KVD gives you tips straight from the pro circuit.
June 13, 2011 – bassmaster.com
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Denny Brauer took home $100,000 in cash after the Diamond Drive, but the other big winner of the day may have been Edwin Evers.
Evers didn’t make one red cent. But he did gain 12 points in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. Without ever making a cast, the distance between VanDam in that points’ race shrunk from 67 points yesterday to 55 today. That’s the difference between firstt place and 12th place at Lake Wheeler.
That’s too close for comfort for KVD, close enough for Evers to smell blood.
Make no mistake about it, the race now comes down to those two guys. Unless of course you think both of them could bomb next week in Alabama. Given both of their records on the Tennessee River, it’s my guess one of them won’t. It’s more likely both of them will be on the top of their game.
In some ways Evers may have a slight advantage. He got an extra day of rest today. He’ll be ready to practice while KVD will be driving from Little Rock to Decatur, Ala., all night.
Although we might be making a big deal about 12 points lost today, KVD will be driving away from Little Rock a happy man.
“I came here wanting to gain the lead in the AOY race or at least put myself in a position to have a shot at the title,’’ VanDam said. “I did that. What more could you ask for?”
I don’t know, maybe another 12 or 20 points?
Regardless, the Diamond Drive is over and the expected impact to the AOY points’ race played out as expected. The tournament turned tough, and the two guys who have a knack for turning tough into money finished within the top 20, setting up a showdown for next week.
Everything they will have to deal is likely to be more consistent.
The Arkansas River was setting up, after weeks of flooding to be a lights-out affair, but the floodwaters dropped too rapidly and the best conditions occurred during practice, never during the tournament.
“I can promise you if the water flow had stayed where the (U.S. Army) Corps (of Engineers) forecast said it would be, no one would even have heard of Pine Bluff in this event,’’ local angler Kevin Short said.
Short, along with Scott Rook, both masters on the system, performed well below the expectations. And somehow all their experience was thrown out the window by a river that was being sucked dry instead of falling. Their points’ race and hopes for a Classic bid are out the window unless they win next week.
Their backs are against the wall, just like about 65 or more of the Elite anglers who will start tomorrow’s practice with hopes of something happening in their favor. They will either need to catch a few, catch a lot or downright win.
In the middle of all that you have KVD and Evers hoping to best each other, while the rest of us are wondering just how important those 12 points really could be.
June 12, 2011 – bassmaster.com
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Let’s be honest. After yesterday’s weigh-in most were already crowning Kevin VanDam Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year.
The one they call “KVD” has already won so many of the titles you can’t count them on one hand, and he’s intent on making it that way for the other hand. Then he’s going to start on the feet.
But a funny thing happened on Day Three of the Diamond Drive on the Arkansas River. Not really funny, unless you were Edwin Evers or one of the other 97 Elite anglers who wish for things like this, but odd: Kevin VanDam only caught two keepers.
It’s the first time in none of us know when since KVD didn’t show up with a limit. The biggest beneficiary of that is Evers.
So how did he benefit?
VanDam leads the race with 1,743 points. That’s 23 less than he had yesterday. Evers is second with 1,676. That’s 22 more than he had yesterday. Don’t do your math too quickly.
Going into the morning they were separated by 112 points; now there is somewhere around 67 points between them. That’s the difference between first place and 21st place.
And after Day Three it’s easy to think that all of the sudden KVD has a chink in his armor. Anglers are notorious for smelling blood in the water. Don’t be surprised to see more than Evers sniffing around with one event remaining.
Steve Kennedy is third in the rankings, some 130 points back; Alton Jones is fourth and Gerald Swindle is fifth. They are all probably too far back to catch KVD with one event left, unless something really funny, as in really odd, happens.
The worst thing that could happen to KVD between now and then is for him to lose another 18 or 20 points if he stinks it up again. Of course, he won’t see it that way. He will be looking for the 20-plus he could gain by doing better.
We can’t know how it will end. But with one event left, we do know this: Evers is more bloodthirsty than ever; VanDam normally does well on the Tennessee River. But so does Evers. So you can expect both to do well on Lake Wheeler next week.
VanDam may be playing defense. Evers will be on the bloodthirsty side. All it takes is a separation of about 20 places for VanDam’s chinked armor to turn into a title for Evers.
Don’t believe it?
Look at the scoreboard. Kevin VanDam only weighed in two fish today.
June 12, 2011 – bassmaster.com
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — If they’re honest about it, most bass pros would have to admit they’ve learned from Denny Brauer. Saturday, the famed pro from Camdenton, Mo., schooled some of the best in the business by keeping his lead for the third day in the Bassmaster Elite Series Diamond Drive.
Brauer’s catch of 10 pounds, 12 ounces, fended off the changing lineup of fellow Elite pros who have been doing their best all week to wreck Brauer’s chance at a 17th Bassmaster victory. But with 44-13 over three days, Brauer stayed 10-2 ahead of Saturday’s frontline challenger, John Murray of Phoenix, Ariz., who ended his day in second place with 34-11.
Only the top 12 anglers after three days made it to Sunday’s final round. They will compete for $100,000, a 2012 Bassmaster Classic berth, and points in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race.
Murray, among others in the Top 12, said he was resigned to fishing for second place on Sunday. But Brauer, a pro who has captured the sport’s most coveted titles — Bassmaster Classic champ and Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year — still was not convinced that a 10-pound lead was enough to win no matter what Day Four brought.
“If I can catch a limit, that would make it tougher for somebody else,” he said. “Somebody could bust a big bag, and if you stub your toe, you’re going to end up regretting it. You have to catch them all four days.”
Brauer had hoped his spot in Pool 4 would have produced better than 10-12 for him Saturday, but shared water, a narrow window of fishing time and short fish cut into his expectations.
“I had not caught a short fish (largemouth less than 15 inches) the first two days. Today, I got as many bites as the first two days, but they were smaller fish,” he said.
His final two keepers, one a 2 1/2-pounder, salvaged his day, he said.
“It was a frustrating day, but neat to get a limit before I left my area,” Brauer said.
He said he has caught the majority of this week’s fish on a Strike King Pro Tour football jig.
Brauer was among those who elected to lock downriver twice. He and others got stuck waiting Saturday morning for about an hour for barge traffic to clear — one of the challenges the river has thrown at the pros this week.
“The good thing was, they had the second lock open and ready to go when we got there, and they got us down fairly quickly. We lost a little time, but they did as good a job as they could for us,” Brauer said, calculating that he lost only about 10 minutes of active fishing time overall.
Murray said he caught his first fish on a crankbait near the takeoff ramp before he headed to the lock and was stuck waiting with Brauer and other Elite pros.
Finally down in the far pool, he quickly boated two more keepers, then his largest of the day, a 4-12.
“And that was the last keeper I caught,” he said.
Murray brought in only four fish Saturday. He said his tactical decision was between spending precious time working the bank for keepers to get a limit, or to back out into deeper water, where the larger bass were hanging, but were harder to hook.
“It’s a hard decision,” Murray said. “You only have 2 1/2 hours to fish. It’s not like you can get a limit and then go out to upgrade. Tomorrow I’m going to have to weigh the factors to see what’s best. It’s such a craps shoot, to stay or to go.”
Within 5 ounces of Murray was Alabama’s Aaron Martens with 34-6, improving three spots from Friday to third place. Martens is staying in Pool 6, opting out of the lock-through time-eater.
An angler who enjoys power fishing, Martens forced himself to slow down. The discipline helped him to 13-0 for the day.
“I fished like a snail. I hate it,” he said.
Fourth place was covered by Jonathon VanDam, the rookie from Kalamazoo, Mich., who zeroed on Day One and staged a comeback with 15-10 Friday. He supplemented that with 18-5 on Saturday, the heaviest bag of the day.
Fifth place was taken by Gerald Swindle of Warrior, Ala. Swindle started slow at 33rd the first day, moved to 10th the second day before claiming fifth with 32-12. Billy McCaghren, a local favorite from Mayflower, Ark., fell from third to sixth place with 30-7.
The pro who ran straight at Brauer on Friday, Kevin VanDam, ended Saturday in seventh after he stumbled, exactly as he had predicted was possible on the ever-changing Arkansas River.
VanDam is looking for his 21st Bassmaster win and enough points to take over the lead in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. A 2011 AOY crown would be his seventh and fourth consecutive title.
Four anglers were penalized for checking in late Saturday. Like six other anglers on Friday, the four incurred pound-a-minute late charges because they got stuck waiting for commercial barge traffic to clear the lock. Commercial traffic has priority locking time.
The biggest bass brought to the scales Saturday was a 5-0 caught by Jonathon VanDam. The fish bested Zell Rowland’s 4-14 on Friday, and became the frontrunner for the Diamond Drive’s Berkley Big Bass of the Tournament bonus of $500.
June 11, 2011 – bassmaster.com
LITTLE ROCK – Preventing him from launching his boat on the Arkansas River might be the only way to keep Kevin VanDam from claiming his seventh Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year title.
And that almost happened Saturday morning.
VanDam was driving on the Wilber D. Mills Expressway (630) headed toward the North Little Rock launch ramp when he noticed his boat trailer wasn’t handling well.
“Something felt kind of weird,” said the Kalamazoo, Mich., resident. “Then I saw a piece of rubber fall off my tire, so I pulled over to look.
“I’ve got two flat tires (on the right side of the trailer), and I’ve got an hour to get to the ramp.
“There was a tournament Marshal who just happened to be behind me. He pulled over to see if he could help. We just put the flashers on (in both vehicles) and I brought it here. I had to get here one way or the other. My GPS said I had to go about three miles on two flat tires.”
The grinding sound of metal on concrete created quite a stir among the observers at the Verizon Boat Ramp Friday morning as VanDam backed his boat trailer into the water.
With previous AOY points leader Terry Scroggins not making the top 50 cut, and Alton Jones, previously tied with VanDam for second place, doing the same, VanDam is poised to carry a considerable advantage in the AOY race going into next week’s season-ender at Alabama’s Lake Wheeler.
After two days, VanDam is in second place in this Diamond Drive event, 8 pounds, 6 ounces behind tournament leader Denny Brauer.
The obvious tongue-in-cheek question for VanDam Friday morning was, did he suspect Brauer might have had something to do with the flat tires?
VanDam didn’t miss a beat, saying, “If it would have been Denny, he would have gotten all four tires.”
June 11, 2011 – bassmaster.com
Data mining of the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points standings as of Friday night, June 10, turned up a few interesting, um, well…points about possible Classic qualification scenarios.
One: Brothers Chris and Bobby Lane have 1,494 points each. They sit at 14th and 15th place, respectively. That doesn’t pit brother against brother because where they’re standing, the award would be the same for both: a 2012 Classic qualification. Both the Lanes made the Classic in 2008, but have yet to duplicate that brother act.
Two: The Classic cutline is at 28th place. But double qualifiers will expand the number of Elite pros in the 2012 Classic. That’s because when a pro nails a Classic berth through a route other than the Elite points system, the points berth goes to the next Elite pro on the list. All Elite event winners, for example, win a Classic entry. If those event winners are high in the points — and six of seven now are — their duplicate berths go to Elite pros just below the 28 cutline.
Three: The above scenario means that the wait for a first Classic berth may be over for Marty Robinson, Elite pro since 2007; and Pat Golden, in the Elite field since 2008.
Four: Even closer to their first taste of a Classic as competitors are Keith Poche, an Elite rookie in 2010; and Ott DeFoe, 2011 rookie. Both are well above the 28 cutline.
Five: Skeet Reese, the 2009 Classic champ who hasn’t missed qualifying since 2002, isn’t likely to ride the Elite points into the 2012 contest. He’s hovering in the 60s after two days of Diamond Drive fishing. His options include winning next week’s Dixie Duel or winning one of the five remaining 2011 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Open events.
While the points system determines Classic qualifications, the main function is as a competition for the season’s top angler award worth $100,000 and a prestigious title. As of Friday, the leaders in the Bassmaster Angler of the Year award competition were Kevin VanDam leading Edwin Evers, Steve Kennedy, Alton Jones and Terry Scroggins, in that order.
The standings change daily. Points earned at the Diamond Drive will be officially awarded after the tournament ends Sunday.
June 7, 2011 – bassmaster.com
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – With one day of practice in the books, the Diamond Drive on the Arkansas River is shaping up to be as tough as advertised. For Alton Jones, this tournament marks a key step toward reclaiming the lead in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year lead.
After the last event on Lake Murray, Jones dropped behind Terry Scroggins into second place and now the race is as tight as it has ever been. With less than 200 points separating the top 16 in the race, finishing at the top on a rapidly changing river system is critical.
“To be in it after this event, you are going to have to have a top 20, because at least two of the top five will be there,” Jones said. “I think it’s really up for grabs for four or five guys. Earlier in the year, you could say it’s about survival, just trying to get through a tough event. Here, you need to be at the top.”
Jones always shoots to be among the 12 fishing the final day of the Elite Series events, but he put in a little extra preparation on the Arkansas River. A few weeks back, Bassmaster.com documented his flight over Little Rock as he scouted the flooded conditions. The overtime paid off on Monday.
“The best place I found today is a place I found from the air,” Jones said. “I had three quality bites in one area, so at least I have somewhere to go on Day One. My goal all year on each practice day is to find enough fish for one day of the tournament. Overall, I thought the bite was tough though.”
Even with the additional planning, Jones knows a fishery like this one has every angler on the edge. Don’t be surprised, he said, to see one (or more) of the top names in the sport near the bottom of the standings at the end of the week.
“When fishing’s good, a good fisherman can put together a pattern and have a decent day,” Jones said. “Right now, it’s hard to put together a pattern that’s working. It’s all about finding the right spot, or an area to be in, where if you grind it out real hard, you might get five bites. Even a good fisherman doing the right things might draw a blank here. You will see some guys who are at the top of their games falter.”
As if the tournament wasn’t stressful enough, anglers have to contend with near-record heat in central Arkansas, with daily highs ranging close to 100 degrees.
To prepare, Alton Jones spent time down on famed Falcon Lake, with the permission of his wife, of course. Jones figured that no matter how hot it will get in Little Rock, it can’t compare to the scorching sun of Zapata. Check out the BASSCam page to hear Jones describing his time down in Texas.
All the planning from scouting to conditioning has been tested, even on his first day of practice. Even with one spot to rely on in the tournament, Jones’ work is far from over.
“Eliminating water is just as important as finding fish,” Jones said. “Unless you are a local like Scott Rook, there is a lot of water between gold mines. And you can’t cover water quite as effectively because if you go too fast, you might fish over the top of them. There just aren’t a lot of big fish here.”
That leaves two days of practice left to find enough fish not just to survive, but to reclaim the lead in the year-long race. His plan remains the same: fish a different pool each day of practice and then make the right decision on which pool to fish when Thursday rolls around.
“There was lots of stuff I saw from the plane I had high hopes for that I checked off my list today,” Jones said. “That’s to be expected. I just hope in all the stuff I check tomorrow, I find one area where I can get a few quality bites. Really, I think it’s going to be one of those tournaments that will shake things up.”
June 6, 2011 – bassmaster.com
There’s been a lot of thought and planning put into Toyota’s All-Star Week, which happens July 23-24 beginning in Wetumpka, Ala., and ends with a bang in Montgomery on the July 29-30.
The thinking has been toward not only having two top Elite Series anglers going head to head on that last day of fishing, but having many events happening all week long leading up to that big final day.
Now I am sure that the whole schedule and format will be laid out for everyone before long. Remember it’s still a couple months away and the Elite Series has two big events left. Two very important events.
Important because final Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points will have a big role in what the field looks like for Toyota All-Star week.
So, why am I even talking about that week in July? Well, I’m going to tell you, but I want to lead up to it a little better.
Let’s take a look at the last two Elites with the first of those two starting June 9-12.
Wow, that’s on a flooded Arkansas River out of Little Rock and the fishing will really be interesting.
I say flooded, but if nothing dramatic happens before then, the water color should be very fishable, but it also will be spread out all over Central Arkansas.
So many “angler decisions” to be made during that stretch. To steal a very appropriate phrase, the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year title cannot be won at this event, but it can darn sure be lost. That’s why Little Rock is so important.
The last Elite event comes to you from Lake Wheeler in Decatur, Ala., and here’s hoping the race for that AOY trophy will be as tight as it is now. But it will.
So, at the end of Lake Wheeler there will be 33 days before All-Star Week is on us. But before I tell you why those 33 days are important to you, the reader of this article, and every other bass fisherman out there, let me hit on something else briefly.
I mentioned earlier that we had things planned during Toyota All-Star Week other than the final day shoot-out. We have a Masters event planned. The event will feature the likes of Guido Hibdon, Ken Cook, Tommy Martin and others. I, for one, am looking forward to that.
The “Wounded Warriors” tournament will take place once again. It was so well received last year, how could we not repeat it? Barbeque cooking contest at both Wetumpka and Montgomery, along with country music bands in both towns should keep things stirred up.
Let’s not forget that this is about bass fishing though, and numerous Elite pros will be hanging out in sponsor activation areas for the crowds to talk fishing with.
There’s really more on the schedule than I’ve put down here, but I’ve given you the idea that you need to either be there, or at least keep up with all of it.
Now then, the main reason I have taken up both your time and mine today is to tell you why the 33 days in-between the last Elite series event and Toyota All-Star Week will be a lot of fun for everybody. Angler, fans, members…everyone.
The rules say that 12 anglers will go to the All-Star Week.
The first eight will be the top eight on the Angler of the Year points list. That’s easy enough.
The last four will be more interesting.
They will be voted in by you and the rest of the bass fishing world. Of course we will give you all the details on how that vote happens, but you need to start watching the Angler of the Year standings and see who is outside the top eight.
Is there someone in 26th place that you think deserves to be among those 12? Does the angler that finished ninth by a close margin still need to make it? Or how about the guy in 74th who by gosh just deserves a break? Those last four anglers in All-Star Week are totally up to you. You make the call.
Oh and there’s this: Out of those who vote, 12 will be chosen and be virtually paired with an All-Star angler. If he wins, you my friend, will win as well. You’ll have a new boat and motor in your possession.
Toyota All-Star Week is sounding better and better and it’s not too early to start talking about it. I’m going to keep close watch myself and of course get my vote in when the time comes.
This should be fun and on the day after the last day you can vote, I’ll tell you who I voted for and why. I want some of you to do the same for me.
May 16, 2011 – bassmaster.com
Welcome to the tightest Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race since 2008. Currently, there are four anglers within 100 points of the lead. Three years ago, when there were six anglers within 100 points of the lead after six events, things were a bit tighter, but with a very big difference. That year there were 11 regular season events to crown the AOY. This year there are only eight.
That means that with two tournaments to go, there are as many as 10 Elite anglers with a chance to take home the big prize. Realistically, however, it's still a three or four horse race as we head to the stretch.
The Gainers
Terry Scroggins was the most notable angler in the AOY hunt that moved up. He took the small, but tremendously significant step from second place to first in the quest for the most prestigious title in professional fishing. He's now in the driver's seat and (along with some help from the bass) controls his own destiny.
Casey Ashley and Davy Hite both moved up nine places after their winner and runner-up finishes on Lake Murray, respectively. Hite (now 6th) and Ashley (now 9th) both have very outside shots at the title. Realistically, it's as much because there are too many other anglers between them and the lead as because they trail by quite a few points.
The Losers
Alton Jones dealt his AOY dreams a severe blow with his 88th-place finish at Murray. Now, instead of prepping for the home stretch and hoping to cruise to the title, he's chasing Big Show and in a dead heat with the greatest competitive angler of all time (Kevin VanDam). If momentum was on his side before, it's surely left him now.
Any plans Pat Golden may have had to hoist the AOY trophy after the Wheeler Lake tournament are now dashed. By virtue of his 81st-place finish, he now ranks 20th in the AOY standings. It's even possible that he could fall out of Classic contention in the next two tournaments.
Stephen Browning has seen his fortunes change from good (15th place at the midseason point) to treacherous (33rd after Murray). Where he was once comfortably inside the cut, now he's on the bubble.
Trending up ... or down
In what may be a classic example of too little, too late, Brian Snowden came into the Murray tournament in 61st place. After his 6th-place finish, now he's 40th with a chance to move up and into the Classic field with a couple of good finishes in the final two events.
On the flip side of that coin, Elite rookie Andy Montgomery slipped all the way from 10th to 25th in the AOY standings after his dismal 82nd place finish. It likely killed any chance he might have of qualifying for All Star week after the regular season.
May 16, 2011 – bassmaster.com
COLUMBIA, S.C. – For a few tense moments Sunday afternoon, it looked like the Evan Williams Bourbon Carolina Clash was going into overtime.
Davy Hite sat in the “hot seat” on the left side of the weigh-in stage. He had the lead with a four-day total of 58 pounds, 1 ounce, but he had to wait for several anglers to cross the stage to learn his fate.
Jami Fralick was the first to challenge Hite’s standing, but he came up short. Then came Tommy Biffle and Kevin Wirth, neither having enough to knock Hite off his perch.
Then Mike Iaconelli took the stage with a good bag of fish, and that’s when things got interesting.
Emcee Dave Mercer announced that Iaconelli needed 14 pounds, 13 ounces, to take the lead. Iaconelli handed his fish to tournament director Trip Weldon. Based on on-the-water reports from cameramen and Bassmaster.com reporters, it figured to be close.
Then Mercer announced the weight: “14 pounds, 12 ounces!”
It didn’t immediately sink in that Hite and Iaconelli were tied for the lead. Iaconelli walked off the stage and Hite breathed a sigh of relief. Then Weldon called it to everyone’s attention that there was a tie. Iaconelli returned to the stage and stood next to Hite.
In the event of a first-place tie, Bassmaster rules call for a sudden-death fish-off. In the end, it was a moot point – Casey Ashley toppled Hite and Iaconelli, winning by more than three pounds.
So why is Hite second in the final standings? And Iaconelli third?
You have to dig a little deeper in the Bassmaster rulebook for an explanation. While ties for first are decided by a fish-off, all other ties are decided differently. The first tiebreaker is the number of fish weighed; the second is the number of live fish weighed; and the third is the heaviest single-day fish weight.
Since Hite and Iaconelli both weighed 20 live fish during the tournament, it went to the third tiebreaker, and Hite took second place based on his Day Four total of 16-14, half a pound better than Iaconelli’s 16-6 on Day Three.
But that doesn’t mean Hite and Iaconelli weren’t thinking about the possibility of a fish-off.
“As soon as I realized it was a tie, I started thinking how I could catch fish,” Iaconelli said.
“I was almost giddy,” Hite said. “Because I had such a strong afternoon, I would have loved to have a chance to go back out.”
Iaconelli said he immediately started thinking about duplicating a pattern he stumbled upon Sunday afternoon, when he caught a good keeper and several other fish around bridge pilings near the weigh-in site.
“I thought, ‘How do I catch fish?’ And I immediately started thinking about those bridge pilings,” Iaconelli said. “As they brought Casey up (on the stage), I was already thinking about going and running bridges all over the lake, wherever I could find them.”
Hite was thinking about a pattern, too.
“I would’ve gone right back to the herring pattern on the points,” he said, referring to the dominant pattern all week on Lake Murray, where anglers concentrated on main lake points to target bass feeding on the spawning baitfish. “I certainly liked my chances because I had a good afternoon for a change.”
But Ashley foiled their plans, and sparked a lesson in the Bassmaster tiebreaking rules in the process.
May 16, 2011 – bassmaster.com
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Two 3-pounders in the last 45 minutes of competition helped Casey Ashley to the win Sunday in the Evan Williams Bourbon Carolina Clash with a total weight of 61 pounds, 3 ounces.
Ashley, the leader on Day Three in the Lake Murray event, closed the deal with a fourth-day catch of 15-5. The bag gave him a 3-pound, 2-ounce margin over fellow South Carolinian Davy Hite and New Jersey’s Michael Iaconelli, who both had 58-1.
Finishing fourth was Missouri’s Brian Snowden with 57-8. Fifth was Kevin Wirth of Kentucky, who had 55-12. Day One leader Jami Fralick of South Dakota ended in ninth place, and Day Two leader Fred Roumbanis of Oklahoma wrapped up in 12th place.
Ashley’s prize was $100,000 and an instant entry into the 2012 Bassmaster Classic.
It was Ashley’s second Bassmaster Elite Series win. His first was in 2007, his rookie year. The second feels very different, he said, and not just because it was in his home state.
“The win at Smith Mountain Lake was special because it was my first, and in my first year on tour. I really didn’t know then what it meant to win,” said the 27-year-old. “Now I know they’re hard to come by. I’m glad I won, but I’m real glad I won in South Carolina in front of all my family and friends.”
Ashley lives in Donalds, S.C., less than two hours away from Lake Murray, a fishery he knows well.
Clinching a Classic seat was an especially sweet accomplishment because he had missed out on the 2011 Classic, a hiccup after appearing in the sport’s biggest event from 2008 to 2010.
He likely would have qualified through the points system because he’d been riding in the teens, but “now that’s done,” he said. With the win, he moved up to ninth place in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points standings.
Ashley might not have won if he had corrected a day that started badly. He tried for an early bite on a shallow point — a prevalent pattern throughout the tournament for many of the pros. But the bass paid little attention to his fluke.
“The fish were there, but they just wouldn’t bite,” he said.
But, he said, another angler probably was on the bass to win, and that thought started to get to him.
“I knew that with the wind blowing all day, they were going to bite for somebody,” he said.
About two hours into his day — by then feeling “nervous and worried” — he made an adjustment by going to a new spot that got him going with a 3-pounder. He left the spot and came back later, only to hook into and lose a decent-sized fish. But he kept faith with the spot, and later came back and caught another fish.
“And then it was over,” he said. “I had to go totally to finesse fishing after that.”
The day ended much better than it started: two 3-pounders in the last 45 minutes of fishing. He took both on a shaky head rig after deciding that finesse techniques was what he had to do to when his topwater pattern shut down.
He said his parents were on the water watching him from their boat. Another 40 spectator boats surrounded him. While he enjoyed the attention, he said he felt added pressure to do well for them. Throw in the fact that until the last hour, he knew he did not have enough weight to win.
“I was worried, I was scared I’d lose this thing,” he said. His two last-hour fish eased his mind, but not knowing what others had caught, he could not be confident he’d prevail.
Throughout the four days of the tournament, Ashley uncovered out-of-the-way places that “people weren’t beatin’ to death.” When the morning herring bite died, he saw many competitors move out to deeper water, but he wasn’t tempted.
“The fish weren’t out there,” he said. “They were in less than 3 feet of water, and you could see them.”
He used the shaky head rig on those shallow flats, working it to “dark spots” that were rocks or stumps or a depression in the bottom composition.
His morning lure arsenal for schooling largemouth consisted of two baits, one a hard topwater, the other a plastic: a Lucky Craft Gunfish in a herring color, switching off with Zoom Super Fluke. He used a pearl white Fluke in the early hours, then went to “disco violet,” a transparent finish.
After about noon, he went to a shaky head exclusively.
“You had to stay up real shallow, cruise around, not make much racket because those fish were spooky,” the winner said.
Hite and Iaconelli both amassed 58-1 over four days, but identical weights did not result in a tie. A third-tier breaker rule gave Hite the second-place finish, and Iaconelli the third, because Hite had the heaviest single-day catch, 16-7 over Iaconelli’s 16-6.
Ironically, 1 ounce was exactly what Iaconelli at first believed had cost him the win, before Ashley brought his weight to the scales. When tournament officials corrected the impression, Iaconelli was relieved to hear he did not have to regret a 1-ounce loss.
“If I had lost by an ounce, it would have been heartbreaking,” said the pro from Pitts Grove, N.J., who has six Bassmaster wins to his name, including the 2003 Bassmaster Classic.
Iaconelli said he “fished like a maniac,” looking for one more big bite, which he felt sure he needed to win.
Hite, who grew up in nearby Prosperity and now lives in Ninety Six, was looking for a win in front of a hometown crowd on a lake he fished tournaments beginning at age 12. A Carolina Clash crown would have been his eighth Bassmaster win and second of the season, a rare accomplishment on the Elite trail.
“I’ve fished hundreds and hundreds of tournaments from this same ramp, but never have any of them been so exciting as this was today,” said Hite, who has the 1999 Classic win on his extensive competition record.
Hite said he “lost” on the third day with a smaller bag of 11-12.
“That happened because I swung for the fences by starting in places where I know big fish live, and I didn’t catch one,” he said.
His 16-14 weight on Sunday didn’t make up for Saturday, although it was the largest bag on the final day.
The Clash’s largest bass was by Jami Fralick on Day One. It was a 6-9, handily beating out Sunday’s largest bass, a 4-8 brought in by Snowden. Fralick won the Berkley Big Bass of Tournament bonus of $500.
The Carolina Clash mixed up the leaderboard in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. Leader Alton Jones fell to third after finishing 88th on Lake Murray. Terry Scroggins moved from second place to take the lead, and Kevin VanDam moved up to second place. Those who took larger steps up included Iaconelli from 27th to 16th, Hite from 16th to sixth, and Wirth from 23rd to 14th.
Next on the Bassmaster Elite Series schedule is the Diamond Drive on the Arkansas River out of Little Rock, Ark.