Why Tony Christian is the one to watch at this year’s All-American
Tony Christian is a bass-catching machine. He’s so good at catching bass right now – big bass – that he does it even when he’s supposed to be turkey hunting.
Take, for example, what happened at Georgia’s Lake Russell last June. Christian had just wrapped up his third victory in four tournaments to date in 2002 in the Wal-Mart BFL’s Savannah River Division. Following the event, he and tournament director Dave Maxfield took Christian’s boat back onto the water to scout some prime turkey hunting locations along Russell’s woody shoreline.
As they pulled up on one point to see about some gobblers, Maxfield saw Christian pick up a fishing rod and make a cast toward a grassy point.
“What are you doing?” Maxfield asked.
“Just stop me now or I won’t quit,” Christian apologized. “If I get started, I won’t be able to stop and we won’t get any turkey hunting done.”
Maxfield didn’t stop him. He wanted to see first-hand what made this unassuming roofing contractor from Hull, Ga., the most dominating angler to hit the BFL circuit since the days of David Fritts’ five consecutive All-American appearances in the late 1980s. And he was rewarded. Christian proceeded to catch two nice largemouths, a 4 1/2-pounder and a 2-pounder, on consecutive casts.
Good for the turkeys that day, bad for the bass.
Five wins in seven tournaments
In 2002, FLW Outdoors introduced the Savannah River Division to meet demand in the Wal-Mart BFL. It was just what the doctor ordered for the 39-year-old Christian, who had fished the scattered lakes of the Bulldog Division sporadically in 2000 and 2001, but who is really a Savannah River rat to the core.
The Savannah River Division opened its competition at Clark Hill Lake in February of last year. Christian immediately asserted his dominance – and his knowledge of the river system – by winning the one-day tournament by more than 5 pounds. Next he finished 35th at Lake Keowee in March, but never looked back after that. He finished the last three tournaments – lakes Hartwell, the aforementioned Russell and again at Clark Hill for the Super Tournament – with two victories and a second place, respectively. In between, he squeezed in a single Bulldog Division tournament at Lake Sinclair and won that, too.
His position atop the division standings firmly established, Christian went the Lake Gaston Regional, which tested the best anglers from the Buckeye, Northeast, Mountain and Savannah River divisions in a bid to qualify for the vaunted All-American. Wouldn’t you know it? He won that one, too, by over 4 pounds.
In 2002, in the span of nine months, Christian entered seven BFL tournaments and won five of them. The two he didn’t win, he finished second and a respectable 35th.
Secrets of success
Undoubtedly, Christian is a force to be reckoned with anytime he puts his boat in the water. Sure, other anglers have had good runs in BFL competition – Talala, Oklahoma’s Terry Butcher had an impressive run in the 2002 Okie Division as well, winning twice and finishing second twice, but he fell flat at the regional and missed qualifying for the All-American – but few anglers in recent memory have so clearly dominated as Christian has.
“It’s changed a lot of these guys’ attitudes to see Tony doing what he’s done, that’s for sure,” Maxfield said. “Normally, when I get to a tournament site, I don’t always see a lot of boats right away. When I got to Russell, the parking lot was already full of trailers by Thursday (two days before the tournament). They were all practicing because they knew Tony Christian was going to be there. … When he comes in with another big stringer, a lot of guys, like (standout Lexington, N.C., angler and fellow All-American qualifier) David Wright, just shake their heads in amazement.”
Nobody knows exactly why Christian has been so good; all they know is that he keeps on catching enormous bass. In three of the five 2002 Savannah River tournaments – lakes Keowee, Hartwell and Clark Hill – he won the Boater Division big-bass award. His biggest fish, at Clark Hill, weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces.
With numbers like that, inevitably, there have been theories floating among the ranks – competitive, dubious theories – about the man’s success. Some of the more laughable ones that Christian himself has heard include the notion that he’s invented some kind of new bass-attracting chemical, that he baits fishing holes with dog food to attract bass’ favorite prey, crawfish, and even that he hires scuba divers to put big fish on his line.
But, of course, he says it’s all nonsense. “Nope, none of the above,” he said. “How could I have a scuba diver down there? Don’t you think the co-angler would see the bubbles?”
He says that his secret is actually much less dramatic, but obviously highly effective.
“The reason for his success is that he really knows those lakes,” Maxfield said. “He practices there all the time.”
“With my job, I’m able to get out on the lake at will,” Christian said. “I practice a lot, and I keep track of the fish. I don’t feel like I’m any better than anybody else. I’ve just been getting some breaks.”
It’s not just practice when Christian hits the water, either. It’s research. He keeps a ledger, meticulously recording every little detail about his fishing. He writes down things like the date, time of day, weather conditions, water temperature and depth, bait and tackle he used, location and structure, and size of the fish for every bass he catches. He has effectively compiled his own personal fishing almanac for every lake he’s fished over the years.
“He’s probably got just about every fish he’s ever caught written down,” Maxfield said.
Beyond that, Christian sometimes uses unorthodox methods to catch his bass. His favorite bait is a white-and-blue, three-bladed Ninja spinner bait, which he says has won him a considerable amount of tournament money. He also favors a Ninja crankbait and Texas-rigged trick worms in loud colors. None of these baits are all that unusual, but it’s what he does with them that sets him apart.
“One time I saw him take his crankbait and drop it down near a dock. Then he let his line out and let some more line out until it was wrapped around the dock. It’s a very patient approach to using a crankbait,” Maxfield said. “I’ve heard of a lot of people doing that, but it takes a lot of time and energy.”
Perhaps Christian’s most remarkable strategy move in 2002 happened at the Lake Gaston Regional last October. At that time of year, the bass are generally running shallow at Gaston and so are the tournament anglers. Christian showed up, practiced one day and had trouble catching big fish on a shallow-water pattern. So he went deep. Towards the end of his short practice, he caught two 5-pounders against a rock wall in 20 feet of water. Over the next three tournament days, he went back to the wall and another one just like it to mine his usual stringers full of 4- and 5-pound bass. He won by over 4 pounds on the final day, defeating heavy hometown favorite Wright.
“I’ve spent a lot of time on Gaston, and you just don’t catch them like that at that time of year. They’re up shallow,” Maxfield said. “And the thing is, he’ll tell you that he’s a shallow-, dirty-water fisherman.”
“It just worked for me,” Christian said of his deep-water technique at Gaston. “A lot of people, once they start catching fish, they’re happy. A lot of times I like not catching fish. Then I know what they’re not doing and it makes it easier to figure out what they are doing.”
Moving on up
In 2003, Christian again attacked the Savannah River Division with aplomb. He finished 21st at Keowee, fifth at Russell and won at Hartwell. He also won two more big-bass awards, at Keowee and Hartwell.
At the last tournament before the Super Tournament, a funny number shows up on his record: zero. Christian was disqualified at Clark Hill for missing the weigh-in time. He simply mixed up the deadline in his own head and showed up a half-hour late. That knocked him down to 35th in the standings with just one tournament to go before the regional.
“Now I’ve got to fight to get to the regional,” he said. “I just messed up.”
Perhaps it won’t matter too much. Having qualified for the 2003 EverStart Series via his 2002 BFL record, Christian has moved up and jumped all over the competitive Eastern Division. He finished seventh at Lake Okeechobee in January, crushed the field for his first EverStart win at Lake Martin and finished 19th at Santee Cooper lakes. He ranks first in the standings by a 17-point margin over seasoned EverStart/FLW veterans like Wesley Strader and Steve Kennedy with one tournament left. Plus, he notched another big-bass award at Okeechobee.
So far in his first year at the EverStart level, he has only missed one cut – and even that he did intentionally. At Santee Cooper, he was one of only two pro semifinalists not to weigh a fish on Friday. Since when does Tony Christian post a zero in a tournament? When he’s got another place to be, that’s when. See, the BFL tournament at Hartwell was scheduled the same Saturday as the EverStart finals at Santee Cooper. He zeroed out of the EverStart tournament, went back to his beloved Savannah River that night and won at Hartwell the next day – without any practice.
“I didn’t want to zero at Hartwell (remember, this was before the Clark Hill disqualification),” he explained, saying he already had his eye fixed firmly on making the 2004 All-American. “I didn’t think I had a chance to win at Santee Cooper. Those boys were catching some fish and I wasn’t. … I do the math on these things. If you get to the All-American, you fish against 40-some people for $100,000 plus a boat and another $10,000 if you win the points championship.”
Compared to the idea of fishing against 200 anglers for the possibility of a few grand for a top finish at that EverStart tournament, it was a smart choice. Besides, he already had first place in the Eastern Division standings – and you just know he did the math on that, too.
Onto the Delta
Tony Christian certainly appears to have all the momentum going his way heading into this week’s BFL All-American at the Mobile Delta. With his fishing strategy skills and his penchant for nailing the big bass, his fellow competitors would do well to keep their eyes on him.
And look out when he says stuff like this: “In Mobile I think I have a good chance because I feel good and I had a good practice.”
Is it a sign of what will unfold on the Delta? Who knows? One thing is certain: Regardless of his finish this weekend, Christian has earned all the buzz surrounding him so far.
Still, the Georgia phenom is a forward-looking fisherman with his work cut out for him at the All-American. So what about the competition this week? Who’s he worried about?
“I’m not worried about anything but the fish. I don’t worry about something I don’t have any control over, and I only have control over my fishing,” he said, then added, “but David Wright has me a little worried.”
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