Green Country Anglers Ready For Bassmaster Classic On Home Turf

It’s a 7 a.m. start time for day one of the 2016 Bassmaster Classic Friday morning at Grand Lake.

There are 55 anglers vying for the championship this year, and when it launches Friday morning, the three from Green Country will have some inside knowledge.

Talala’s Edwin Evers, Park Hill’s Jason Christie and Broken Arrow’s James Elam have fished Grand Lake for years, but home lake advantage also comes with pressure.

"There's pressure to perform, to actually go out and have a good day and walk across the stage with a big bag of fish,” Elam said. “But it's fishing, that's the biggest scare of it all. That doesn't always happen."

Christie said, "You can add all that together and it's not as much pressure as I put on myself. I'm a competitive person, and I want to do well. This is my house, and I don't want anyone to come in and beat me in my house."

The three Oklahoma anglers can’t wait to show off a big bag of fish to a roaring BOK Center crowd.

"There's nothing like it,” Evers said. “When you pull in there, and being there in Oklahoma, the overwhelming crowd response, there's nothing like it. I have to pinch myself. I'm living out my childhood dream. It's an amazing, amazing thing."