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Fall 2021
page 48
and then had to wait until June of 2021, after the postponement from the original March 2021 date?
KERR: I wasn’t really nervous. I don’t get nervous very much. I was excited that I had the opportunity to fish the Classic in the summer. Like I said, I am not good in the freezing cold and the time of year definitely gave me more confidence. I always feel like I have a better opportunity when it’s warmer out.
I did stop by the (Classic) lake on my way home from Pickwick. I looked around; but I didn’t fish very much. At that time, I thought the tournament was in March, so I looked at the banks where they would be staging.
The Classic ended up getting pushed back to June, because they had a major freeze in Texas. So, then I knew, I was going in when some fish would be spawning, some would be done, and some would be getting ready to spawn. I thought that would actually work out better for me, because instead of going up the creeks, I could fish more main lake and having that knowledge of how everything shakes out was right up my alley. The place fished a lot like Lake Mead and that was perfect for me.
The only thing that I could’ve been better would’ve been to win. During practice, I felt like I had a chance to win; but the first day of the tournament, I lost a couple of big ones and that is a big thing for me.
I’m kind of a perfectionist and with fishing I don’t have to rely on anybody else for success. If I do bad, I can’t blame anybody but myself.
Ultimately with fishing, if you’re perfect and you’re catching them, you have a real good chance to win. At the Classic, I obviously wasn’t perfect, because I lost a couple of big ones that first day and that really hurt me – big-time.
I did not get the big bite on the rat on the third day. I had some big giant bites on it during practice and the weather and everything was just perfect for it the last day, but in my area, it just went dead.
That last day of the tournament, the topwater frog bite was really good and that’s when the rat bite is usually better, but I never even got one bite! Obviously, that’s going to hurt anyone in the Bassmaster Classic.
WB: Now that it’s over, what is your takeaway?
KERR: For what went right, there could’ve been a million things that went wrong; so, I can’t complain about the position that I got. But obviously, it’s hard to swallow when
you only get one chance at something and you have the chance to win, especially when it’s the Classic!
It’s so hard to even get there and then to put yourself in the position to win and not pull it off – it kind of hurts. I kind of feel like I disappointed people back here.
But I am extremely grateful for all that went right. In tournaments, you just never know! Things go wrong all the time. It was a very humbling experience, and it was very fun.
WB: Was there a game-changing lure for you?
KERR: It was good old Uncle Josh’s Pork. I bought that about six or eight months earlier and saved it for a prime time. I still fish a lot of old-school ways. I guess I need to catch up on the times, like the forward-facing sonar. I need to get into that more. I’m not that great with electronics. I’m just more of a visual fisherman, but that’s just kind of how I fish.
WB: So, what’s your next goal?
KERR: I want to win all three of the WON Bass Opens. The only one I have left is the Arizona one, which is the hardest one for me because there’s so many good guys to fish against.
I feel Havasu is a lake that anybody can win at any time, but it’s just a really hard fishery to win at. Other than that, I still have a goal to win the Classic.
I would like to try and make it to the Elites and fish that for a couple years. That would be fun. And another one of my goals is to have a win at every body of water that the tournaments go to. That’s going to be really tough because I am a terrible spotted bass fisherman.
I have this goal, because I’ve followed Aaron Martens’ career and he has a win on every body of water on the West Coast that tournaments go to. That’s just a testament of how awesome he is and how diverse he is, and he is pretty much my role model for fishing, so I have that goal also. •
Photo: B.A.S.S. Chris Brown.