2009.04.24
At the Blue Ridge Brawl with Kevin VanDam
Yesterday was a long day, and today will be another long one. I'm not complaining.
I was at the Bassmaster Elite Series tournament at Smith Mountain Lake, on the boat with Kevin VanDam.
As some joker noted when the marshall/angler pairings were announced Wednesday afternoon, the pairing wasn't an accident. I requested to ride with VanDam so I could write a story, which ran today, about a guy that many think is the best tournament bass angler of all time.
VanDam had a pretty good day. He had 15-7 and is tied for 12th, and within striking distance of the lead. This was his best fish, a largemouth that was in the 4.5-pound neighborhood.
Today's pairing was random, and I'm set to go out with Mark Tyler.
Being on a boat and not fishing for eight hours can get pretty boring. But because these guys are doing a lot of sight-fishing for spawners, it can actually go pretty fast because that's interesting even for the guy in the back of the boat.
I have always thought that I could see fish pretty well but VanDam humbled me. The lake was pretty choppy yesterday but he was still spotting them. He said it was because I had crappy sunglasses -- unlike his Oakleys. (One of his big sponsors.)
I didn't say anything on the water, because observers can't aid anglers in any way, but I actually saw a couple decent fish he didn't see.
VanDam seemed to think things could be really good today, with more fish coming shallow and wind laying down to allow for better visibility. We'll see.
Mark
At the end of tournament will you be able to describe what type lures the Pros used and preferred, for the conditions.
Still 8 hours with a pro boring or not envy is the word envy.
--Static -- I plan to write a feature, probably for my May 1 Outdoors page, on the tactics the pros used for the tournament. mt
Comment by Static Lines — April 24, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Mark...Can't wait to read more about your experience with the pros...wish I was there...seen anything of the "Beat The Elites"?
--Greg, if you saw my Sunday story in The Roanoke Times you know I wrote a about the marshal program. I plan to do some additional writing about my personal experience -- in short, it was great -- at some point soon.
As for the Beat the Elites, in two days on the water I saw a couple of other bass boats with guys fishing. But they didn't seem to act like they were in a tourney. So, if they were out there, there weren't many of them. mt
Comment by Greg R. — April 25, 2009 @ 10:57 am
Mark,it looks like you've been good luck to both competitors,and learned enough to teach us rookies some good tricks.Have fun at your job.
Alfie
--I joked with the guys at BASS that if we'd had a contest among marshals I probably would have been in the lead after Day Two. I did learn a bunch and am looking forward to sharing the techniques with readers -- and trying them out, of course. mt
Comment by Alfie — April 25, 2009 @ 1:28 pm
Thanks to Mark and the Roanoke Times for the awesome coverage of this event. The Times' commitment of staff time and inches in the paper was tremendous. We've kinda become spoiled as I believe we have one of the last three dailies in the state with an outdoors writer.
Great tourney and thanks to all of the thousands of fans that came out as well. Y'all are the number one reason BASS and ESPN Outdoors love coming back to SML. See you all again next August when the Bassmaster Angler of the Year will be crowned in Virginia.
Comment by scott — April 27, 2009 @ 3:31 pm
Great Job on the tournament coverage Mark !
WOW what a lucky draw to get to go out with KVD !
I'm looking forward to the follow up articles.
I was on the lake myself this past week a few times but I stayed way up in the Roanoke river arm in order to avoid the crowds and the tournament. I'll share the fish stories with you later..... I'm sure you are busy catching up after the hectic week with the Blue ridge Brawl.
--Thanks, Ralph. My plans are to write a story for Friday's Outdoors package on the tactics the pros employed, and also to write a column down the line about KVD. Looking forward to hearing how you did up the river. mt
Comment by Ralph Barton — April 27, 2009 @ 4:35 pm