The Bass Pro Shops Big Cat Quest catfishing tournament scheduled for Sept. 20 on the Mississippi River was cancelled due to dangerous water conditions - and now it looks like it probably won’t be made up.

Trail president Ken Freeman originally explored the idea of rescheduling the tournament for Oct. 11.

But with the World Championship of Catfishing scheduled for Saturday on Pickwick Lake and the Big Cat Quest National Championship scheduled for Oct. 25-26 on the Tennessee River, Freeman said there is simply too much catfish on the plate.

“The main thing is that it would be too much for the anglers,” Freeman said. “They would have to get ready to fish three tournaments this month, and that’s just asking too much.”

Freeman said he is exploring options that would allow him to have two major tournaments in Memphis during 2009, including, perhaps, the BCQ National Championship.

Lindsay Sample of Cape Girardeau, Mo., and Chris Tramm of Lebanon, Ind. caught 155.7 pounds of catfish to win last week’s Cabela’s King Kat Classic on the Ohio River.

They received a new 2072 SeaArk boat with a 90 HP Evinrude outboard, Minn Kota trolling motor, Humminbird locator/GPS and a $1,000.00 gift certificate from Cabela’s.

Kentucky anglers Greg and Nick Teasley finished second with 152.35, and North Carolina fishermen Ron and Michelle Howard placed third with 150.

It doesn’t look like any of our local anglers placed very highly. But they’ll all be back at work Saturday for the World Championship of Catfishing on Pickwick Lake.

Since several thousand tilapia were stocked into a pond near my house last May, I’ve been thoroughly impressed with the species as a whole.

They spawn constantly, eat like whales and grow like weeds. They also have thick, white flesh, which makes them great with French fries and hush puppies.

They might very well be the perfect fish - if they weren’t such an absolute pain to catch.

Because they’re raised in hatcheries and fed mostly floating pellet food, tilapia like to feed along the surface - and to have any success catching them, you have to fish along the surface.

You also have to match their preferred food perfectly, or they’ll turn up their noses like a house cat that’s already been fed.

I had gone six weeks without catching one, and I was ready to give up until Monday when a new idea hit me.

I’ve been feeding the tilapia big slices of loaf bread. I just tear the slices in three or four pieces and throw them out onto the water where the fish can pluck them off the surface.

Then, for some reason, I was using small pieces of rolled-up bread or “dough balls” on my hook for bait. Naturally, they were consuming the bread on the surface and ignoring my bait.

Finally it hit me that I should be using the same pieces of bread for bait that the fish were taking off the surface. So I put a big piece of bread on the hook and caught a fish right away that weighed 1 pound, 13 ounces.

Since then, I’ve caught a 2-0, 1-11, a 1-8 and four fish that weighed right around 1-0. I even caught one of the solid white tilapia that had teased and taunted me for months.

It just goes to show that if humans put all of their time, effort and resources into the process, they will eventually outsmart fish with brains the size of a pea.

It’s all over on Kentucky Lake, and the Bassmaster Central Open crown belongs to Louisiana angler Aaron Johnson.

Johnson caught 15 pounds, 11 ounces of bass during Saturday’s final round and finished with a three-day total of 47-14. He defeated second-place angler Jerry Williams of Conway, Ark., by more than 2 pounds.

Williams, who led the first two rounds with great catches on Thursday (19-15) and Friday (14-2), faded down the stretch on Saturday. He caught just 11-3 during the final round and finished with 45-4.

Williams’ catches went steadily down as the tournament moved forward, and you just can’t win a Bassmaster tournament that way. Consistency is the key.

Johnson put together his winning string with 15-8 Thursday, 16-11 Friday and 15-11 Saturday. That’s consistency.

For complete results and a detailed tournament wrap-up, visit Bassmaster.com.

The wrap-up is certainly worth reading if you’d like to pick up a few tips for fishing Kentucky Lake.

The Sunday Commercial Appeal Sports Section features an exclusive interview with former Grizzlies president of basketball operations Jerry West.

West retired from the Griz a little more than a year ago and hasn’t spoken publicly in Memphis.

Until now.

He was candid, passionate and nostalgic regarding the Griz in a nearly two-hour conversation. Filmmakers would call this the cutting room floor. In sports radio, this would be sort of a tease. Anyway, here’s what didn’t make the Sunday (Sept. 28) paper:



Q. Will you work again?
A. Every once and a while I think it would be fun to be involved in a lesser capacity. I don’t think it’ll happen unless there was a really intriguing situation where you were a working consultant — where you have an active part and no influence over making decisions. But I would never get back to a daily situation where you’re physically and emotionally a wreck every night. Whatever I would do would have to be in a low-key way.”

Q. How is this retirement different from your last?
A. This is one time that I don’t have a strong urgency to work. There were times I missed the interaction with people in the office. I missed the competitive side of it. It was an unbelievable amount of fun. Everyone should know when it’s in the best interest of everyone that someone younger gets an opportunity to show what they can do. This was a culmination of a long time involved in basketball.

Physically, I feel different. I’m not so uptight. I don’t wake up in the middle of the night wondering about a terrible loss and all of the things that go on. The thing I cared most about was the fans. And I worked at my job. Period. We all have habits and routines. I’ve had to change my habits and routines.

Q. What are you most proud of during your run with the Griz?
A. I can speak for men that have been involved in highly competitive things and you can’t find anything more highly competitive than basketball. When I first got there I felt the most important thing was to try to build relationships and get people to feel good about themselves.

When I got there I saw a culture that wasn’t horrible but people didn’t expect to win and that’s unacceptable. Secondly, we needed to increase our talent level and we were able to do that. It really gave us a chance to get to the point where we were competitive. One of the most fun and exciting times didn’t involve me. It was when we hired Hubie Brown and when he won Coach of the Year. That was probably one of the highlights of my life.

It’s so easy to be critical and I understand why people are but Hubie getting Coach of the Year was a chilling experience. He had the ability to teach, to motivate and a system that wanted everyone to be involved. We had so many players so close together in talent that he had them believe that if we do these things we’ll be successful.

Q. What was your biggest disappointment?
A. You get paid by a franchise but you work for the fans. If I had any reservations it’s that we didn’t leave a team there that could prosper. I’m a Type-A personality and when things don’t go the way you want them to go, you blame yourself.

Q. You were asked to present the Western Conference trophy to the Los Angeles Lakers and gave a heartfelt speech. What did that moment mean to you?
(Side note: Griz fans apparently were bothered by the moment despite West’s more than 40-year association with the Lakers)
A. It was nice that they asked me but awkward because I didn’t feel comfortable in that situation. But if the league asks me to do something I’m probably going to do it because any player probably feels like they owe something to the league.

Q. What have you been doing since leaving Griz?
(Side note: West has spent time between L.A. and his native West Virginia. He works out 5 days a week after recovering from a nasty golf cart accident several months ago.)
A. Not a whole lot. Frankly, when you’ve been involved in something as long as I was involved in basketball, and something as emotional as the NBA, it’s not easy to just move on to something else.

Coming Sunday… West’s take on the current state of the Griz, his relationship with owner Michael Heisley, the Pau Gasol trade and more!

I’ll be covering high school football tonight between ECS and St. Benedict, so I probably won’t be able to post the results from Day 2 of the Bassmaster Central Open on Kentucky Lake.

But the results should be available by 8 p.m. on the Bassmaster Web site. We’ll also have the updated top 10 lists from the pro and co-angler divisions on Saturday’s scoreboard page.

If you’re interested, the weigh-in is being broadcast live on the site right now. It started at 3:30 p.m. and should last for a couple of hours.

Here’s hoping we actually have some real football weather tonight. It would be a nice change from the muggy conditions we’ve had the last couple of weeks, and I’m sure all of the Saturday-morning bow hunters in Tennessee would enjoy it.

The first round of the Bassmaster Central Open is in the books on Kentucky Lake, and the anglers didn’t really wax ‘em like I expected them to.

The fishing was plenty good. But there wasn’t a single 20-pound string weighed in, and it took just 10 pounds, 15 ounces to make the top 50.

Jerry Williams of Conway, Ark., leads the pro division with 19-15, and Larry Byrd of Lake Charles, La., is second with 17-11. I’m pretty sure that’s not the pro basketball legend.

Jeremy Montoya of Fort Collins, Colo., topped the co-angler division with 17-1.

The biggest bass caught in either division on Day 1 belonged to pro angler Billy Hurt of Spring Creek, Tenn. It weighed 6-14.

The second round will be held Friday with the championship round to follow on Saturday.

The pro anglers are fishing for $45,000 cash, while the co-anglers are fishing for $32,000 in “merchandise.” That usually means a free boat.

Complete results are available on the Bassmaster web site.

Daily weigh-ins are also being broadcast live on the site.