June 5, 2009 – bassmaster.com
PARIS, Tenn. — “Winning never gets old,” Kevin VanDam said before blast off this morning, on the third day of the SpongeTech Tennessee Triumph.
Bobby Lane takes to the lake with an ESPN camera as the leader going into Day Three.
He should know. His first BASS victory came in 1991 at Georgia’s Lake Lanier. His most recent one came at Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake just over a month ago. In between those two bookends, he’s had 13 more, including two Bassmaster Classics. He’d like to bring the total to an even 16 this week at Kentucky Lake, which would also mark two victories in a row at this venue. Last year he beat 106 Elite Series competitors to take the top prize here.
One of the anglers VanDam bested here in 2008 was Florida’s Bobby Lane, who finished 58th, but right now Lane leads KVD by over 4 pounds with two days left to fish. The seemingly unflappable Lane admitted that he woke up at 3:30 this morning, well before his alarm went off, but said that was due to excitement, not nerves. VanDam is right behind him and reigning Classic champion Skeet Reese is in 3rd, and Lane said that beating those two mano a mano would make his first BASS victory extra-sweet.
“It’s never good having the top two names in the world right behind you,” Lane said. “But I don’t plan on giving it up. I have my game face on. I’m getting more pumped up as we go on. I’ll really start to feel it during the National Anthem and then during the ride out.” He faced forward as the Anthem played, never glancing back at the wealth of talent that would like nothing more than to pass him today.
Kevin VanDam enters Day Three of the SpongeTech Tennessee Triumph in second place behind Bobby Lane.
VanDam claimed that he had no intention of playing mind games with Lane. “Bobby’s a good guy,” he said. “I don’t ever want to try to affect the other guys. I just want to control those variables I can control. He’s in a tough spot.”
Reese also claimed that he wouldn’t try to get inside Lane’s head. “Kevin’s more likely to try to do it than I am,” he said, and then a slow grin settled onto his face. “But the question does put the thought in my mind.”
Another Lane, Alabama’s Russ (no relation to Bobby), is in 5th place, over 7 pounds out of the lead but only 3 behind VanDam. He said that even if the leaders were to try to burst his confidence they couldn’t do it, owing at least partially to his past career as a minor league ball player. “They ain’t getting in my head,” he said. “I know all about that because I tried to play the intimidation game as a pitcher. I’d stare down the batters, but you don’t want to try to stare these guys down. The only one I’m scared of is Jeff Kriet.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?id=4233189June 4, 2009 – bassmaster.com
PARIS, Tenn. — The difference between the “haves” and the “have nots” on the first day of the SpongeTech Tennessee Triumph was a matter of ounces per fish.
It takes just a hair over a three and a half pound average per fish to make the top fifty cut, but a three-pound average leaves an angler 20 spots out of the money. A quintet of solid four pounders will take you 20 places in the opposite direction. At a time when many of the fish are spawned out and skinny, it may not be possible to eyeball a limit and tell what it weighs. As a result, some anglers were disappointed by the scales’ readout while others were pleasantly surprised.
With 17 1/2 pounds as fishing’s version of the Mendoza line this week, the quest for the entire field is to find a way to get up over 20 each day. But there’s more than one way to get there. Five 4-pounders cumulatively weigh the same as four 3-pounders with an 8-pound bag mate.
Bobby Lane (1st, 29-14)
James Overstreet
Bobby Lane (1st, 29-14)
The ideal situation, of course, is to get some of the larger “cookie cutters” and add a monster. That’s what Bobby Lane did yesterday. He had the day’s big fish, a 7-15 behemoth, and added four footballs to cull up to his eventual weight of 29-14. Kevin VanDam, trailing Lane by just over a pound, had two fish in the 7-pound class.
Are the larger bites just a matter of weeding through a lot of smaller fish or is there a distinct way to target them?
“I wish there was an answer for that, but I don’t think there is,” said Dave Wolak, who caught five similarly-sized fish that totaled 18-13 and is currently in 38th.
VanDam invoked the old realtor’s cliché of “location, location, location” in describing why some anglers caught the big ones and others settled for decent-sized but not exceptional clones.
“You’ve got to be in a place where you can catch them,” he said. “There are lots of schools out there but not all of them have those bigger fish mixed in.” While his rationale echoed the realtors’ maxim, he disputed the applicability of one of fishing’s oldest rules, the concept that you don’t leave biting fish to find more fish.
“It’s easy to get caught up in catching them,” VanDam said. “There are so many fish out there and it’s easy to catch a lot of them. That’s the trap that a lot of these guys fall into.”
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?id=4229787June 3, 2009 – bassmaster.com
PARIS, Tenn. — In a reversal of fortune, Bobby Lane of Lakeland, Fla., finally took advantage of a hot Kentucky Lake bite, totaling 29 pounds, 14 ounces, Wednesday, which was enough to open up a one-plus pound advantage over four-time Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., at the SpongeTech Tennessee Triumph.
Lane, something of a shallow-water specialist, ditched the banks and targeted the ledges, home to the heaviest bass on Kentucky.
Bobby Lane (1st, 29-14)
After narrowly missing a top-50 finish and subsequent check at the Kentucky Lake Elite event in 2008 and a poor finish on another tournament circuit at Kentucky in 2007, Lane was starting to feel snake bitten here. But the Elite Series is all about adjustments and Lane, despite his strong inclination to stick to the shallows, picked apart the numerous ledges Wednesday.
“I’m no expert, but I know enough to put my time in and hit as many ledges as possible here,” said Lane, 35. “I’m a bank beater from Florida and it took everything in me to stay away from the shallow stuff, but I’m really learning a lot this week.”
While Lane eyes the $100,000 top prize, many of the pros have their sigths on the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings. Those standings are also the main avenue into the 2010 Bassmaster Classic (Feb. 19-21; Lay Lake; Birmingham, Ala.) and the only way into the inaugural Bassmaster Elite Series postseason, the Toyota Trucks Championship Week, which will be played out on Alabama’s Lake Jordan and Alabama River on Sept. 10-18 and feature the top 12 anglers.
VanDam led the AOY pack — albeit by a mere five points — heading into Kentucky. He looks on his way to maintaining his lead with another solid Kentucky finish. But just like Tiger Woods has Phil Mickelson on the PGA Tour, 2009 Bassmaster Classic champion Skeet Reese is around to keep VanDam honest. Reese, second in the AOY points with two more events after the Tennessee Triumph, continued his solid run Wednesday and is sixth.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?id=4228851June 3, 2009 – bassmaster.com
PARIS, Tenn. — Fans who arrived merely on time for the first day weigh-in at the SpongeTech Tennessee Triumph may not have seen some of the day’s biggest catches.
Multiple anglers, including leader Bobby Lane of Florida and perpetual superstar Kevin VanDam, currently in second, returned to the launch site and had their fish weighed well before their required check-in times.
It only took Lane until 10:30 to amass his 29 pounds and 14 ounces, so he didn’t see much value in staying out any longer. A 3- or 4-pounder that might help him tomorrow would have been a throwback today. He cast a lonely shadow sitting at the dock well before 3 p.m., but he was more than satisfied with the way the day played out.
“This is the third time here and I’ve never cashed a check,” he said. “So I committed to learning how to fish it and I really put my time in.”
Michael Iaconelli (11st, 23-3)
“I’m putting a few things together with a big Berkley worm,” he said, a statement which begged the following question — if he’s not 100 percent dialed in yet, what will tomorrow bring?
VanDam was at the dock nearly an hour before his flight was due in at 3:40 p.m. He said that there’s no reason to stay out “when you have a bag like that. You can’t keep catching 4-pounders. I had a real good day one but it’s a four-day tournament.”
VanDam typically crams more casts into four hours than most of the field can get through in eight, so maybe the early finish wasn’t a huge handicap. Either way, most of the field would probably like to see KVD’s days shortened on an ongoing basis.
Alabama’s Greg Vinson, currently in 33rd with 19-8, offered another reason to get back early. He said that these post-spawn fish are fragile, and once you have a decent bag it’s necessary to balance the opportunity to cull against the chance that the fish will die in the livewell.
At a certain point today he told his Marshall that they were through — “I was less likely to upgrade so it wasn’t worth losing 8 ounces (for a dead fish),” he said.
The storms that rolled through the area right around the time most anglers were due back provided still another reason to cut corners.
James Niggemeyer and Jim Murray had to stop and beach their boats to avoid getting hit by lightning.
“It hit at 3:20 and I was due in at 4,” Niggemeyer recalled. “I didn’t know if I was going to make it back on time.”
Fortunately, the worst of the electrical storm broke up by 3:40, and they both made it in with time to spare.
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/elite/news/story?id=4228921June 3, 2009 – bassmaster.com
1 Kevin VanDam Kalamazoo, Mich. 1593 2 Skeet Reese Auburn, Calif. 1569 3 Alton Jones Waco, Texas 1469 4 Aaron Martens Leeds, Ala. 1463 5 Gary Klein Weatherford, Texas 1402 6 Todd Faircloth Jasper, Texas 1375 7 Michael Iaconelli Runnemede, N.J. 1373 8 Mark Menendez Paducah, Ky. 1363 9 Kevin Short Mayflower, Ark. 1333 10 Cliff Pace Petal, Miss. 1312 10 Randy Howell Springville, Ala. 1312 12 Brent Chapman Lake Quivira, Kan. 1307 13 Shaw E Grigsby Gainesville, Fla. 1295 14 Bobby Lane Lakeland, Fla. 1290 15 Byron Velvick Del Rio, Texas 1288 16 Greg Hackney Gonzales, La. 1256 17 Fred Roumbanis Bixby, Okla. 1254 18 Russ Lane Prattville, Ala. 1240 19 Bradley Hallman Norman, Okla. 1232 20 James Niggemeyer Van, Texas 1223