Kevin Van Dam

That’s Two For T

July 30, 2007 – espnoutdoors.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — After he learned that he had won the Bassmaster Memorial presented by Evan Williams Bourbon — and the $250,000 that comes with it — for the second straight year, Peter Thliveros offered this Memorial in memoriam.

With his 14-year-old son, Nick, on stage with him as he accepted the trophy, Thliveros’ thoughts went immediately to his nephew, Wesley Shawn Sparks, who earlier this year was killed in a collision when he fell asleep at the wheel driving home at a late hour.

“I really have to dedicate this, in my heart right now, to a wonderful kid, 23-years-old,” he told the audience through tears, during a call to his wife, Valeria. “It was a tragic loss to our family. I believe he was with us today.”

Nick saw his dad crying, and he started crying, and the two hugged on stage, a burly father nearly engulfing his slim son. Afterward, as his father entertained a gaggle of cameras and tape recorders, Nick described his cousin as charismatic and generous.

“He could make you laugh even if you were crying because someone died,” Nick said.

Wolak leads Memorial

July 29, 2007 – espnoutdoors.com

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Dave Wolak grew up fishing in New York, developing his fishing skills on the state’s finger lakes — a strip of 11 lakes that stripe the state East to West.

As for Onondaga Lake, the site of days Three and Four of the Bassmaster Memorial presented by Evan Williams Bourbon — he didn’t fish there quite as much.

“I didn’t even know it existed,” Wolak said. “I would always go to Otisco Lake. This one was just off my radar.”

But his lack of knowledge and time on the lake didn’t stop him from weighing in 22 pounds on Saturday, giving him the lead over second-place Peter Thliveros by 1 pound, 3 ounces. The field was cut from 12 anglers to six on Day Three, and those six will back on Onondaga Lake on Sunday, with the largest two-day weight getting the $250,000 first-place prize for the Elite Series’ second major.

“This place is pretty sick,” Wolak said. “I never would have thought it would be this good.”

Kennedy sets new P.R.

July 28, 2007 – espnoutdoors.com

Not only did Steve Kennedy grab the lead on the first day of the Bassmaster Memorial, he set a new “personal record” in the process.

A year ago in the Elite Series Empire Chase on Lake Oneida, Kennedy caught a four-pound bass in what he termed “the shallowest water I’ve ever caught a big fish in.”

Kennedy went back to that spot this year. But Oneida Lake is about 8 to 10 inches lower than it was last July. He said he really didn’t believe a big fish could be in the spot this year, after he realized the difference in water level. But he couldn’t resist at least one cast.

“I skipped a bait back in there,” Kennedy said , “then I could see his fin going up there to it. I’m like, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

The Evers Empire

July 23, 2007 – espnoutdoors.com

BUFFALO — Edwin Evers’ week on Lake Erie began with a minor wreck and ended with a major check.

The 32-year-old pro from Talala, Okla., won the Empire Chase presented by Mahindra Tractors, capturing his first Bassmaster Elite Series win and a $100,000 payday that pushed him into the rarified ranks of million-dollar bass fishing career earners.
He did it despite breaking a bracket on his motor “a pretty good ways” onto the lake after blast-off on Day One. (So grateful was he for the BASS staff who braved the driving rain to pick him up, that he thanked them when he received his trophy.)

But after that initial bad break, nothing bad befell Evers on his way to sacking 65 pounds, 7 ounces during the three-day tournament. That total included a 23-10 Day Three sack that turned a 3-ounce Sunday morning lead into a 4-pound runaway margin.

Hirsoky Leads Light Day With 21-11

July 19, 2007 – bassfan.com

The look in the eyes of the last flight at today’s Erie/Niagara Bassmaster Elite Series said it all – they were weary, sore, and some a little sullen. Lake Erie spared its ultimate wrath today, but the wind did blow – especially as the day got late – and the ride back was one to remember.

A gale blew in moments before the end of today’s weigh-in, and breakers topped the west wall of the harbor in Buffalo, N.Y.

So the biggest factor today was definitely weather, and by extension, the early bite. Those anglers who got on their stuff early were able to fish vertical for at least an hour or two. Other arrived at their areas and immediately did the drift.

And on a day when usual Erie studs largely stumbled, big-lake vet Paul Hirsoky turned in the biggest sack of smallmouths. Hirsoky’s definitely at home here – he won the 2005 Erie Bassmaster Northern Open out of Sandusky, Ohio.

His 21-11 doesn’t give him a big lead – it was just 5 ounces better than 2nd-place Matt Reed’s haul – but the potential of a water restriction tomorrow makes it look that much better.

A Great Challenge

July 19, 2007 – espnoutdoors.com

BUFFALO — His peers in the Bassmaster Elite Series consider Frank Scalish one of the favorites in the Empire Chase presented by Mahindra Tractors, which began Thursday morning in wet, blustery conditions in the northeast corner of Lake Erie.

Elite Series anglers make their way through checkout on Day One of the Empire Chase on Lake Erie.
But as Scalish stood on the deck of his boat just before blast-off, he said he wasn’t looking forward to a day fighting the westerly wind, racing 240 miles across the surface of a lake bigger than the state of Vermont. If it were up to him, in fact, BASS wouldn’t hold tournaments on Erie. Too unpredictable, too violent, too treacherous.

“It’s going to get worse than they think when the wind shifts out of the west,” he said. The Open event he won on this lake had swells of 9 to 13 feet — the biggest he has ever encountered. “You can’t race the waves,” he said. “That’s when you get into trouble.”

The pros are preparing for all sorts of trouble this week, far beyond what they encounter in a normal tournament. They left the dock carrying driftsocks to battle the current, wearing Dramamine patches to quell their motion sickness, extra bilge pumps to bail out their boat bottoms, and (most tellingly) sporting the deck seats they usually remove, so that they might have a crutch to help them through nine hours of standing on turbulent waters.

It’s come to this

July 18, 2007 – espnoutdoors.com

It’s bigger than the Classic. You’d be hard-pressed finding an angler on tour who will claim that any one tournament win is more important than winning Angler of the Year.

The race for Angler of the Year has basically come down to two anglers.

Take it from Boyd Duckett, who, in an interview a few days after his victory in Birmingham, said the Classic win was great, but he’s really looking forward to winning Angler of the Year. We’ll forgive him because he was on a high. That Classic win is looking a little sweeter from 32nd place in the AOY standings.

Skeet Reese, who lost to Duckett by six ounces in the Classic, may get the last laugh. He leads Kevin VanDam, yes, the Kevin VanDam, by 12 points in the AOY standings with three tournaments remaining. But how could that be?

In a poll on ESPNOutdoors.com, 73 percent of respondents said Reese wouldn’t sniff the lead again after KVD stole it away in Oklahoma (and he’s winning yet another poll on the Elites page — but it’s a little closer at least). Is this the same guy Jerry McKinnis said was more dominant than Tiger Woods? Maybe Marty Stone had it right all along. Aside from providing the best bass photo of the year, the Champion’s Choice proved that Reese can hang with the chosen one on any water.

The BASS nation could be fixated on VanDam because every time you mention Angler of the Year to Reese, he shakes his head and backs down like he’s been doing all season.

Elite Series pros eagerly await Lake Erie

July 17, 2007 – espnoutdoors.com

CELEBRATION, Fla. — Big-time fishing returns to the city of Buffalo and the nation’s top bass pros on the Bassmaster Elite Series get another much-anticipated shot at Lake Erie’s unparalleled smallmouth fishery July 19-22.

The Empire Chase presented by Mahindra Tractors, set for Lake Erie and the Niagara River, is the ninth of 11 Elite Series tournaments and a pivotal event that will go a long way toward influencing the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year race and qualification for the 2008 Bassmaster Classic in February on South Carolina’s Lake Hartwell. The top 36 in the Angler of the Year standings qualify for bass fishing’s premier event.

“There is always a lot of anticipation when we go to Lake Erie,” Ohio Elite pro Frank Scalish said. “It’s the best smallmouth fishery in the world.”

‘A Freight Train’

July 15, 2007 – espnoutdoors.com

PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — One more indication of how phenomenal this week was for Timmy Horton: At 2:15 p.m. on Sunday, while the other 11 anglers left in the Champion’s Choice presented by Toyota Tundra remained on Lake Champlain, Horton went on an ice run.

James Overstreet

Timmy Horton ran away with the Champion’s Choice title.
He had been parked at the dock, lounging on the deck of his boat, for going on four hours, eating pizza, signing the occasional autograph, thumbing through a copy of North American Fisherman. His cameraman remained in the boat in case of emergency, staying cool beneath an umbrella, proclaiming Sunday the easiest day in 13 years of shooting bass fishing.

But Horton needed to make a pit stop, and wanted to cool his five chubby bass, so he headed up the ramp to the marina in search of a bag of ice. Asked to reflect on what his week has been, the boyish blonde Alabamian replied, “It doesn’t make sense. It’s amazing.”

Day Four of this tournament was a victory lap for Horton. The world knew it after Day Three, when he widened his lead over second-place Steve Kennedy to 9 pounds, 13 ounces — an amount that prompted Kennedy to say at Sunday’s launch, “I had a great tournament, but my hat’s off to Timmy.”

HORTON SET TO SLAM THE DOOR ON SUNDAY

July 15, 2007 – basszone.com

Horton has been the top dog since Friday, and with a big bag in hand by 7:30 this morning, he was able to change to relax and just go fishing. “It went really good today…it’s been a real special week,” he said. “I could’ve sat there and caught them one after the other again today, but I didn’t feel like it would do me any good.”
Timmy is making the 75-mile run down south to a tiny spot that he admits has just been magical. “It’s really a neat spot down there,” he said. “It’s the type of deal that’s just really special because of, not only the amount of fish, but also the quality that’s holding there.” http://www.basszone.com/2007eliteseries/ch…