THE HOURLONG BOAT ride from Tellico Lake to the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Toyota weigh-in was one of the worst rides in Jeff Gustafson’s life.
The five minutes or so on the weigh-in stage will rank among the best of his life.
“It was a horrible trip; I thought I had blown a great opportunity to win the Classic,” says the Canadian pro from Kenora, Ontario.
His disappointment was justified. He went into the final day of the late March event with a 5-pound, 12-ounce lead. He figured all he had to do was catch a limit — or as few as three — of the big smallmouth from deep waters that he had been targeting to lock it up.
But he only caught two on a day when one might expect the shallow-water anglers chasing him to light up the scoreboard with quantities of spawning
