January 31, 2008

Heavyweight Bass Classic
A tale about the Elshere
father-son fishing duo

     The Heavyweight Bass Classic, a winner-take-all event, held at Casitas Lake last Friday (Jan. 25) was the first in a new series of events that get more at the heart of what tournament fishing should be about: Whoever catches the biggest largemouth bass wins. Wins it all.
     That’s how most of us compete with fishing buddies or anyone else we see at a lake. We all put a $5 in a pot and the guy who gets the biggest one takes the cash (and is then expected to buy dinner, at least in my crowd). In regular tournament bass fishing, you might have run 25 one-pounders through your live well over the course of the day to catch five runty fish topped by a little two-pound, three-ouncer, and win a total poundage event. But everyone will cheer the guy who pulls out a 10-pounder, even if it’s the only fish the other guy caught this month. Big is where it’s at.
     But this really isn’t so much about big bass and the first HBC held last week (you can read that here in the news portion of our web site, or visit the HBC site at http://heavyweightbassclassic.com/) than it is about two local Ojai anglers who entered the event.
     Larry Elshere, 51, and his son Eric, 23, didn’t win the competition against some of the best big bass anglers in the state, but they both proved their mettle by being among just 20 anglers out of the 50 who even landed a fish in the ghastly conditions. Hail, rain, and howling winds that normally would have closed the lake, made the fishing tough, but Larry caught a 5.22-pound bass, which put him in sixth place. The junior Elshere was 18th with a 1.46-pound bass. I’m sure his father has been rubbing in who caught the bigger fish in the family ever since Friday. In fairness, however, I should point out that Eric has caught a 15.25-pound bass from Casitas against his father’s best of 14.6 pounds. I suspect family big-fish competitions are lifetime events, and that Eric is still winning, but Dad can brag for a while.
     Randy King, the manager of the Casitas marina, has been friends with the Elshere family for many years, and he was really pulling for the junior entrant.
     “I’d have love to have seen him win. He’s just such a sweet kid,” said King.
     I’ve known King a long time, probably since before Eric Elshere was born, and I was pretty sure the 23-year-old wouldn’t want to be called a “sweet kid.” I’m sure he had to endure that and far more from King, who laughs easily. I was also sure that the sweetness was in spite of all of King’s good-natured efforts to corrupt him, and told King that. Then King started giggling and I knew a story was coming.
     When Eric Elshere was about 11, he, his father and King went to San Diego to fish on an albacore boat. A veteran of these trips, King was introducing Larry Elshere to all of the old-timers on the dock.
     “I wasn’t introducing the kid, but every time I introduced his dad, he’d step forward and stick out his hand and say, ‘I’m Eric Elshere,’ just as cute as hell. That was back when his dad was still someone really important in his life, and he looked up to him and wanted to be a part of his life,” said King.
     He did this three or four times as introductions were made, and finally King took the young angler aside.
     “Look, you know tomorrow when you Dad is tangling everyone’s lines and breaking off their fish, you might not want to have people know he’s your Dad,” King said to the younger Elshere.
     The boy’s face turned solemn and King immediately thought that he might have stepped over the line. Always quiet, Eric Elshere grew even quieter for a time. Then it was time to introduce his father again, and again after King’s introduction the youngster stepped forward, sticking out his hand.
     “I’m Eric. Eric Anderson.”