Entry 109-2

The Elite 50 Champs

Determined to Win

Editor's Note: This past season, BASS created a new circuit, the Elite 50, a four-tournament circuit made up of the anglers BASS considered the best tournament fishermen in the nation. The first 20 fishermen in the Elite 50 were chosen from BASS's all-time money-winning list. The other 30 fishermen included in the Elite 50 were selected by adding up the points that all the anglers in the top 150 positions had earned over the last three seasons. The scores were tallied, and BASS picked the top 30 fishermen with the most points in all tournaments, for the past three years to also participate in the Elite 50. Some of the greatest names in bass fishing were picked to be in the Elite 50 competition.

At the end of the four-tournament competition, Strike King pro Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, was crowned the winner in the best-of-the-best competition. "Winning the Elite 50 championship was one of the highlights of my career," VanDam says. "When you compete against the best bass fishermen in the world over a four-event contest and win the championship, you have to feel good about your ability to find and catch bass. Remember, the guys in the Elite 50 are the bass fishermen I respect most in the world. This win is a huge accomplishment for me, and I feel humbled to have come out on top competing against these legends of bass fishing."

Question: Kevin, when did you decide that you could win the Elite-50 Championship?

VanDam: I set a goal to try to win the championship even before the competition started. I never go into a tournament not expecting to win. On the level that we're fishing, and with the caliber of anglers who are in the Elite 50, I don't believe there's a single contestant who didn't try to win the championship. Competition bass fishing on this level is not about anything other than winning. There is no glory in second place, and the field of fishermen who compete in the Elite 50 all have proven that they have the ability, the desire and the fortitude to do what is required to win.

So even though I set my goal before the competition of winning the Elite 50, I also realized that there were 49 others of the world's greatest bass fishermen who had the same goals as me. I realized that the key to winning a points championship was consistent high finishes. I not only set out to try to win each event but also to place as high as I could in each event. I knew that if I could finish in the top 12 in each event to make the cut to fish the final day, then I'd have a good shot at winning the overall points championship.

Question: Kevin, the first tournament was on Lake Dardanelle in Arkansas. What lures did you fish, and how did you fish them?

VanDam: The majority of the fish I caught was on a Strike King Denny Brauer Flipping Tube, and I did catch a few bass on the Strike King Premiere ELITE Spinner Bait. On this lake there was a lot of grass, and I was targeting the grass. The bass were starting to spawn, and the water was fluctuating up and down quite a bit during the tournament. I really believe that the erratic fall of the Denny Brauer Tube was the key ingredient I needed to make the bass bite. If I had to pick one lure and say that this lure was the reason I won the championship, that lure would be the Strike King Tube.

Question: Why was the tube bait such an important factor in your winning the championship?

VanDam: I used the two tubes quite a bit in all the events, and I had more success fishing with the tubes than I did with any other lure. I caught a lot of the bass that I needed to win the championship on the tubes. One of the reasons I believe that the tube is such a deadly bait is that the Denny Brauer tube and the Kevin VanDam Tube have such an erratic fall that they have the ability to trigger strikes from inactive bass (bass that really don't want to feed).

The tube is an extremely-versatile bait because you can use different-colored tubes to imitate different types of forage that the bass feed on. For instance, you can use one type tube that looks like a bluegill, or you can select another color that looks like a crawfish. By choosing a different color and giving the tube a different action, you can fish with a tube that imitates a shad. So, the tube gives the fisherman a lot of options and a lot of action.

Question: When was the Lake Dardanelle tournament held and how did you finish?

VanDam: It was held the second week of April, 2004. I finished in eighth place, and I felt that since I had a top-10 finish in this first tournament, that if I could continue to finish in the top 10, I'd have a real good chance to win the points championship.




 

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