Industry News
Archive For June 2008
VanDam maintains lead in AOY points race
June 30, 2008 – bassmaster.com
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — After being in 63rd place Thursday, Kevin VanDam managed to dodge a bullet in the Bassmaster Elite Series Tennessee Triumph presented by Longhorn.
By making the top 12 cut Sunday, Todd Faircloth had an opportunity to take the lead in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Anglers of the Year race. He had to finish sixth to tie VanDam, and any finish higher would have put Faircloth in the lead.
But when Faircloth moved up only one spot — from 11th to 10th Sunday — it assured VanDam of remaining No. 1, if only by 16 points.
However, Faircloth wouldn’t even have had to make the top 12 to take the points lead if VanDam hadn’t rescued himself from near disaster on both Friday and Saturday. The Kalamazoo, Mich., native made the top 50 cut by only three ounces Friday. Then he caught his biggest bag of the tournament Saturday — 10 pounds, 13 ounces — to move from 49th place to 32nd.
The 2008 AOY race wasn’t going to be won or lost this week. But VanDam appeared to be separating himself from the contenders after finishing in the top 10 in the last three tournanments.
There are only two tournaments left in the 11-event Elite Series season. Now with Faircloth close and both Mike McClelland and defending champion Skeet Reese within 150 points of VanDam, this race probably won’t be decided until August 10 — the last day of the final 2008 tournament — on New York’s Oneida Lake.
“That was my goal, to make up as many points as I could today,” said Faircloth, who held the TTBAOY lead before VanDam scored a wire-to-wire win at Kentucky Lake two weeks ago. “I just never had any good bites today.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournam…Wirth the wait
June 30, 2008 – bassmaster.com
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — Wirth wins one, wire-to-wire.
After a 14-year drought without a win, nine-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier Kevin Wirth finally pulled out his first Elite Series victory — in the Tennessee Triumph presented by Longhorn — by holding off a late-charging Bill Lowen on a cloudy, windy day on Old Hickory Lake.
“It’s been long, and it’s been hard,” the former Kentucky Derby jockey said as he stood at his livewell, the last man to weigh his fish. “Fourteen years. Let’s put ‘em on the scale.”
The weight of 26 other top-10 and five runner-up finishes lifted from the slender 45-year-old’s shoulders when his fish registered. His 10-pound limit, anchored by the first two fish he caught on a buzzbait after a week of flipping shallow, pushed him to 55-10, well past Lowen’s 50-5 — and to the $100,000 first prize.
“Yeah!” Wirth screamed. He thrust his fist in the air and gave Lowen a hug. When that excitement ebbed, he was left wiping his eyes behind his sunglasses.
“I can’t hardly hold my emotions here,” Wirth told the weigh-in crowd at Sanders Ferry Park. “There’s been many a day you think this isn’t the right thing to be doing. This makes it all worthwhile.
“Dreams do come true.”
So accustomed to heartbreak is Wirth that he began the day almost consoling himself this would still be a successful tournament by counting the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points he would earn, even if he were to zero on Day Four. That didn’t happen, obviously, but Wirth, who began the week in 51st in the points, immensely helped his odds of qualifying for the 2009 Classic.
Lowen, who began the day in fourth, leaped to second place on the strength of the day’s biggest bag, 14-9. He was doing well enough by 11 a.m. that thoughts of winning the tournament had crept into his head, giving him trouble tying on baits.
The impounded river reminded him plenty of growing up fishing the Ohio River, and he would have been a stronger threat to win this event had he not bottomed out with an 8-9 bag on Day Three, when he left his dominant spot and cruised to another — where Wirth happened to be.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournam…Clunn contending again
June 29, 2008 – bassmaster.com
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — Just two weeks ago, four-time Bassmaster Classic champion Rick Clunn hadn’t made a Bassmaster Elite Series top 12-cut since its inception in 2006. Now he’s made two in a row.
And for the second straight tournament, the 61-year-old Clunn is in second place going into Sunday’s finale.
Kevin Wirth maintained the lead for the third day in row in the Tennessee Triumph presented by Longhorn. The Crestwood, Ky., native has a total of 44 pounds, 13 ounces and leads Clunn by 3 pounds, 3 ounces.
“I thought I’d make a pretty good charge on (Wirth) today, and I gained two ounces,” Clunn said. “But today was the day I was kind of worried about.
“I’m going to open up tomorrow and not play so much defense.”
Wirth, who hasn’t won a BASS tournament since 1994, didn’t seem too worried that Clunn — or anyone else — might catch him in the 12-angler final Sunday, when the winner will earn $100,000.
The 45-year-old former jockey has stayed in shallow water about 2 miles back in a creek off the Cumberland River channel of Old Hickory. And during this tournament, he’s defied conventional wisdom that a shallow-water bite couldn’t hold for more than two days.
“It’s got me this far,” Wirth said. “I’ve gotten a lot accomplished. I needed the points for the (Bassmaster) Classic bad. That’s the main goal. Anything else is good.”
Wirth weighed his smallest five-bass limit of the tournament. In fact, his weights have gone down each day since he caught 17-2 Thursday, which continues to be the Berkley Big Bag of this event. Wirth had 15-10 Friday and 12-1 Saturday.
“It was a little bit slower than yesterday,” he said. “But it’s the weirdest thing: You can go by a place and not get a bite, then come back 30 minutes later and get one or two.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournam…Traffic on Old Hickory Lake may help critical shallow bite Day 3
June 28, 2008 – bassmaster.com
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — Rick Clunn isn’t just old-school — the guy’s practically Oxford. For him, a Saturday jostling against the heavy boat traffic expected to flood onto Old Hickory Lake isn’t his ideal day of fishing.
“I still look for the quietness and solitude and birds chirping — not policing 30 boats,” said Clunn, currently second (29 pounds, 7 ounces) among the 50 Bassmaster Elite Series anglers remaining in the Tennessee Triumph presented by Longhorn. “I don’t have the right to (direct traffic), but I have to, in the framework of what I do.”
More than the nuisance of trying to fish in the wake of yachts or going elbow-to-elbow with a weekend tournament angler in a johnboat, Clunn and other anglers have to worry about how their fish — especially those on banks and flats — will respond to the changing conditions.
Some anglers would tell you adjusting is all they ever do.
“I like it tough,” said Terry Scroggins (t-30th, 20-4). “It brings out the best in you, if you’re good. Or it brings out the bad, if you’re bad.”
But on a relatively small, skinny lake next to a metropolitan area with 1.5 million residents, both anglers and fish stand to take a pounding. Still, anglers interviewed before take-off at Sanders Ferry Park on the morning of Day Three said more boats on the water may actually enhance the shallow fishing that many anglers have so far relied upon.
“Boat traffic may stir the water, help make it muddier,” said Alton Jones (25th place, 20-12). “It might make the fish more approachable.”
While some anglers — including Days One and Two leader Kevin Wirth (32-12) — have been targeting small structure and objects in shallow water, others, Jones said, will be able to find unpressured water in creek channels. On the banks, though, he added, “there’s a lot of guys round-robining through some spots.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournam…Just catch a limit
June 27, 2008 – bassmaster.com
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — It’s easy to catch bass on Old Hickory Lake. It’s difficult to catch five largemouth bass that meet the 14-inch minimum length limit. It’s more difficult to do that here than anywhere else the Bassmaster Elite Series has been this season.
Larry Towell
Marty Stone fields questions from the media as he starts Day Two in second place with a first day weight of 16 pounds, 5 ounces.
So there wasn’t much confidence in the air when the Elite Series pros launched on Day Two of the Tennessee Triumph presented by Longhorn.
“I’m as subject to go out and not catch one today as I am to go out and catch another 17-pound bag,” said Kevin Wirth, the Day One leader with 17 pounds, 2 ounces.
“Yesterday I would have been tickled to death with 7 to 9 pounds,” said Marty Stone, who is second with 16-5. “That’s the goal again today: 7 to 9 pounds. If anything happens above and beyond that — great. This is Hickory.”
“It’s kind of scary out there,” said Todd Faircloth, who unofficially moved back into the lead in the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points race with his 22nd-place bag of 11-3. “You don’t really know what’s going to happen.”
Nothing is official in that TTBAOY points race until the standings become final on Sunday. But leader Kevin VanDam left the door open to his nearest competitors Thursday with his 63rd-place bag of 7-5.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournam…Wirth hanging tough
June 27, 2008 – bassmaster.com
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — Kevin Wirth mentioned that he was “not comfortable” with the water depth where he was catching fish Thursday, after he took the lead on the first day of the Bassmaster Elite Series Tennessee Triumph presented by Longhorn.
But that shallow water in Old Hickory Lake must be starting to feel like home. The Crestwood, Ky., pro stayed in the top spot for the second straight day by adding 15 pounds, 10 ounces to his 17-2 on Day One for a total of 32-12. It also marked the second time Wirth had the Berkley Big Bag of the day.
And for the second straight day, Wirth quit fishing his area long before his check-in time at Sanders Ferry Park.
“I lost a couple, broke a couple off, but I still had a limit by 8:30,” said the 45-year-old former jockey. “I know there are limited numbers (of bass) in the area. I kind of put it in shutdown mode then. I eased around a little and tried to see what was really there.”
Wirth said around 11 o’clock he made one pitch to an area he’d already fished that morning and caught a bass weighing 5 pounds, 5 ounces. He was able to cull a 2-pounder from the five-bass limit in his livewell.
“Once I did that, I totally left everything,” Wirth said.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournam…Wirth riding the lead
June 26, 2008 – bassmaster.com
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — How tough was the bass fishing Thursday on Old Hickory Lake? Kevin VanDam, the hottest angler on the Elite Series tour is in 63rd place, and even leader Kevin Wirth isn’t comfortable.
Wirth, the former jockey from Crestwood, Ky., caught a five-bass limit weighing 17 pounds, 2 ounces to top the leaderboard on Day One of the Tennessee Triumph presented by Longhorn.
“I like what I’m doing, but I’ve never had to catch them here at the depth I’m catching them at,” Wirth said. “I’m not comfortable with it. I don’t know how many I can catch a day.
“I might have caught all I can catch.”
But on a day that featured a lot more lows than highs, Wirth had plenty to be happy about. At 2 p.m., his limit included one largemouth bass barely over the 14-inch minimum length limit when he caught the Purolator Big Bass of the day, a 6-4 largemouth.
Even with another hour of fishing time, Wirth didn’t care to push his luck. After culling the 14-incher and replacing it with the 6-pounder, he pulled up the trolling motor and headed to the Sanders Ferry Park weigh-in site.
“I’m real happy with how the day went,” said Wirth, who rode in the 1981 Kentucky Derby. “I got fortunate.”
Four-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier Marty Stone has been riding a long stretch of bad luck. But his fortunes turned Thursday with a second-place bag of 16-5.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournam…ELITE STOP NUMBER NINE - THE OLD HICKORY
June 26, 2008 – basszone.com
Nashville, TN – We’re not in Kansas (err…Iowa) anymore Toto! The storms and the deluge of water that followed have forced many rivers in the Midwest – including the mighty Mississippi – into record-level flood stages forced the ninth stop of the 2008 Elite Series away from Iowa and into Tennessee. Angler’s thoughts are with the people in Iowa due to the recent flooding. The unfortunate situation in Iowa has created a unique situation at Old Hickory. Three days of practice this week and no pre-fishing prior to the cutoff. Let the game begin on Thursday.
While this week marks the first time the Elites have visited Old Hickory, to many fishing the Tennessee Triumph at Old Hickory, this week will be a little more “comfortable” given that BASS has held tour-level events there four times since 1996 – with the last coming in 2000. And while the 22,500-acre lake, located near Metropolitan Nashville, TN, likely won’t cough up many (if any) 20+-pound stringers over the week, the resurgence of milfoil and a solid forage base of shad will certainly provide ample opportunities for the 107-angler field.
As The BASS ZONE reported earlier in the week though, anglers are “singing the blues” over the potential for low weights this week (click here)…but that’s nothing new. With the exception of Falcon Lake, every pre-tournament report this year has been the proverbial grind session. In their defense though, you do have to be somewhat realistic given that Old Hickory is on the small side in terms of fishable water and since 1996 it’s taken an average of roughly 14 pounds per day to win.
With just over 97 miles of shoreline from dam to dam, the Cumberland River impoundment will likely be won shallow according to most pros we spoke to. And while there are some bronzebacks in the lake, many pros don’t see them as being a huge player. All agree that current will be critical, and if it doesn’t flow it could be a long week.
With only this week marking the official “IN or OUT” for both the AOY race and a potential slot in February’s Classic, there’s a lot on the line for those in contention. With a myriad of potential patterns possible, The BASS ZONE staff was at the ramp Wednesday and caught up with ten Elite pros for the low down on Old Hickory this week.
http://www.basszone.com/2008eliteseries/ol…Tight tournament predicted
June 25, 2008 – bassmaster.com
HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. — One Bassmaster Elite Series angler summed up the fishing conditions at Old Hickory Lake this way: “You might catch 40 fish and zero.”
That’s “zero” as in not catch one that meets the minimum 14-inch length limit on largemouth bass at this 22,500-acre Cumberland River impoundment.
And that seemed to be the concensus before the Bassmaster Elite Series Tennessee Triumph presented by Longhorn begins Thursday.
“Twelve pounds a day will win here any time of the year,” said Kevin VanDam, who moved into the lead in Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year points after his victory June 15 at Kentucky Lake. “Somebody might find something a little better, but I’d be shocked.
“If you have 30 pounds after three days, you’re probably going to be in the top 12 (for Sunday’s final).”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-built lock-and-dam that forms Old Hickory Lake is located about 25 miles from Nashville, so this reservoir gets lots of fishing pressure. That pressure doesn’t seem to have affected the number of bass in Old Hickory as much as it has the number of big bass.
“There’s a ton of fish in here,” VanDam said. “But there aren’t many 14-inchers. You can catch a jillion 12-inchers.”
And the fact that you can catch them both shallow and deep has made this tournament as wide open to any of the 107 Elite Series anglers as any tournament this year. It’s hard to figure out who has an advantage going into this four-day event that pays $100,000 to the winner.
“I have never seen as many fish shallow as there are deep,” said Timmy Horton, who finished second to VanDam by 17 ounces at Kentucky Lake. “Usually it’s mostly one way or the other.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournam…KVD Helps You Choose a Fishing Rod
June 23, 2008 – bassmaster.com
“The most important thing about choosing a fishing rod is to get the one that works for you,” says two-time Classic Champion, Kevin VanDam. Simply put, “a ‘good’ fishing rod is one that helps you fish effectively and efficiently with the lure you are using.
“Too many anglers worry about materials, mechanics and names. Those things are important but the ultimate standard is to choose a rod that performs the task at hand properly. There’s really no other way to judge a rod.”
He continues by pointing out that if you’re throwing a small, shallow running crankbait, you need a rod with the proper action and tip that lets you cast accurately. Precise lure placement matters. On the other hand, if you’re throwing a big, heavy deep-diver you need power and a rod that’ll let you make long casts. Accuracy is less important.
The same rod — no matter how high the quality of its materials and construction — won’t do the same job. If you do use the same rod for both applications, one of them is not a good rod because it won’t perform properly.
That sounds great in theory but there’s a practical, real-world problem with it — money. Most of us can’t afford to purchase a special rod for every type of lure we throw. We have to make do with what our budgets allow.
What to do? VanDam recommends we start with three rods that are acceptable for most applications. He then recommends add-ons based on where we bass fish and our level of experience.
KVD’s Basic 3
1. Start with a 6-foot, 10-inch, medium-heavy action baitcaster. That rod will handle most spinnerbaits, crankbaits, lipless crankbaits, jerkbaits and topwater plugs. 2. He also recommends we carry a 7-foot, medium action spinning rod with a high speed reel. That’ll work for most finesse applications such as drop shotting, shaky heads and weightless worms. 3. A 7-foot, 2-inch heavy casting rod will round out the arsenal. It’ll manage heavy cover applications such as flipping or pitching, and it work frogs effectively. http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmas…
© 2008 Kevin VanDam. All Rights Reserved.