Posted  March 16h, 2008  5:20 pm CST

KVD Earns Third Elite Series Win and 13th BASS Victory

Story by Brent Conway - Photo by Mark Jeffreys

Lake Wales, FL – It seems that with each tournament there’s a potential spoiler. All that you have to do is look back at the annals of BASS and it’s all there for an easy read. While it has be been said too many times to count, there isn’t a more likely spoiler than Kevin VanDam. You do not want him hanging around the top heading into the final day because chances are you’ll be fishing for second.

The Citrus Slam lived up to all expectations with anglers bringing in some giants over the first two days of the contest. As the week wore on though, the need to catch the elusive kicker became all-the-more apparent. If you were successful in nabbing a heavy female, you stood a chance of moving up. If not, you just moved on.

With bedding bass being a factor early on in the week, at the close of the third day it was clear that the sight bite had all but died. Instead of lookers, it was grinders – particularly those who could mount a run-and-gun offense that looked tough to beat. However, as the final day unfolded, the final few hours of fishing was hot and the fishing - as it had in the waning moments of each tournament day all week – began to heat up.  That was the situation that the remaining 12 Elites found themselves in as they departed Camp Mack Sunday morning for the final day of fishing at the second stop of the 2008 Elite Series tour at the Kissimmee Chain. The man in black had a bulls-eye on his back – but it’s a position that he’s comfortable being in on the final day. With the warmest night of the week occurring on Saturday night, it stood to reason that the fishing would be lights out Sunday. However, with winds beating some of the best water to shreds, the day was anything but easy allowing Kevin VanDam to cross the stage for the final weigh-in unscathed chalking up his 13th BASS win – his third Elite Series win in two years.  KVD weighed 10-6 on the final day of fishing, giving him a total four-day weight of 59-7. While it certainly wasn’t easy, the two-pound cushion that KVD had on second place finisher Ray Sedgwick held true as Sedgwick’s five best, which weighed 11-8, pushed him to within a pound-and-a-half of victory with 57-12 in four days.

In third place, after hanging around the top all week was Arkansas pro Scott Rook. Rook brought 9-7 to the scales Sunday – his lightest limit of the week – which gave him 56-7 overall. 

Moving up three spots to finish in fourth place was Kenyon Hill, who had 54-2 in four days after bringing 11-2 to the final weigh-in. Bill Lowen held down the fifth-place spot with a total four-day weight of 53-3, after bringing in his lightest bag of the week Sunday weighing just 8-7.

Rounding out the Super Six was reigning Classic champion Alton Jones, who brought 11-1 to the weigh-in stage Sunday, ending his tournament with a total weight of 52-10. 

1st Place: Kevin VanDam
With a practice that was anything but stellar, Kevin VanDam hoped to just be competitive this week. After ending the fist day inside the top 10 in eighth place, it seemed that his hopes would be justified. Taking control of the tournament Saturday, VanDam was able to power-fish his way to victory – his first-ever win in Florida.

“Florida has always been sort of bittersweet for me over the years,” VanDam explained. “The one thing that I’ve learned over the years is that I have to be fishing my strengths in order to be comfortable. I’ve learned that I can fish that way down here, but finding the right water is key.”

The water that he found was in the main-lake of Toho, and VanDam rode a StrikeKing Red-Eye Shad all week long for the bulk majority of his weight. ““I’m real fortunate that I didn’t lose and fish this week” VanDam explained. 

“That was key because if I’d lost one quality fish I wouldn’t have won. That adds a lot of merit to the time that I’ve spent on my rod, reel, line, and hook set-up. I’ve really spent a lot of time on getting that set up right.”

With the overnight warmth, VanDam was sure that the day’s fishing would be the best of the week – and the morning may well have been; however, he wasn’t able to take advantage of prime-time. “As far as I had to run, it was two hours after daylight before I was able to make my first cast,” he said. 

“The conditions first thing this morning would have been key the way that it had slicked off, but I was locking and running trying to get there.”

Going against the grain by power-fishing in Florida as opposed to dead-sticking a Senko or dragging a trick worm, KVD simply refused to conform…and it paid off. “It was just one of those things that you had to work real hard and be precise with your casts,” he said. “For some reason they were holding so tight to the hydrilla that if you missed by half-a-foot you’d never get bit.”

With his best fishing ever in Florida, KVD allowed that conditions this week – more so than at any other time – favored his style. “This is the first time in quite some time that there has been water movement throughout the chain,” he said. “But the big thing that changes it is the wind direction.”

“I tried to focus on the edges of grass that had wind blowing against it,” VanDam added. “I would rip it out of the grass, and nearly 100% of my fish would bite either on the fall as it fluttered down, or just as I would rip it out of the grass.”

Key to the Win: “Without a doubt, it was sticking with what works for me. You just have to fish so slow down here, and that is not my strength. However, you can fish fast and get the reaction bites if you in the right areas with the right conditions. What I was able to find, and the conditions that I had on the final day, just worked perfectly for me to be able to move a bait.”

2nd Place: Ray Sedgwick
A journeyman pro, Ray Sedgwick has competed in over 150 BASS tournaments in a career that has spanned over a decade; however, a second place at the Citrus Slam is the best finish he’s posted in Elite Series competition. “I had no clue I would be where I finished,” Sedgwick revealed. 

“In practice, I could catch 50 fish and not have one of them be better than two pounds, so I was thinking that eight pounds would be the best bag I could muster.” 

Coming out of the gaits with over 17-and-a-half pounds, Ray was consistently able to get the right bite at the right time…until Sunday. “I was really hoping to be able to come from behind and win this thing today,” he said. “I never got a big bite today though.

“I think I lost a four pounder – and that would have made a little difference – but I just never got hooked up with a quality kicker. In the end, that’s what cost me.”

In the end, a win would have been great, but a solid finish in the second tournament is a great cancellation. “I had a good week and did a lot better than what I expected to do after the practice that I had,” he said. “After I caught a couple of big fish on the first day, it really forced me to slow down. Otherwise I might have missed the whole deal.”

While he didn’t know at the time that the area he’d found would produce as well as it did, looking back Rook wonders just how far it might have taken him had it been all his. “I think if I would’ve had the water I was in to myself, I definitely would’ve had the fish to win with,” he said.”

Out of options, and knowing that that fish were all but spent, Rook headed back to the area for one last foray and hoped for the best. “I went back to the only spot I had knowing that there weren’t a lot of fish left,” he said. “I was able to hammer out five, and the only difference was that I never got a kicker bite.”

4th Place: Kenyon Hill
Florida has historically been very kind to Kenyon Hill. This week, it was like family; however, the final day left him a little at a loss. “I was actually kind of disappointed,” Hill shared. “I got up this morning, and it was just so hot, so I really thought I would have the conditions to catch over 20 pounds. 

5th Place: Bill Lowen
While most of the Elite Series field is ready to head to Texas, Bill Lowen might be one of the few who would like to hang around for another day given the finishes of his last two tournaments. “It’s been a good two weeks, and Florida is usually pretty rough on me,” he said. “I don’t know why, but for some reason it’s clicked for me this week.”

While the week may have “clicked” for Lowen, Sunday more-or-less just sputtered. “Today was just horrible,” he shared. “My best area – about a 1,000-yard stretch – was just solid mud. I wound up scrambling around and caught my fish out of one little hydrilla bed. That’s about the extent of anticlimactic in a way.”

While many in the 12-man field were excited about the prospects the night’s warmth would bring Sunday, Lowen was concerned that the winds would be the death nail. “I was nervous about this one this morning,” he explained. “I guess I was worried for the right reasons because I had to scrap everything that I had.”

Lowen was forced to abandon a strong bite on a swimming jig – one that had been stable and predictable all week – in search of whatever he could find that might bite. “It’s hard to abandon your pattern and just go fishing,” he said. “That’s what I had to do on the final day, and it was tough.”

6th Place: Alton Jones
Final-Day Thoughts: “It was a tough day today. I didn’t have as many bites as I’ve been having during the week. Quality today was a struggle, so I culled a bunch.”

Bait of Choice: YUM Buzz Frog primarily/YUM Beaver as a follow-up

Biggest Challenge: “When you hook a fish on the end of a long cast it’s tough to get it to the boat. I lost a few fish, but it sure was fun to see a four-pounder flush it on the end of those long casts.”

Key to the Week: “Having the equipment I needed to maximize my casting distance. All the bites I made came on the very end of my cast.

Week in Review: “It’s been a fun week. I got 70 bites the first day and 30 to 40 bites each day the rest of the week. Today was the slowest and I still got probably 25 bites.”

7th Place: Bobby Lane
Final-Day Thoughts: “I struggled some this morning, but ran to some new water and caught the big fish. I didn’t catch my fifth fish until after 2:00.”

Bait of Choice: Frog

Biggest Challenge: “The fish are scattered, so it was tough to really get much of anything figured out from one day to the next.”

Key to the Week: “The frog was the key to my week. I could pick a bank and just wing that frog and know that I would be able to pick up a limit.”

Week in Review: “I had some missed opportunities the second day, but we’re really here a little too early to get a consistent bite going. In another three or four weeks this place is just going to be outstanding.”

8th Place: Bryan Hudgins
Final-Day Thoughts: “Today was a really bad good day. I didn’t get bit in my best spot at all, but wound up locking out of Toho and catching six fish. So I was able to make the most of a bad situation.”

Biggest Challenge: “I kind of screwed up the second day, but wound up looking for some new stuff as a result. It worked out pretty good in the end.”

Key to the Week: “Just keeping up the grind. You couldn’t let yourself get down.”

Week in Review: “I had a really good week. This is just how Florida fishing is – you can have 20 pounds one week and blank the next day. That’s just how it is.”

9th Place: Kelly Jordon
Final-Day Thoughts: “I went into Toho and just decided to commit to the frog. I really thought that it was going to be a blood-bath today, but it didn’t work out that way.”

Biggest Challenge: “Staying consistent.” 

Key to the Week: “I knew that I wouldn’t be able to win by sight fishing, but I thought that the frog bite that I had as a back-up would be able to keep me in contention.”

Week in Review: “I basically ran out of fish. My number one tactic was bed fishing, and thought that I had the frog bite dialed in pretty well. I tried to run that yesterday and didn’t even have one swirl on it. I had a great tournament though. To end up in the top 12 after blanking a day is really a testament to the fishery.”

10th Place: Terry Scroggins
Final-Day Thoughts: “I went to try and catch some big fish today, but it just didn’t happen. I wound up going to my limit spot to just get five. I knew that all of my sight-fish would be gone today after Kelly (Jordon) struggled yesterday. I went back in there today and checked, and sure enough they were all done.”

Biggest Challenge: “Repeating from one day to the next. There wasn’t any consistency, but that’s just kind of how it is this time of year.”

Week in Review: “I think we’re in the ‘in between’ phase right now. The fish are coming off the spawn and they just haven’t gotten to where they need to be.” 

11th Place: Jeff Reynolds
Final-Day Thoughts: “I have thrown that Chatter bait all week, and I’m just worn out. I’m going to praise the Lord when I have a good day, and I’ll praise Him when I don’t. Either way, I did the best I could.”

Bait of Choice: Chatterbait; Zoom Speed Worm

Biggest Challenge: “I never could go back to the same spot and repeat the day before.

Week in Review: “I am tickled to death with how I finished the week, but really just wish that I could have had a better final couple of days.”

12th Place: Rick Morris
Final-Day Thoughts: “I went back to a primary area that I’ve been in all week, but with the wind from yesterday, it was just too muddy. At 12:00, I felt like I was about to blank, so I ran all the way down the Kissimmee river and had a big fish just crush a swimbait, but didn’t hook up. That fish would’ve made a lot of difference.”

Week in Review: “All in all, it was just a great week.”

FINAL STANDINGS

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