Kevin VanDam

DECATUR, Ala. — Most David Walker fans automatically assume he’s won a major tournament in his career, and now they are correct. 

DECATUR, Ala. — Twenty-nine Bassmaster Elite Series pros nailed down qualifications on Sunday for the Feb. 24-26 Bassmaster Classic. With the nine Elite anglers who qualified earlier in the season, there are 38 who can get ready for the Red River world championship out of Shreveport-Bossier City, La.

DECATUR, Ala. — Eight pros earned their way Sunday into the Bassmaster Elite Series postseason, the July 23-31 Toyota Trucks All-Star Week in Alabama.

The list of eight initial qualifiers was topped by Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., newly crowned 2011 Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year. The other seven set for the postseason were Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla.; Gerald Swindle, Warrior, Ala.; Ott DeFoe, Knoxville, Tenn.; Steve Kennedy, Auburn, Ala.; Terry Scroggins, San Mateo, Fla.; Casey Ashley, Donalds, S.C.; and Davy Hite, Ninety Six, S.C.

The eight were the top finishers in the 2011 Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points race, which reached the finish line Sunday at the Elite Series season finale on Wheeler Lake.

Four more Elite anglers voted in by fans will complete the postseason field of 12.

The voting will begin Tuesday, June 21, at Bassmaster.com and continue through July 10. The winners will be announced by July 13.

The dozen pros will fish under a new postseason format that awards $100,000 to the winner.

The first leg of the competition will be July 23-24 on Alabama’s Lake Jordan with the Ramada All-Star Semi-Final. Weigh-ins will be out of Wetumpka, Ala. Only the top eight will advance July 29 to the nearby Alabama River for the Evan Williams Bourbon All-Star Championship out of Montgomery, Ala.

“I like both fisheries,” said VanDam. “I’ve fished them the last few postseasons, and I like that I might have an advantage over the others — but I know they’re good and it will be a good competition.”

To begin the July 29-31 river round — a bracketed competition — anglers will be seeded by cumulative weights from the Lake Jordan leg. After two days of eliminations, the two anglers left standing will compete against each other for one more day, winner take all.

The Bassmaster fans who cast votes for the four anglers will be entered in the Toyota Trucks All-Star Fan Favorite Sweepstakes. The winners will be 12 fans who will be virtually paired with the 12 All-Star anglers. The fan whose name is matched with the pro who wins will be awarded a Triton 18XS boat with a Mercury 150 OptiMax engine. All 12 fan finalists will win a prize pack from Berkley and Havoc.

DECATUR, Ala. — It was no surprise on Sunday when 25-year-old Ott DeFoe of Knoxville, Tenn., was declared the 2011 Bassmaster Rookie of the Year.

DECATUR, Ala. – One of my favorite characters of all time is Maxwell Smart of “Get Smart” fame.

For those of you in the younger generation you’ve probably seen the remake of the movie. Nothing is like the original. It was in black and white. Smart would be faced with the most incredible odds of all time and always come back with the line, “So you are saying there’s a chance?”

The movie “Dumb and Dumber” stole that line for you younger guys. That movie was in color. And husbands use it all the time in the middle of trying to win an argument with their wives.

It’s an extremely appropriate line going into the semi-final round of the Dixie Duel. Kevin VanDam sits in sixth place with 31 pounds of bass, while those chasing him are languishing some 35 or more places behind.

For all practical purposes, the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year title will more than likely and probably certainly go to VanDam.

Steve Kennedy and Edwin Evers, though, are looking at each other and uttering that time-worn line, “So, you are saying there’s a chance?”

Mathematically I guess there is. In the world of bass fishing tournaments we have to be certain. As it was put to me: If the tables were turned and KVD was behind Evers and Kennedy, wouldn’t someone think it was possible?

I guess they would.  VanDam has certainly captured the magic in an event before, like all the time. And he has bombed in the past. On the flip side, Evers and Kennedy have certainly captured the magic in the past. Both of those things will have to happen. But neither has ever been done under these circumstances and against these odds.

But when you go to the Maxwell Smart school of thinking the possibilities are endless.

As an example: Edwin Evers is just 4 pounds out of the top 12. There have been some 18 to 19 pound sacks weighed in. Evers bags one of those, which is entirely possible, it’s a good bet he will make the final 12. That would be one step.

Then let’s look art KVD’s day. He struggled today, languishing around a ton of those 1-pound fish that had him sneaking up by ounces, then a 4-pounder hit, followed by two 3-pounders late in the day. It’s the type stuff we’ve grown accustomed to seeing from VanDam. But just for arguments sake: VanDam struggles again tomorrow and comes in with 8 pounds, or less. If he falls to 28th or lower, which is what the trend of weights thus far could put him, then this race is still alive for one more day.

At that point, all Evers would have to do is have a top 6 finish (which would be worth 276 points) and with VanDam in 28th  (worth 219 points) he would edge past him by 2 points.

Is it likely? You can’t find a person on the planet that would take that bet. I’m pretty certain Evers wouldn’t take it. But in the Maxwell Smart way of thinking, someone is uttering those time-honored words: “So, you are saying there’s a chance?”

DECATUR, Ala. — David Walker, who fished a major circuit for years before leaving it to join the Bassmaster Elite Series this season, says everyone believes he’s won a major tournament in his career, but that’s not true.

Walker of Sevierville, Tenn., came closer Friday to filling that hole in his history by taking the lead with 35 pounds, 3 ounces in the Elite Series season finale on Wheeler Lake.

Walker has work ahead of him. He is 14 ounces ahead of Greg Hackney of Gonzales, La., who ended the day with 34-5. A superfocused Skeet Reese of Auburn, Calif., determined to win the event and score a Bassmaster Classic berth, moved into third from 19th with 33-2 after two days.

First-day leader Ott DeFoe of Knoxville, Tenn., slipped to fourth place with 32-13. Bradley Roy of Lancaster, Ky., popped up from 13th place into fifth with 32-11.

Walker’s decision to fish the Elite Series had a lot to do with his desire to compete once again in a Bassmaster Classic. He’s appeared in six Classics, but not since 2006. Coming into the Wheeler event, he was 46th in points, and needs to move up about 10 ticks. Thanks to double-qualifiers, the cutline hovers at 37th place.

“A chance to win a big tournament has just followed along with my Classic goal,” Walker, 46, said. “I’ve never had a major tournament win. I’ve won other stuff, but not an Elite tournament, not an FLW Tour tournament. I’ve come close — too many times.”

On Wheeler, he and Reese have been courteously sharing “one little area” over the first two days of competition, Walker said. At one point Friday he moved off to fish another spot.

“That paid off pretty good — but then he (Reese) had it to himself and that helped him out that much more,” Walker said.

Reese bagged 19-5 to Walker’s 17-1.

Walker is concerned that their spot — a ledge — won’t continue to produce, or not produce enough for two anglers.

“But there’s obviously a lot of fish there, and it’s held up so far,” Walker said.

He said he’s fishing clean, his limits are happening early for him, and his biggest fish was about a 4-pounder.

Hackney out-fished both Walker and Reese on Friday. His sack went 19-9 on the scales, but he started the day in 11th place, so had to make up ground to take second place.

“I think the biggest thing for me today was the weather,” Hackney said. “I caught my big fish today just before that bad weather hit this morning. They were aggressive and active. Then I stayed away from my primary stuff and went looking. I have to be careful not to burn up my fish.”

He said he shared water Friday with about 20 other anglers, but is working it slightly differently to get the better bite. With the field cut in half for Saturday’s competition, Hackney said he’s counting on having the area more to himself.

Like Walker and Reese, Hackney’s focus at the Dixie Duel is to earn enough points to qualify for the 2012 Bassmaster Classic.

“That’s the main objective, my main goal this week, and today will pull me forward on that,” Hackney said.

A win means not only the $100,000 first-place prize, but an instant-in for the 2012 Classic. Unless they fall hard sometime over the final two days of Duel competition, Walker and Hackney are now in a position to get to the Classic via the Elite points system. Reese isn’t. Lacking enough points, he must win at Wheeler to get to the Classic via the Elite Series.

The 2012 Classic is scheduled for Red River out of Shreveport-Bossier City, La., the same venue where Reese won his Classic title in 2009.

“Winning here is my only option,” Reese said. “I spent the week fishing out (offshore), looking for a way to win. I didn’t think you could win it fishing the bank, but obviously there’s some big stringers coming in from the shallows.”

In the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race, leader Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., came close to closing. But his nearest challengers in points, Oklahoma’s Edwin Evers and Alabama’s Steve Kennedy, both made the cut to compete on Saturday. With a mathematically possible chance still existing for either Evers or Kennedy to overtake him, VanDam must wait another day to see if he will win his fourth consecutive title and seventh of his career.

VanDam was in sixth place in the Dixie Duel after Friday, and he’s out for the event win. He’s 4-1 behind leader Walker.

“I’d like to be in contention to win this thing,” he said. “You do that, and the other (the points race) takes care of itself.”

The big bass of Friday was by Tim Horton of Muscle Shoals, Ala., a 6-4. He said he caught it on a Bomber No. 7 Switchback Shad in the purple darter finish. Horton’s fish is in contention for the Berkley Big Bass of Tournament bonus of $500.

The Saturday field will be 51 boats instead of 50 due to a four-way tie at 22 pounds, 7 ounces. After tie-breakers were applied per the Elite Series rules, John Murray of Phoenix, Ariz., was the last in, and will fish Saturday as the 51st qualifier.

DECATUR, Ala. – You wouldn’t know by talking to him, but Kevin VanDam all but wrapped up his seventh Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year title Thursday.

VanDam entered the Dixie Duel – the final regular season event on the Basmasters Elite Series tour – with a 55-point lead over Edwin Evers. With Evers finishing Day One in 43^rd place (11 pounds, 10 ounces) and VanDam placing eighth (15-6), VanDam could probably zero Friday and still maintain a lead over Evers.

However, neither Evers nor VanDam would listen to any of that talk.

“It’s not the day I wanted, but it’s not over just yet,” Evers said. “Anything can happen. I think it’s still wide open.”

“I’m really happy with the way the day turned out,” VanDam said. “If I have a good day (Friday), I’ll feel pretty good about it. But it’s a long way from over.”

VanDam burned a lot of gas Thursday, and he thinks that was a big key to his success.

“If you hit enough places on this lake, eventually you’ll run into them,” VanDam said.

Steve Kennedy found that same key to catching fish. The Auburn, Ala., angler entered this event in third place in the AOY standgins, 139 points behind VanDam. Although he has little hope of catching VanDam for the AOY standings, Kennedy wants to solidify his standing for the post-season, which includes a top eight finish in AOY points and a spot in Toyota Trucks All-Star Week next month in Alabama.

“I burned some gas today,” Kennedy said. “I had it wide open looking for aggressive fish.”

Most anglers in this event are fishing deep ledges in Lake Wheeler. That’s making the lake “fish small,” as most of these guys know where the best ledges are on the lake. And most are sharing water with other anglers. It’s not unusual to see a cluster of anywhere from four to 10 boats in the middle of the lake, where they are throwing crankbaits, jigs and plastic worms around deep structure. Kennedy is fishing shallow and has hardly any competition for that water.

“I had it all to myself,” Kennedy said.

Rookie  Ott DeFoe may be doing exactly the same thing. He didn’t want to give away any secrets to his 18-6 first-place weight on Thursday, but he did say, “They were not very deep,” and added that, “The two places I fished were all mine.”

DeFoe may have done to the Elite Series Rookie of the Year race what VanDam did to the AOY title – all but clinched it. DeFoe entered the Dixie Duel with a 127-point lead on Keith Combs. With a respectable 14-2 bag Thursday, Combs is in 17^th place at Lake Wheeler, but Combs needs to top DeFoe by a considerable margin to cut that lead, and, obviously, that didn’t happen.

“That definitely relieved some pressure for me,” said DeFoe of his first-place weight on Day One. DeFoe is ranked fourth in the AOY standings. His success Thursday allowed him to set his goals higher for the last three days of the tournament.

“I want to make the postseason now,” DeFoe said. “It’s game on. I’m going for the gusto.”

It seems the gusto may be in the shallow water of Lake Wheeler. Bill Lowen was in 37^th place in the AOY standings at the start of this tournament. He needed a solid week here to assure himself of a Bassmaster Classic berth. Lowen did that with 13-5 Thursday that put him in 23^rd place and left him with hopes of improving on that Friday.

“I’m fishing part of the day deep, like a lot of the guys are doing, and I’m fishing shallow too,” said Lowen, who noted that he caught a bass shallow in practice that weighed almost 10 pounds. “I’m not seeing another boat fishing shallow. I’ve got a shallow deal going, but I didn’t want to stay in there and burn it all up.

“I’m hoping I can catch around 12 pounds (Friday) and make the cut.”

One point that was unanimously agreed upon Thursday was this week’s practice days were no indication of how good the fishing would be at Lake Wheeler.

“The fishing had been really bad,” said Jeff Kriet, who had 12-4 Thursday, good for 36^th place. “I practiced 15 hours a day (Monday and Tuesday), and I didn’t catch anywhere near what I caught today.”

“I’m really surprised,” Evers said. “It was a grind in practice. It was hard to get multiple bites in any area.”

John Crews may have summed it up best. Crews was one of the last anglers to cross the weigh-in stage Thurday. He had 8-5, which put him in 81st place in the 99-man field.

“These guys are the worst bunch of sand-baggers I’ve ever seen,” Crews said. “Everybody was talking about how bad the fishing was here.

“Don’t believe it.”

Only three anglers failed to catch a five-bass limit Thursday.

DECATUR, Ala. -- If you were a betting man, then it would be easy to say that the odds are in Kevin VanDam’s favor to win a seventh Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year title.

It would be hard to argue the point. VanDam made a strong case today (finishing in 8^th place with 15 pounds, 6 ounces) that you can’t bet against the guy we used to call the Kalamazoo Kid. Now he’s just plain KVD, and he extended his AOY lead from 55 points to 134 points over Edwin Evers and 139 points over Steve Kennedy.

A small limit tomorrow with a 50^th place or better finish and he could wrap up things. But that assumes a lot of things. For instance, that Evers has a fork in him and is done. Evers doesn’t think so.

“I’ve caught some of my biggest stringers in the later days of a tournament,’’ he said, almost defiantly after today’s weigh-in.

The point was so well-taken, that if you were a betting man you would feel like laying down the money on the semi-long-shot. Evers finished the day in 43^rd with 11-10. Kennedy, on the other hand, is just 5 points behind Evers, after an 18^th place start with 14-4. Both would need an Ott DeFoe-esque kind of day to continue making a run at it, while VanDam would need to stumble and bumble his way through the day.

What are the odds?

After last week on the Arkansas River, where VanDam showed us a human side with just two keepers on Day Three, then I guess the odds are at least possible a stumble could happen.

After watching the determination in the face of Evers all season long, the kind of day he needs is more than possible. Knowing Kennedy, anything is possible. The destiny of that title, though, lies in VanDam’s hands, the exact place he wanted it to be on this day.

The bigger story might be how the standings have changed.

DeFoe (4^th in AOY) is sewing up his opportunity to appear in the Toyota Trucks All-Star Week. Terry Scroggins (5^th), Davy Hite (6^th), Swindle (7^th) and Casey Ashley (8^th) are all sitting pretty for that.

On the Classic front, David Walker, Greg Hackney, Peter T and Kelly Jordon jumped in the Classic after starting the day outside of that list.

There is a whole list of guys on the verge of falling out. And another list of guys poised to jump in.

There are a lot of moves and shakes going on in the standings. Chances are good there will be more changes on Day Two.

You can bet on that. The KVD thing? That’s up to you.

DECATUR, Ala. — Good things and bad things have happened to Bobby Lane at Wheeler Lake.

“Wheeler’s been an interesting place for me,” said the pro from Lakeland, Fla., on the eve of the June 16-19 Dixie Duel, the season finale of the 2011 Bassmaster Elite Series regular season.

The good: he won his first Elite Series qualification and an entry into his first Bassmaster Classic at the October 2007 Bassmaster Open on Wheeler. The bad: he returned to Wheeler the next year for an Elite event and bombed.

“I think I weighed in the smallest five-fish limit of the tournament on the first day.” He winced as he related the fact.

For the record, his 5 pounds, 11 ounces, for five bass in that 2008 Elite event wasn’t the lightest limit of the first day, but the second lightest. Lane ended up in 72nd place on that trip, a sharp contrast to the fourth place that brought him in 2007 to the Elite party.

Since then, he still hasn’t whipped the fishery, but he likes Wheeler, even though its grass is gone, a turn that’s hard for a pro weaned on Florida fisheries to negotiate.

“All in all, I have no complaints about this place,” he said. “It’s been outstanding to me. The Ingalls Harbor facility makes the logistics so easy — it’s the best of any place we go — and it’s where my B.A.S.S. (Elite) career started.”

Baring a competition catastrophe for Lane, he’s very likely to stay high enough in points at Wheeler Lake to end up with his fourth consecutive Classic qualification.

No bad karma there.

Edwin Evers, the pro from Talala, Okla., who is No. 2 in points, would welcome any good vibes coming his way; he has the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year contest on the line here. Last season, he ended up second to Kevin VanDam in the crown race. Going into the Dixie Duel, Evers trails leader Kevin VanDam by just 55 points for the 2011 title.

Evers’ Wheeler history is a mixed bag. He was 13th in the 2008 Elite competition, but made a fatal error when the tour returned in 2009. On the final day of that event, sitting in eighth place, he inadvertently switched off his livewell and all five of his Day Four bass perished.

“Bad mistake,” was his succinct understatement at the time. He incurred the standard 8-ounce penalty for each bass. He ended in 26th place.

After three days of practice this week, Evers was ready to attack Wheeler again and make his own good karma.

“All I can do is the best job I can,” he said. “If it’s good enough, I’ll be really excited. If it’s not, then there’s next year.”

The 2009 Elite winner on Wheeler, Tommy Biffle of Wagoner, Okla., said that there’s absolutely nothing he can use from his win to help him on this one.

“It’s a completely different time of year, and different conditions. Sure, it makes me feel good to know that last time I competed here I won. Wheeler’s always been good to me, it’s a lake I Iike,” he said.

Biffle has a lot at stake this trip.

“I’ve got to win this one to make the Classic, so that’s what I’m fishing for,” he said.

He’s hoping to cash in on the Elite Series’ new-for-2011 rule that awards a Classic berth to each event winner. Ranked 78th in the Classic-determining Angler of the Year standings, Biffle can’t get into the Classic via the Elite points route.

The pro who chased Biffle across the 2009 finish line, Casey Ashley of Donalds, S.C., said he’s been dreading the 2011 Wheeler Lake tournament. Not because his performance on the Tennessee River impoundment will determine whether he makes the postseason cut, but because summer conditions are trying to push him offshore.

“I hate offshore with a passion. I cannot stand it,” he said. “I knew when I saw the 2011 schedule that this would be my worst tournament of the season.”

Ashley said he planned to shun the Decatur Flats and its ledges. The area will be crowded, he predicted.

“I’m going junk fishing,” he declared. “That’s my best chance this time.”