Entry 109-4

The Elite 50 Champs

The Same But Different

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: When was the Elite 50 Alabama River Tournament held and what were the fishing conditions when you arrived there?

VanDam: This tournament was held the first week of June, 2004, and even though this was a river-system-type event, which was the same as the two previous lakes we had fished, this river system was different from the other two because it had a large number of spotted bass in it. To qualify for the finals, I caught most of my bass on a Strike King Series 5 crankbait and flipping tube.

Question: What colors of baits were you using?

VanDam: The crankbait that proved to be best for me was the Series 5 chartreuse/ blue-back crankbait. The tubes that I used to catch the bass to get to the finals were black-neon and green-pumpkin.

Question: How did you know when to flip the tube and when to use the crankbait in this tournament?

VanDam: Current determined the baits I was using and the places I was fishing. When current was being generated upstream at the dam, I would use the Series 5 crankbait on main-river points, ledges and drop-offs, a technique that helped to get me to the finals. However, on the final day of competition, there was no current coming through the river. So, instead of using the crankbait, I fished the tube to laid-down logs and trees and any other type cover I could find on the main riverbank.

I feel that when there is current coming through a lake, the bass are more active and are willing to chase baits. Under those conditions, I prefer a crankbait. But when the current is not coming through a lake and the bass are more dormant, I believe that many times you have to bounce a bait off of a bass' nose to get it to bite. So that's when I start flipping the tube bait into heavy cover. Now, these are not hard, fast rules. I have caught bass flipping a tube when there is current running, and I have caught bass on a crankbait when the current is not running. But these are the general rules that I will always try first.

Question: How deep were you catching the bass on the crankbait?

VanDam:The crankbait bass were holding in about 10 feet of water. The bass I caught flipping the tube were in 2 to 5 feet of water.

Question: So you made a 5- to 8-foot water-depth change from where you had caught bass when current was running to where you could catch bass when the current wasn't running. Did all the bass that were deep move shallow when the current wasn't running?

VanDam: Water depth was not the only key to catching these fish. The location of that water depth was the key. I caught a lot of the bass on the tubes in the same locations that I had caught them with the crankbait. The key factor was that the deep water where I caught the bass on the crankbait was only a few yards from the shallow water where I caught them on the tube. When I was fishing the tube, many times my boat would be sitting in 20 feet of water, and I was flipping the shallow-water cover that was in 2- to 5-feet-deep water when the current stopped coming through the lake.

Question: How did you finish in this tournament?

VanDam: Although I made the cut, I finished in twelfth place. But I still felt that I had a good chance to win the points championship.

Next: The Final Tournament and How I Fished It

Contents:

• Part 1: What Is the Elite 50?
• Part 2: Determined to Win
• Part 3: The Second Leg of the Championship
• Part 4: The Same But Different
• Part 5: The Final Tournament and How I Fished It