ESPN Tournaments

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Down the hall from where Gerald Swindle is showing off his new jacket and blonde-tipped Mohawk and Greg Hackney is swirling a Corona in front of his Tabasco-print tie, around the corner from Rick Clunn's plate of ravaged fried shrimp tails and Derek Remitz's sideburns-with-pinstripes combo, in a Sheraton hotel kitchen, a third-generation Louisiana chef is insisting a visitor indulge further in the shrimp and oysters.

"Grab another," Tony Chachere III urges, his sunglasses atop a red visor that contrasts with his chef's whites. A nudge would have done. These are oysters as Da Vinci would have engineered them, shrimp as Miles Davis would have played them, lightly fried, tender, two days' removed from the Gulf of Mexico. "You've got to have the tartar sauce," he says, indicating a bowl for kitchen consumption. "It's OK if you've already taken a bite. We're all family here."

Chachere literally is family of the famous Cajun chef who passed down the name. But he is here tonight as a guest of BASS and the Elite Series anglers who populate most of the Bassmaster Classic field. It's an honor, he says, because he's a dedicated angler himself, and has the cheek sunburns to show for it. He did qualify for a turn on the Elite Series himself, until Hurricane Katrina thumped his family business, forcing his attention elsewhere. "It's not just fishing," he says of the kinship. "It's a passion for the outdoors."

Milling outside their banquet hall, the outdoorsmen did their best to present themselves as formal indoorsmen. Most clean up pretty nice, and several brought dates gussied to the point of stunning. In two days, these 50 anglers will be fishing for their respective shares of a $1.2 million purse, but most are still a little out of their element if they're not out in the elements. When someone pointed to Zell Rowland's get-up — a simple, sharp jacket over a white buttonless shirt — the deep-creased 49-year-old angler smiled and shot back, "Get a load of it while you can."

Minutes before the dinner, new BASS general manager Tom Ricks (a dead ringer for Conan O'Brien's former sidekick Andy Richter, incidentally) held a bottle of Newcastle outside the hall and confessed, "I'm a little nervous." It was to be the first time he had addressed his marquee athletes in one forum.

"Tonight's all about them, the Elite anglers and the hard work they put in to get to this point," Ricks said. "I'm committed to them, and all the supporters of BASS that make the Elite Series a successful event."

Also in mild awe was ESPN's deadpan talent Kenny Mayne, who was to emcee the presentation after a day spent zipping around Lay Lake at 70 mph, ogling the practicing pros. "It was so cool seeing what they did today," Mayne said. "It reminded me of the first time I went to the Daytona 500. When I went there, I wasn't a car guy at all. But once I got there, I was like, 'I can see how you get into this.'"

(It was likely the last time the anglers would get to see Mayne until his Classic package airs on Thursday's edition of SportsCenter. "They'd have to miss fishing to watch it (Friday) morning," he said. "How much does it mean to you guys?")

Slowly, a little after 7 o' clock, the anglers made their way to dinner; even Chachere stopped mingling and headed back to the kitchen. On the menu: sirloin, and chicken stuffed with andouille sausage. "We wanted to keep with the fish theme," said hotel banquet chef Michael Rigot, "but they wanted beef and chicken."

Just as well. After the fried shrimp and oysters, the ocean's work there was done.

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