was the only one who made a major adjustment during the tournament to fuel his run for the title. The others primarily had a single area or several stretches, while Lane – who like the others spent some of the tournament in Beeswax Creek – knew that the final day conditions primed other areas for a flipping and spinnerbait bite. While his 18-1 Sunday limit wasn’t enough to overcome VanDam’s 19 pound bookends, it signaled that his career is where he wants it to be.
“I’m fishing really well right now,” he said. “Not just this tournament. I fished well in the Open on Okeechobee and I finished up strong in the Toyota event last year and in some events (in Alabama) last fall. My family is helping me to stay calm. There’s a lot of balance. I’m not thinking about negatives.”
Satisfied With Classic Effort
Lane professed to be satisfied with his Lay Lake performance. He fished well – VanDam and two others simply fished better.
“I can’t control what other guys do on the water,” he said. “I had a game plan and it worked out. It just wasn’t enough. I did everything I could. I had ideas about what would change on the final day and it all worked out.”
Ultimately, he fell short of VanDam’s winning weight by almost 8 pounds, so the fact that he weighed only four fish on the second day doesn’t haunt him, although he does wonder what might have been. “I caught one the first day close to five pounds on a little corner,” he recalled. “On the second day I caught another one in the five pound range there. At that same place I had two pull off that I didn’t see. I feel that both were in the four to six pound range. Either one would have made it close.”
His last day heroics played out as he’d planned, even if his bag came up a bit short. “There’s always a bite that tells you something,” he said. “I pulled into Spring Creek at about 8 o’clock and caught a big spot there right off the bat. That told me what was about to happen and it was ‘bam-bam’ there for about 30 minutes. I knew that if the spots had made their move, then a few bigger largemouths would be up, too, so I went and that’s when I caught that one big one.” The day’s lunker went 6-2
He allowed himself to think that if the anglers in front of him stumbled, the big bag might give him a shot at a Classic victory, but at the same time he knew the caliber of the competition in front of him and the 6-pound plus deficit he had to make up.
“In the pre-interviews a lot of people were saying it would take 35 pounds to win,” he said. “I’ve seen that before. I just completed my fifth year of doing this full time and I know that when it’s lining up to get right these guys are going to smash them, so I told guys it would take 50. It’s just insane how good they are.”
Turning Over a New Leaf
Even if one believes the old cliché that “there’s no second (or third or fourth) place in the Classic,” Lane’s take on the Classic just a few days later is that it’s a sign of good things to come and a 180 degree shift in his fortunes.
A year ago at this time, he’d lost the vast majority of his sponsor income and gave serious consideration to quitting the Elite Series. Now in addition to his renewed energy he feels that he has the best products his previous sponsors have to offer in addition to a stable full of new top-notch companies. To wit, at this Classic he ran a BassCat Jaguar, the new 21 foot flagship of the Arkansas boat builder’s lineup. It was powered by a 250 hp Yamaha SHO, likewise that company’s newest and baddest power plant.
“It’s the finest boat I’ve ever been in,” he said. “It’s a combination of the boat and the engine. It’s a heavy boat so it has an unbelievable ride. On the last day, even with the win and all of the boat traffic out there, I could put the hammer down and go. And the SHO, it has so much lower end power and even in 1.6 feet of water I could take off and shoot that Jaguar straight out.”
New sponsors like Big Bite Baits and Buckeye Lures also played a role. He credited a Big Bite Yo Mama creature bait (black/blue) with some key bites. A Buckeye football jig (green pumpkin) tipped with a Big Bite Fighting Frog (green pumpkin) produced the largest spotted bass and a ½ ounce Buckeye spinnerbait (smoky shad) lured in the six-pounder. Every decision he makes seems to be turning up roses.
“I have high expectations for this year,” he said. “I want to put myself in position to win one, but I also want to be able to recognize when I’m not in position to win so I can fish for points.”
Notably, he wants to end the regular season in the top 1 2, which would enable him to fish the post-season events on Jordan and the Alabama River, where many would consider him a prohibitive favorite, even among the stoutest of competition. But asked which of the regular season events excited him most, he wouldn’t commit to a single tournament.
“The next one is always the most important one,” he
said.
