LIVESAY FIFTH IN CLASSIC | But another top-10 finish for former Kilgore football star
Lee Livesay couldn’t catch Justin Hamner, but in the 2024 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic, nobody else could, either.
Hamner went wire-to-wire, as they say, leading the Classic from the beginning through the final weigh-in on Sunday at Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees in Oklahoma, finishing up with 58 pounds, three ounces as the winning number.
The Northport, Alabama native had a whopping 22 pounds, six ounces on day one, setting the tone for the entire tournament.
He caught five bass on Sunday, the final day of fishing, that totaled 15 pounds, 13 ounces to help secure the win. Bassmaster.com noted (Hamner completes wire-to-wire Bassmaster Classic win) that Hamner is the 10th fisherman in the history of the Classic (54 years) to lead from beginning to end.
The largest fish caught – the $2,500 Mercury Big Bass Award – went to Aaron Yavorsky of Florida, with a bass that weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces caught on Saturday.
Hamner cashed out with a $300,000 purse for winning the Classic. Livesay, the former Kilgore High School football standout, came in a very-good fifth place – fifth in a field of 56 of the world’s best fishermen.
Livesay had a final total of 49 pounds, 11 ounces in the three-day event, his fourth time to fish in Bassmaster’s biggest tournament each year.
In 69 total tournament appearances on the Bassmaster tour, Livesay has 59 Time In Money finishes, including four wins, 13 top-10 finishes, 25 top-20 finishes, has caught a total weight (updated for this past weekend) of 2,528 pounds and nine ounces, and has had $845,000 in career winnings.
Not bad for the former Bulldog, who graduated from KHS in 2004.
But there’s still more to do. The Bassmaster Elite tour, of which Livesay is a member, finishes in the 2024 Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at Harris Chain, on Harris Chain of Lakes near Leesburg, Florida, on April 11-14. After that, it’s the MAXAM Tire Bassmaster Elite at St. Johns River at Palatka, Florida, on April 18-21, and into May with a trip to Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina, to fish in the 2024 Minn Kota Bassmaster Elite at Lake Murray.
Keep up with Livesay here on ETBlitz.com, but check out all sorts of things on Livesay and the rest of the Bassmaster Series on Homepage – Bassmaster.