Learn how the 2022 Bassmaster Classic champion used the spinnerbait series and trailer he designed to win on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
Jason Christie strikes fear in competitors anytime he has a spinnerbait rod in hand. This weekend he proved that fear is well founded. Doing the bulk of his work with a BOOYAH Covert Spinnerbait, Christie won the Bassmaster Elite Series event on Mississippi’s Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway with a four-day total of 58 pounds, 2 ounces.
Christie, who lives in Dry Creek, Oklahoma, had noted that the river system reminded him of the Arkansas River in Oklahoma, and he dissected the Tenn-Tom as if he was fishing home waters. The 2022 Bassmaster Classic Champion paired a Blue/White/Chartreuse 1/2-ounce Single Colorado BOOYAH Covert Spinnerbait with a new YUM Covert Trailer to pick apart grass and wood cover in the dirty, shallow water throughout the tournament.
Christie also caught some fish with a BOOYAH Mobster Swim Jig matched with a YUM Craw Chunk or a Texas rigged YUM Wooly Bug, but the Covert Spinnerbait and Trailer, both of which were built to Christie’s exact specifications, accounted for the bulk of his weight throughout the tournament.
Covert Spinnerbait Series & Spinnerbait Trailer
Christie learned bass fishing from his father and his uncles, and the entire family had a hand in development of the BOOYAH Covert Spinnerbait Series. Every detail, from the Hildebrandt blades to the modified BOOYAH head to the hooks to the blades sizes, configurations and colors came from Jason Christie, with input from the entire Christie family.
Collectively, the BOOYAH Covert Spinnerbait Series provides every angler with the exact spinnerbait Christie would custom-build for every water color and water temperature, and a “Heat Map” on Lurenet Covert Spinnerbait pages allows anglers to pick the exact spinnerbait Christie would choose for a day’s conditions.
Every detail of the YUM Covert Spinnerbait Trailer, just released during the Bassmaster Classic, also comes from Christie. It’s a twin-tail trailer, with tiny feet at the ends of each tail to add kick and vibration, that also includes a center marking for simple, straight rigging and a designed shortening point to make is a perfect fit for a Covert Finesse Spinnerbait as well as a standard-sized spinnerbait.
Tournament Decisions
On the first competition day, Christie traveled a long distance and locked twice but didn’t catch as big a bag as he was gambling on with the big run. “It was a crazy week. On the first day, I thought I’d messed up,” he said. Weights were close through the field, though, and while his 12-5 limit left him in a tie for 37th place, that didn’t take him out of contention.
On day two, Christie changed strategies, fishing a shallow backwater that wasn’t far from the take-off, where he’d catch a limit of 16-10 and rise to fifth. On Semifinal Saturday, Christie returned to his Day 2 spot and moved into the lead with another bag of 16-10.
Between the effect of a cold front, wind that further muddied the water and the impact of tournament pressure, the final day was challenging for the Top 10 anglers who made the cut. Christie held a small limit into the early afternoon, but two key bites — a 2-pounder at 1:00 and a 3-12 at 1:30 — lifted his final limit to 12-9, which was the third best catch of the day and allowed him to win by 2-5.
Christie actually left his main area around noon on Day 4 with hopes of finding a better bite, but he kept thinking about wisdom from one of his uncles to not leave fish to find fish. It took less than an hour for him to realize he would be better off where he had started.
“I wasn’t out there 45 minutes, and I was like, ‘If I’m gonna lose this, I’m gonna lose it in my home,’” Christie said. “I went back in there and caught that big one.”
At the end of the fishing day, Christie thought there was no chance he would win. “When I was idling in, I figured somebody had caught ’em,” he said.
“It’s funny, in the previous Elite tournament, I finished dead last, and I win this one. Last year, I finished dead last (in another trail) and then I won.” Christie took home the $100,000 top prize and his sixth blue trophy.
Christie noted that an important difference maker was catching three big fish in two days off pieces of cover that weren’t visible.
“Garmin just released a new 360-degree sonar unit, and I went into (his local spot) and marked those stumps, because I figured that’s where those big ones would hang out.”
“It’s getting harder every year to do this; these guys are just really good,” said the 52-year-old pro. “It gets in my head, ‘Am I getting too old for this?’ It feels good to win because I fish to win every single time I go out. Getting older makes it sweeter — especially on a spinnerbait.”
Notably, the next stop for the Bassmaster Elite Series is at the Arkanasas River in Oklahoma, the close-to-home waters that made the Tenn-Tom feel familiar to Christie. Stay tuned!
