Posted  June 14th, 2008  9:20pm CST

Clunn Trails VanDam by Almost Seven Pounds

Story by Brent Conway - Photos by Mark Jeffreys 

Gilbertsville, KY – Saturday on the Elite Series is moving day. If you’re not safely in the Top 12 at the start the day, you’re intent on hitting every spot and swing on every bite in an attempt to be there by day’s end. This week at Kentucky Lake, site of the eighth stop on the 2008 Elite Series tour, moving day had even more symbolism. 

On moving day, it’s customary to have plenty of water to roam. At the Bluegrass Brawl, however, there is even more competition – for both the fish and the fishermen – on the water. As a result, this moving day is symbolic given that making moves has more than one meaning.

Kentucky and Barkley lakes are two of the hottest local and regional tournament venues in the nation, and Saturday saw two of them – in addition to the Elite Series – launch at 6:00 (versus the 8:00 Elite Series launch). Prior to Saturday, eager regional pros enviously eyed the Elites to learn a little more about how they’re catching them.

The weather Friday was brutal, as thunderstorms dropped in on the Tennessee-Kentucky border, with one very serious storm raging by the time weigh-in started. Saturday, the weather gods were much more favorable with overcast skies giving way to sunshine by the end of the day. 

Though prime spots were scarce, with a wad of money and critical points on the line, anglers moved all over both Kentucky and Barkley lakes Saturday trying to net a Top 12 finish.

At the morning’s launch, it seemed to be a clash of greatness featuring KVD and Rick Clunn. For the second straight week, VanDam has the lead on Saturday, but Clunn, the “Zen Master”, has shown no signs of weakness, bringing the heaviest bag of the day to the scales Friday to move within striking distance. 

Saturday, as with every day of the event, VanDam was the man and crossed the scales with 21-14, enough to give him a three-day total combined weight of 68-4 and the lead for the third straight day. Unlike last week at Wheeler, where VanDam was locked in a two-horse race, it looks as though his lead is nearly insurmountable.

While Rick Clunn couldn’t match his second-day magic, he was still able to end the third day in second place with 61-7 overall, after bringing a five-bass limit going 17-11 to Saturday’s weigh-in stage. Moving into the third spot was Tim Horton, who climbed five spots after weighing 23-5.

Paul Elias ended the day in fourth place with a three-day total weight of 58-14. Paul brought five bass weighing 21-10 to add to his sum and earn his second Sunday appearance of the season.

Fifth place belonged to Wade Grooms, who brought his biggest bag of the week weighing 20-0 to the stage Saturday, giving him 57-0 in three days. Rounding out the Super Six was Oklahoma pro, Terry Butcher, who finished the third day with a combined weight of 55-8.

KVD Running to Win
Kevin VanDam just might go wire-to-wire this week. Were it not for a four-ounce penalty due to fish care, he likely would’ve put a 10-pound lead on his closest competitor Saturday. “I had a three-pounder die early and was throwing four pounders back that I could have culled with,” he explained. 

“I had a pretty good sack early, and it’s just hard to keep them alive all day sometimes despite what you do.”

VanDam said that he had his limit by 10:00 this morning, and threw everything in his boat to cull. “I’m throwing a little bit of everything,” he revealed. “It was really a little bit different day to tell you the truth. With all of the added pressure I had decided to move around a lot. Turned out to be a good decision.”

History is the best teacher Kevin has, and the last trip to Kentucky taught him well…you plan for the crowds. “I’ve planned for this from the beginning,” he said. “I learned a valuable lesson here two years ago, and you have to remember that we’re fishing public water. They have just as much right to be out here as we do.”

VanDam needs one of two things to occur to seal the deal for sure – wind or current. “They’re doing the normal little flow right now, but if they would let it go they would go to chewing,” he explained. “I think tomorrow will be pretty good, and I really like my chances a lot. I am happy to have a good lead knowing the quality of the lake and the fishermen behind me. It’s not impossible to have a 27-pound stringer here at all.”

“The only thing that I wish is that Jeremy (Starks) would’ve made the cut,” VanDam jokingly adds.

Clunn is Grateful
After bringing the biggest bag of the day to the scales Friday, Rick Clunn fell off his pace Saturday. He offers no excuses for his lighter-than-planned third-day performance, and merely chalks it up to circumstance. “After 35 years of doing this, I’ve just run out of excuses,” he laughingly reveals.

“The day today was just one of those great mysteries of the universe I suppose.”

Clunn explained that he’s not doing anything special. “I’m fishing just like pretty much everyone else is doing. 90% of my fish are coming on a white shad RC 1.5, but I have caught a few fish everyday on the jig.”

He went on to add that activating the school with the jig is key though. “Well, if I can get them going on the jig then I’ll pick up the crankbait. You have to have the right angler on the structure – that key little sweet spot. My first three spots didn’t pan out for me today though, and I actually had to go to a spot that I’ve been saving. That hurt me a little bit today.”

The crowds that have beleaguered much of the field haven’t been as bad around Clunn, and for that he is grateful. “I’ve got boats all around me, but the good thing is that they’re not moving in me. Kevin (VanDam) has fortunately drawn all the attention, which is good because I don’t like having crowds following me – it just takes the fun out of it for me.”

Horton Can’t Hold the Giants
Tim Horton has climbed each day of the event, and hopes to continue that trend Sunday, but to do it he admits that he has to take advantage of every opportunity. “I had one flurry today that was just amazing and I didn’t really get to capitalize on it,” he said. 

“I had a seven pounder on my first few casts, and actually had a two pounder on there with him when he came back up for another jump. The next time it jumped, the two pounder was the only one there.”

Once is bad, but twice is just brutal. “I had another one on the very next cast, but I lost him too,” Horton said. “Those kind of fish are pretty special because you can catch all of the fours and fives you want, but to lose two seven-pound fish in a row is hard to swallow.”

For the final day, Horton intends to pull out all the stops. “I’m around the fish to really move tomorrow if I can get hooked up,” he said. “It’s going to be a big hill to climb though, so all in all I’m just going to go out and have fun.”

Elias in Running Mode Saturday
Paul Elias, in his second Top 12 of the season, should have had the lead…at least on the first day. Since then, he’s been trying to recapture the magic from that day. “I did a lot of running around today,” he said. “It started off slow, but then I got into a little flurry later in the day and culled everything I had.”

The spot where Elias caught the giant stringer (that was actually too giant by one fish) hasn’t produced as well as it did that first day. Still, Paul is holding out hope that its splendor will return. “I actually went back there later in the day and culled everything I had today,” he revealed. “I plan on just camping out there all day tomorrow.”

Part of the spots splendor was the fact that on the first day it was loaded with giant smallmouth. Largemouths are all he’s been catching since then. “My co-angler jumped a smallmouth off, but it looked like it was small,” he said. “I think they need the sun to really bite good.”

Like Clunn, Elias isn’t experiencing the type of pressure that everyone else has. As a result, it’s back to the magic one more time Sunday. “I don’t have any problems with the locals where I’m at,” he said. “I’m just going to do the same thing again tomorrow and hope for the best.”

Grooms Comes in Early
Wade Grooms is needing a series of strong finishes to get his season in any kind of Classic contention shape. It starts this week, and fortunately, he’s got the spot to do it. “I’ve got one spot that’s just loaded,” he quipped. “I’m sitting there burning three-pounders at 12:30 and started getting concerned that I wasn’t going to have anything left.”

Coming to the scales early was already on his mind when, by accident, he boated his biggest bass of the day. “I caught a five-pounder by accident when I threw up top of the ridge by mistake,” he said. “He culled out a three-pounder for me so I can’t really complain too much.”

The ultimate decision to return to the ramp 45-minutes early was an easy one to make when Wade noticed one of his keepers was looking poor. “It’s just so hot out there right now and the water is so warm,” he explained. “I had one on its side in the live well at about 3:00, so I decided to come in early right then.”

Grooms explained that without his electronics, it would have been another regular week. Fortunately, they allowed him to isolate his best spot…along with several others that should give him another solid day. “The whole key to what I’m doing is my Navionics chip,” he said. 

“Without it, I wouldn’t have been able to find this spot. I do have some other limit spots, but this big-fish spot is just loaded and I’ve milked it as best as I can. We’ll see tomorrow.”

Butcher Made Early Mistakes
Terry Butcher, like Grooms before, needs a solid finish this week. He’s in great shape to have that and then some. “I had a decent tournament last week, so to come here and put three good days together is really neat,” he said. “I think I do it again tomorrow and put together a solid week.”

Looking back to the first two days of the tournament, Butcher revealed that he may have cost himself a shot at winning. “I may have messed up a little bit the first couple of days though,” he said. “I’ve got a couple of spots that are just one cast deals. 

“The first morning I pulled up and have 17 pounds in the first 15 minutes. I decided to just leave it and run some other stuff. I did that because I thought that I had more weight than what I did. It turns out that I should’ve stayed right there and go me 20 or so pounds. I was just afraid to burn up the fish there though.”

Fishing in Barkley, Butcher found the spot Wednesday during practice and decided Saturday to test its durability. “I stayed there for two hours this morning, and for a while it was just every cast,” he said. “It was a lot of fun and had 20 pounds. I just never could cull there – it’s like they’re all cookie-cutters.”

Tomorrow, it’s going to be quite for Terry – which is good for him because he plans to make the most of it. “I’ve got four good spots all to myself, so tomorrow I’m going to grind on this spot until I get 20 pounds,” he said. “I have a few spots that I can cull with, so hopefully I can find a couple of five-pounders and do really good.”

DAY THREE STANDINGS

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