Entry 109-5

The Elite 50 Champs

The Final Tournament and How I Fished It

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, where was the final Elite 50 tournament held?

VanDam: We went to Paducah, Kentucky, on the Ohio, the Tennessee and the Cumberland rivers in June, 2004. I actually fished in the Cumberland River below Lake Barkley Dam. I opted to fish for smallmouth rather than largemouth, because the river levels were high. The current was running pretty fast, and I thought my chances were better for catching smallmouth than largemouth.

Question:What lures were you fishing?

VanDam: I caught most of my bass on a Series 5 Crankbait, the same chartreuse-and-blue color that I had fished on the Alabama River, near Montgomery, Alabama, the week before. But, I also caught quite a few smallmouth fishing the Strike King KVD Tube with a 3/16-ounce-jig head by drifting that tube on gravel flats. The third lure in my arsenal for this tournament was the 1/2-ounce Pro Model Strike King spinner bait in the shad color. The smallmouth were feeding on shad, and I used all three of these baits to imitate the shad that I knew the smallmouth were eating. At the end of the first day, I had caught 14 pounds of bass and some change, and was in second place for the tournament. The guys who were close to me in the points championship didn't have a good day on the water, so I sort of sewed-up the points championship on the first day of the Paducah event.

Question: Were you catching all smallmouth bass?

VanDam: I caught a few spotted bass, but I primarily caught smallmouth.

Question: Why did you decide to try to catch smallmouth bass instead of looking for largemouth, which would usually weigh more than smallmouth?

VanDam: I went after the smallmouth because I felt that if I could find a spot that was holding a good number of smallmouth I could win the tournament. Generally, in this area of the country, smallmouth are harder to find than largemouth, therefore I knew a lot of the competitors would not be looking for smallmouth, and I might find some smallmouth that were big enough to win the tournament.

Question: What was unique about the spot you were fishing?

VanDam: The place I found the smallmouth was in a bend of the river. Because the bend in the river was so sharp, an eddy was created behind the bend. The current was running over a gravel flat, which was an ideal place to catch smallmouth. Although there was current coming over this bend in the river, the current was not as strong as the current out in the middle of the river. So, the smallmouth could hold in this eddy and wait for schools of shad to get washed into the eddy. They could attack and eat an easy meal.

Question: What was the biggest smallmouth you caught at this spot?

VanDam: My biggest smallmouth weighed 4 pounds, 6 ounces and helped me to take fifth place in the tournament and earn enough points to win the championship.

Question: You not only fished the Elite-50 circuit, you also fished the Tour-Event Circuit, didn't you?

VanDam: Yes, I fished all six of the tour events, as well as the Elite 50 for a total of 10 BASS events.

Question: What did you learn over the course of this season?

VanDam: I really gained a new respect for the tube bait. I caught a lot of fish on the Bleeding-Bait Tube Bait. I also caught quite a few fish on the Series 5 Crankbait. However, every tournament I fished in this year, the tube bait was the major factor in how I finished in the tournament. I used both the KVD tube and the Denny Brauer Tube through all the events, and I learned that the tube bait was hard to beat, especially when fishing was tough. I believe that a fisherman who learns to fish the tube a variety of different ways can drastically increase the number of bass that he catches throughout the year. Whether you are a weekend fisherman or a competitive-tournament fisherman, I believe that learning to fish the tube will definitely help you to catch more bass. I probably carry 75- to 100-pounds of soft-plastic lures in my boat every time I go fishing. More than half of that weight is tube baits. I fish with tubes more than any other lure.

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