For the last few weeks, I have put my attention towards old Bassmaster shows, reading old publications and digging into stories that made me want to be just like those I am reading about.
It's funny how history has a way of repeating itself and how much can be learned from the past. Fishing is evergreen and one of the few sports that we can imitate what we see and put it into practice. Trial and error is the teacher and the fish don’t know any better if it's old or new, so tried and true still holds water.
This is the 20th anniversary of a milestone in fishing that may never be duplicated. The perfect storm of cold, then a rapid warming trend made this a week we will all remember forever — at least Dean Rojas will.
I sure wish one time I would hit this perfect scenario and put into practice what Rojas did on this early spring day on Lake Toho in 2001. The weather aligned perfectly for spawn-ready giant bass to move shallow, and Rojas put the largest single day total ever recorded in a BASS event of 45.02 pounds on the scales.
It is hard to fathom a 10.13, a 10.0, a 9.5, an 8.2 and a 7.9-pound bass in the same bag of fish. Compared at the time to Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game, this record may never be matched again in a Bassmaster event.
