Kevin VanDam

Hart Attack

February 23, 2008
(bassmaster.com, February 23, 2008)

GREENVILLE, S.C. — The leader after the first day of the Bassmaster Classic, only the biggest fishing tournament in the universe, is some dude named Charlie Hartley.

Surely the only angler on the Elite Series who skateboards daily, Hartley sacked 21 pounds, 1 ounce Friday on Lake Hartwell to take a 4-ounce lead over Scott Rook and 14-ounce lead over Kevin VanDam.

That would be 12-time BASS winner Kevin VanDam, who has won two Classics among the 17 he has fished.

The 43-year-old Hartley, by contrast, is fishing his first Classic and has won precisely zero BASS tournaments. The Grove City, Ohio, angler finished 79th in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings and had to qualify for the Classic by winning the points race in the Southern Opens.

A self-described fishing “addict,” Hartley said he would have fished the Opens even if he didn’t need them to qualify for the Classic. “If I’m going to be on the water anyway,” he said, “there might as well be some money on the line.”

Now there’s $500,000 on the line, and on a day when 17 of the 50 anglers weighed in less than 10 pounds of bass — including four anglers with a previous Classic victory or Angler of the Year title — the 20-pound sacks were all the more impressive.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/classic/news/story?id=3259665

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