From "so close you can taste it" to the "one that got away," the 2009 Bassmaster Classic presented plenty of exciting moments for the professional anglers sponsored by Booyah and YUM. It also was the coming out party for the company itself, with 2009 the first year of Booyah Bait Company's official sponsorship as the Official Wire Bait of BASS.
Five of the 51 anglers who qualified for the Classic are sponsored by Booyah or YUM: Tim Horton, of Muscle Shoals, Ala., Terry Scroggins of San Mateo, Fla., Dave Wolak of Wake Forest, N.C., Edwin Evers of Talala, Okla., and 2008 Classic Champion Alton Jones of Waco, Texas. Jones won the 2008 title by working Booyah A Jigs and Pigskin Jigs while those two baits were still in the prototype stage.
After day 1 of the tournament, Jones weighed in a 5-fish limit of 13 pounds, 5 ounces. It's often said that while anglers cannot win the tournament on day 1, they certainly can lose it, and that was a thought weighing heavily on Jones' mind after the weigh in. "With this group of talented fishermen, you can't stumble and stand a chance."
Leading the Booyah and YUM pros on day 1 was Dave Wolak at No. 7, followed closely by Edwin Evers at No. 8. Wolak weighed in a five fish limit weighing 17 pounds, 6 ounces and Evers' five came in at an even 17 pounds. Terry "Big Show" Scroggins weighed in a five fish limit for 10 pounds, 8 ounces and sat in 32nd place, and Tim Horton weighed in a limit at 7 pounds, 11 ounces for 39th.
Day 1 would be Horton's only day of fishing as an illness combined with a kidney stone would prevent him from continuing.
Day 2 dawned with cool temperatures and the threat of rain. The skies made good on that threat and by noon the competitors were being rained on. Edwin Evers moved up to third place with a 19.03-pound limit, followed closely by Dave Wolak who weighed in a 17-pound limit to sit in the seventh position. Alton Jones weighed in a limit of 12.12 pounds, but lost the fish that might have put him in the driver's seat.
"I saw a big fish on a bed and caught the male on a tube, but I got it snagged when I threw back in there for the big female so I grabbed my other rod with a 6-inch YUM Dinger on it and threw it in there," Jones said. "After the Dinger settled in I thought I needed to rerig the tube, so I sat the rod down. I bent down and was retying when I heard a noise – it was my rod going over the side of the boat. I grabbed it and hooked the fish but she got the line caught in a laydown and was gone by the time I got the boat in there. She might have gone 10 pounds."
Terry Scroggins weighed in enough to secure 26th place on day two, barely missing the cut to fish the final day.
Another cold front blew through on Saturday evening and lowered the water temperature even more for the remaining 25 anglers fishing the final day of the 2009 Classic. Evers fished every day in Pool 4 but would pick up a few fish prior to locking down, making time management important. He caught all of his fish throughout the tournament on a Wooly Bug or a Dinger. His limit on Day 3 of 15-pounds, 2-ounces dropped him to fifth in the final standings.
Dave Wolak, who had been sitting in seventh as day 3 began, fell to 22nd in the final standings, but Alton Jones' final-day monster limit of 20-pounds, 10-ounces pushed his placement up to 14th, making that lost bass on day 2 the one that will haunt him.
The anglers reported using Wooly Bugs, Dingers and Vibra King Tubes, usually in watermelon red flake, to boat their daily limits of bass.