Behind the Scenes of the Classic:
What You Don’t See
by Bruce Callis
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The first day of the 2022 Academy Sports + Outdoor Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk is officially in the books. The day started with a huge gathering at Green Pond Landing to watch the blast off. And while Bassmaster LIVE provided the action on the water, the big Bassmaster Classic Outdoors Expo presented by Marathon opened up at the Greenville Convention Center. And the weigh in rounded out the day at the Bon Secours Wellness Center, to make a perfect end to the day.
When the final bag was weighed, Bryan New had amassed a sweet 20 pound bag to take the lead heading into Day 2. Kyle Welcher brought in a 18 pound 13 ounce bag to land himself in 2nd place. And Steve Kennedy brought in a 18 pound 9 ounce bag to tie Greg Hackney, but had the big bass of the day with a 6 pound 7 ounce giant. Brock Mosley rounded out the top 5 with a 18 pound 7 ounce bag.
But for all the sweet pictures you see on Live, there is so much you don’t really see. When the boats arrive at the weigh in, anglers who do not drive a Toyota Tundra, have their boats hooked up to a sponsor truck to be pulled into the arena. And then they are brought to the entrance leading into the arena where a bomb sniffing dog checks the truck and boat to make sure someone had not slipped a bomb to them. And the boats are all cleaned up by a volunteers. This year it was a group of high school anglers who went to work wiping them down totally so that they look their best for the fans. And the bass are checked for being alive and healthy. From here they drove up into the building and stage to go inside, sitting behind a curtain awaiting there cue to roll out on the floor. And on live, all you see is a thing of beauty as they make their entrance.
The angler pulls out his bag and walks up on stage to cheer of the crowd. His bass are weighed and then the bag of bass are lowered through the stage. That is all you see. But below stage, away from everyone sits a lone man who has done it for the past 13 Classics. He has a tote that the bag is lowered into and he makes sure there is no big bass being weighed before placing the tote on a dolly that has 2 ropes attached. On the end of the stage, a volunteer pulls the cart to them and takes the tote and hands it to another volunteer. They then take an empty tote and places it back on the dolly where it is pulled back under the stage to await the next angler. The tote with the bag of bass is then taken out to the awaiting 600 gallon tank where conservation officials take the bag out of the tote and dump the bass into a very oxygenated tank of lake water. From there, once the last bag is accepted into the tank, they are returned to the lake to be released back into the same body of water they came from.
Behind the scenes are a wealth of volunteers who make things happen that you never get to see or hear about. But without these volunteers, what you see would never happen. It is so amazing what happens we don’t see or think about. So the next time you watch it live, thank those amazing volunteers. They deserve it!