Entry 109-3

The Elite 50 Champs

The Second Leg of the Championship

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: Where and when was the second Elite 50 tournament held?

VanDam: It was held on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway out of Columbus, Mississippi, which is another river system like we had at Lake Dardanelle out of Arkansas. On this lake, current was a key factor in determining when, where and how the bass would bite. I chose to fish the rivers that fed the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

The Tenn-Tom Waterway is a big canal that connects the Tennessee River system to the Tombigbee River system between Mississippi and Alabama. Because of the canal, boat and barge traffic can come from the Gulf of Mexico into the Port of Mobile, Alabama, up the river system there, then go into the waterway and move cargo into the Midwest and even the northern states. This Waterway created the same type access for cargo from the Gulf of Mexico into the northern states that you have on the Mississippi River. All along the canal, known as the Tenn-Tom Waterway, there are major rivers and creeks that feed the Waterway. So, I went into some of these rivers that had current in them and started fishing a Strike King spinner bait and flipping the tube.

Question: What color and kind of spinner bait were you using?

VanDam: I was using the Strike King 3/8-ounce Premiere-Elite Spinner Bait. I was fishing the Bleeding Elite Spinner Bait, which is chartreuse and white with red strands in it.

Question: Why do you like that color spinner bait when you're fishing moving water?

VanDam: That spinner bait has a lot of flash, and I really believe that the red color helps to trigger strikes that I may not have gotten if the spinner bait hadn't had red in its skirt and on its hooks. To make the top-12 cut in this tournament, I caught most of my bass on the spinner bait, but I did catch a few fish on the tubes. However, when I fished in the finals, I had to change my fishing pattern and fish crankbaits, the tube and the Wild Thang, is a creature bait made by Strike King. Although the crankbait and the spinner bait played a major role in my finishing second in this tournament, I still have to give the tube credit for helping me to get into the finals and placing second.

Question: How were you fishing the tube on the Tenn-Tom Waterway?

VanDam: I was flipping it in and around grass, and around wood cover like laying logs and standing timber.

Question: What color tube were you flipping?

VanDam: Because the water was stained, I chose black neon. In stained water, the black neon tube created a silhouette that the bass could easily see and attack. When I found clear water, I changed to a green-pumpkin tube and also caught bass on it, however black neon was my main color.

Question: With what pound test line were you flipping?

VanDam: I flipped with 20-pound-test Bass Pro Shop Fluorocarbon line, because I needed a line that was really strong and abrasion-resistant.

Question: What rod and reel were you using?

VanDam: I flipped with a 7-foot 4-inch Heavy-Action Quantum-Tour-Edition rod and an E-600 Quantum-bait casting reel. This high-speed reel increased the number of pitches I could make because I could retrieve my lure really quickly.

Question: How are you setting the hook on a bass when it takes the tube?

VanDam: Bass do not nibble on the tube; they inhale it. So, when I feel a bass strike the tube, I'll drop my rod tip, immediately snatch it up and then set the hook. I use this technique to put slack in the line so that the bass can inhale the tube deeper into its mouth. Because I'm setting the hook when the line is slack, the bass never feels the pressure on the line until the hook is set. This way I keep the bass from spitting the bait out before I set the hook. I try to set the hook really hard so that the bass is disoriented and doesn't really know what has happened until I have the fish on the surface of the water and out of the cover where he's been holding.

Question: What hook are you using when you are fishing the tube?

VanDam: I use a Ultra Point Mustad Big-Mouth Tube-Bait hook. Denny Brauer designed this hook especially for Mustad to be fished with tubes. This really strong, super sharp hook has a wide bite, which is the characteristic that I really need in a good tube-bait hook. I like to fish the 4-1/2-inch Denny Brauer Flipping Tube when I'm flipping shallow-water cover.

After finishing second in the Tenn-Tom Waterway tournament, VanDam knew he had a good chance to win the points championship. He had two, top 10 finishes in the first two tournaments.

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