Posted  June 8th, 2008  6:12 pm CST

VanDam's 20 Pound Limit Falls Eight Ounces Short of His 14th BASS Win

Story by Brent Conway - Photos by Mark Jeffreys

Decatur (Flats), AL – The Southern Challenge…the seventh stop of the 2008 Elite Series season at Wheeler Lake which panned out to be more of a horse race. The “challenge” is still there though given Wheeler’s feast and famine record over the past three days, but at Sunday mornings launch it looked like only two anglers stood a real chance at taking home the $100,000 top prize.

More tournaments have been won from a single area of Wheeler than all the rest combined. The area, Decatur Flats, was said to be “off” during practice, and, like everyone else, we believed this to be the case. Come day one and it seems that, as is often the case, a bit of sandbagging was at play.

Yet while some 80 of the 107 anglers were camped out on the flats, only a small handful were able to decipher the subtleties required to excel. 

For the first two days of the contest, despite an admitted “mediocre” practice on the flats, Terry “Big Show” Scroggins seemed to be calling his shots by fishing the outside edges of Decatur. And while he was quick to point out that Wheeler had the ability to take as readily as it gave, he still wasn’t able to shake the “take” Saturday when he came to the scales nearly six pounds off the pace he’d set the first two days. 

KVD - the most dangerous man in professional bass fishing looking to repeat his title of Southern Challenge champion – crossed the stage with his heaviest limit of the week Saturday (and the heaviest of the tournament to date) and was more than happy to steal Big Show’s lead. 

Just one pound seven ounces behind him, however, was third year pro Jeremy Starks who had, with limited fishing mind you (less than 30 casts by his count), managed to pull within striking distance of the lead. To say that Starks had confidence in the speck of water he’d guarded all week would be a glaring understatement.

For the first time all season, the weather was never really a strong factor. Sure, it was hot; summertime in Alabama will do that every time. Without a front or high wind to pin the blame on for the give and take of Wheeler this week, we’ll focus on the lake’s current – which was virtually non-existent Saturday, and painfully slow Sunday.

As an impoundment of the Tennessee River, Wheeler – and its fish – come to rely heavily on the current being pulled through Wheeler dam. History, and conventional wisdom, will tell you that banking on current fish to last through the weekend at Wheeler is tantamount to tournament suicide.

As it turned out, Jeremy Starks’ confidence was well founded and his fish were not too current-dependant and continued to bite enough to eek out the win – his first on the Elite Series. Starks brought 21-5 to the scales on the final day to boost his four-day total weight to 20-0, eclipsing second place by just eight ounces.

Kevin VanDam, in second place, managed 20-0 on Sunday to keep Starks honest, but ultimately his 78-2 over four days wasn’t enough to fend him off.

Ending the week in third was days one and two leader Terry “Big Show” Scroggins, with a four-day total weight of 67-1 after bringing 13-6 to the stage Sunday. John Murray finished his week in fourth place after weighing 15-3 in the last round to boost his four-day total weight to 66-0 overall.

In fifth place, in his first Top 12 cut of the season, was The Alphabet Killer Matthew Sphar who had a four-day combined weight of 65-2 after placing the second-heaviest sack of the day, a final-day limit weighing 21-5, on the scales Sunday. Todd Faircloth rounded out the Super Six by weighing 13-4 Sunday giving him 65-1 in four days. 

1st Place: Jeremy Starks
Talk about a nail-biter, throughout the final weigh-in there was a crescendo of activity leading up to Jeremy Starks’ arrival at the stage. The lead changed hands multiple times throughout the festivities, with VanDam – the leader going into the final day – ahead of Starks. 

With all of the chatter prior to the final day being about Starks’ decision to back away from his best water – a spot that he netted him some 57 pounds of bass – versus milking it Saturday to take the lead defied all login. Starks, however, backed up the smack and stole the win away from VanDam.

“I thought about my defense all night,” an obviously overjoyed Starks admitted. “When you do something like that, and start to hear all of the other anglers second-guessing your decision, you start to question it yourself. I didn’t get a lot of sleep because of that.”

Starks ferociously defended his postage stamp spot all week, but revealed that fishing his way into it on the final day he noticed a local had pulled in to fish…and was putting a large keeper into his live well. “I saw him watching me yesterday,” Starks said. “I waited until he left before I went in and started fishing. I saw him catch several fish, and I seriously thought that the tournament was over at that point.”

By boating four solid keepers quickly from the spot, Starks settled down and realized that the tournament was far from over…then the bite died. “I went probably three hours without a bite,” he said. “I kept wondering if I was going to have to move, but finally they started biting and I was able to cull a couple of times. By the time I left it was a four-pounder on every cast.”

Citing a Berkley 10-inch plum-colored Power Worm as his go-to all week, the West Virginia explained what it was that he’d found. “The good Lord just really blessed me with a good spot this week,” Starks reveled. 

“I’m pretty sure that it’s an old shelf bar, but the real key spot was a where it had a little bend it in. When you hit that deal it was just automatic every single time, but you had to be moving it super slow. The other thing is that they never hit it – your rod would just load up, so you had to be sure that you were caught up with your line before you set the hook because they would just start swimming towards you.”

The decision to back off and hold the spot for three days was equally grueling on his nerves considering Starks could see VanDam – particularly on the final day – from where he was set up. “(Sunday), we were actually sharing the same spectators,” he said. “They would watch me for a while and then move over and start watching him. It was crazy and a lot of fun, but it was really nerve-wracking.”

“When we came into the tournament, everyone was saying that it would take 14 to 15 pounds a day to win,” Starks explained commenting on his decision to play defense rather than go for the win each day. “I had 17 pounds in five casts off my first spot so I just backed off and played defense all week.”

With his first win now solidified, the 35-year old Starks was able to look back at the journey to get to this point. “It’s just an unbelievable experience,” he said. “Anytime you can win a tournament it’s really special, and since I was a kid I’ve dreamed of this moment. Words cannot describe how I feel right now!”

Key to the Win: “I think that Kevin (VanDam) was fishing a little bit deeper than I was, and he was catching them on a reaction bait. I fished for these fish enough – particularly Sunday – that I knew exactly where they were and exactly what it would take to get them to eat. If I would hop the worm they would never pick it up. They were wanting it dragged so slow.”

2nd Place: Kevin VanDam
Kevin VanDam is the consummate competitor. He uses a mediocre day on the water as his fuel, and someone doubting his ability to close a tournament when he’s within striking distance revs his engine to its peak levels. 

With all of the chatter surrounding Starks’ comments, and the ensuing good-natured smack talk, VanDam was intensely focused on the job at had at Sunday’s launch. “I knew that both Jeremy and myself were fired up to go out today and just let it loose,” the Michagan pro revealed. 

While KVD may not have needed additional motivation, he certainly could have used a little cooperation to fend off the hard-charging Starks. “The fishing was a lot tougher for me today than it has been over the week, and I also lost a couple of quality fish that would have helped a little,” he said. 

“All in all, I really had to work for everything I had today, and with the level of competition that’s out here, you really have to bring your “A” game to win.”

VanDam went to his primary bait – a StrikeKing Series 5 in either Sexy Shad or Chartreuse – to trigger reaction strikes through a slough of spots. But his primary spot on the river edge outside of the flats was special. “You had to make a lot of cast to get them fired up – it was just typical structure fishing,” he said, pointing out that while he would rapid-fire baits to trigger a strike, slowing down once he caught one was critical.

“You know that I’ve got a pretty good spot if I’ll drag like that. In all of my career, this one will rank top five in terms of finding that magical spot like I did here. It’s just amazing to be able to do that.”

Regardless of flow levels, VanDam explained that anytime you’re fishing a river system, the outside edges of the channel breaks are generally more productive and less susceptible to changes in current. “It’s just were most of the bait is at because of the oxygen content that’s generated when they’re pulling water,” he said.

Ultimately, VanDam is happy for Starks and what he was able to accomplish this week; however, he said that successfully defending his Southern Challenge title would have been awesome. “I wanted to win this one real bad,” he said. “Anytime you can get yourself in contention on the final day you just have to cherish it because it’s so hard (to win) at this level.

“If I did anything wrong it was in maybe playing it too safe yesterday, but that’s a chance you take when you’re trying to manage fish. I didn’t lose…I just got beat straight up.”

3rd Place: Terry Scroggins
Terry Scroggins earned the nickname “Big Show” by time and again being able to haul in astounding weights, and for two days he did just that. However, the heavy pressure that his water received over the course of the first two days was ultimately too much. “I went to my best spot this morning right off,” Scroggins explained. 

“I caught 30 or 40 fish off of it, but wasn’t able to get any big ones. That’s just how the last two days have gone.”

For the first two days, Scroggins caught his fish on a Booyah Pig Skin football jig. “I shared my water the first two days with Kevin (Wirth),” Scroggins said. “I think that was the difference, but after the second day the jig wouldn’t work for me any more. They would bite at it, but they wouldn’t commit to taking it.”

Scroggins was able to pick up a plum-colored 10-inch YUM Big Show paddle tail worm to catch a limit each of the next two days, but the quality was gone and his 100-fish days were a memory. “I guess we just hurt the area too bad because I finally ran out of fish,” he said. 

Scroggins conceded that by the end of the week, the areas he’d pounded – regardless of how good they were – had been abused beyond the point of a 24-hour recovery period. “I had some really good shell banks on the river channel that were just holding tons of fish, but not enough for four days as it turns out,” he said.

Scroggins estimates that he caught and released over 200 bass during the week, and adds that anytime you’re able to do that, life it good. “My hands are just shredded right now,” he added. “You can’t complain when the fishing is as good as it’s been this week. It was just unbelievable.”

4th Place: John Murray
John Murray hasn’t had the type of year that he’d hoped for. In fact, in six tournaments, the Arizona pro had failed to make a Top 12 cut. Things began to turn around at Murray where he cashed his first check of the year, and with a solid finish this week at Wheeler, things seem to be coming back into focus.

“I needed to have a good finish this week to have a hope of qualifying for the Classic,” Murray said. “Fortunately I did, but I’ve still got a lot of ground to make up and I’m really going to have to have some strong tournaments in each of the next four to get there.”

Murray explained that like most of the other anglers in the field this week, Decatur Flats was where he spent his time. By either ripping or dragging a Yamamoto ¾-ounce football jig he was able to identify some key depressions along the river channel where bigger fish were concentrated though rather than playing bumper boats in the shallows. 

“The key is finding the depressions along the riverbed where big fish held,” he said. “I never figured out why bigger fish would hold in certain shell beds, but if they were there they’d eat it.”

So good were these key depressions in fact, that Murray revealed getting a limit was almost an assumption, but getting consistent quality he brought to the scales each day of the event took some doing. “You had no problem catching a limit of fish this week,” he told the BASS ZONE. “In fact, it took me eight minutes this morning to catch a limit. 

“As the day would wear on though, it would get tough, and I really had to grind to cull up to what I brought in every day.”

In hindsight, about the only thing Murray would change it fish management. “I didn’t gauge the areas right because they were reloading a lot better than what I thought initially,” he said. “I probably should have pressed a little harder the first day instead of catching a limit and leaving.”

5th Place: Matt Sphar
New York pro Matt Sphar is having a fairly solid season. He’s been painfully close to making a Top 12 cut twice (Amistad and Murray), but wasn’t able to do so until this week at Wheeler. 

As Sphar pointed out, it almost didn’t happen this week. “I had a pretty tough practice and couldn’t make up my mind on what I wanted to do,” he said. “I was able to figure out what everyone else was doing and kept working the channel edges and bettered myself everyday.”

Getting honed into what was going on was brutally tough for Sphar, who ended the first day in 92nd place. “I absolutely floundered during practice and the first day, but was able to put it all together in the end,” he said, pointing out that he as finally able to regroup and decipher what he’d found.

“I found a key spot out on the flats that was just holding giants,” Sphar said. “I found it a little too late to really be a threat, but I’m glad I found it when I did.”

Sphar gradually figured out where he needed to be in relation to the grass-covered flat in order to make the most of his time. By throwing a ½ ounce Carolina rig tipped with a 10-inch green pumpkin Berkley Power Worm. “It took me well into Friday before I got it dialed in,” he revealed. “Finally Saturday I got into an area where the females were just wadded up pretty good, and I was able to go back in there again Sunday and do the same thing.”

In hindsight, seeing as this was the first time Sphar had ever seen the lake, he has no regrets. “I ran out of fish in the end, but considering where I started, I can’t complain at all,” he said. “I got lucky finding those fish the second day, but I credit it to just keeping an open mind. So I’m not looking back thinking I should have go on those fish the first day.”

6th Place: Todd Faircloth
Todd Faircloth is having the kind of season that you dream of. Leading the Toyota Tundra Angler of the Year race, and winning at Amistad, he once again found himself in contention on the final day this week at Wheeler. The humble Texas pro concedes that it’s really all about going with his instincts. 

“I knew coming in that I was going to fish the flats,” he said. “I knew that there would be so many boats in there, so I told myself going out that I was going to stop on the first spot that didn’t have another boat on it where I’d logged a waypoint.”

As it turned out, that first spot would yield him a Top 12 finish, and the tournament’s big bass. “I never really did anything different than anyone else all week,” he said, “but I just got better bites (than the competitors) around me did.” 

Fishing sweet spots in and around grass and shell beds on the flats with a Carolina-rigged Yamamoto Hula grub, Faircloth credits the first and third day as being instrumental in keeping him in the race. “I got several quality bites those two days,” he said. “I don’t really know what the deal was and why on those two days the bigger fish just bit. I never figured out it if was a timing deal or what, but it was really frustrating.”

“It was kind of strange,” Faircloth added while commenting of the on again, off again nature of Wheeler. “I spent all my time during practice and during the tournament fishing the flats. When you get a bite, you have to know that there’s a reason for it. When I would try to pick it apart, aside from the obvious shell beds or grass, I never could pinpoint exactly what was there and why they were so sporadic.” 

Allowing himself a brief amount of reflection, the points leader suggested that aside from spending more time around grass, there wasn’t much more he could do. “It was a really good week,:” Faircloth said, “but I sure could have used a few more big ones Friday to get me into the lead.”

Week in Review: “I love fishing in Alabama. I had a really good time this week. I like fishing the Tennessee River system and always seem to do really well.”

8th Place: Matt Reed
Final-Day Thoughts: “I really struggled today. I just couldn’t catch a big one, and think that I just ran out of fish. I caught a lot of fish but only had one four-pounder in a sack of swimmers.”

9th Place: Corey Waldrop
Final-Day Thoughts: “This is my first Top 12, so my mind was just everywhere this morning. Normally I had a limit within the first 15 minutes, but today it took me about two hours to get a bite. I knew that I needed a big bag, so I fished today primarily for big bites.”

10th Place: Shaw Grigsby
Final-Day Thoughts: I had so much ground to make up, and I never let up. The Lord blessed me with a couple of quality bites, that I could have used Saturday, and I managed to have a really good day.

11th Place: Kotaro Kiriyama
Final-Day Thoughts: I think we’ve caught almost all the fish in the area. The fishing was very tough for me today without any wind or current.

12th Place: Mark Menendez
Final-Day Thoughts: It was real slow today. I only caught a hundred or so. Wehen I got to my primary, there was just such a big Mayfly hatch going on that I couldn’t fish my crankbait effectively. I ultimately had to pick up a StrikeKing worm to get my limit.

Bait of Choice: StrikeKing Series 5

Biggest Challenge: You just had to wade through so many fish this week to cull up to a decent bag.

Key to the Week: I just ground it out with a (StrikeKing) Series 5 all week. I had also found a few key shell beds that were able to produce better quality.

Week in Review: Wheeler has been tough on me, but in the past, Alabama has been so good to me and I’ve just had a blessed week and a really good tournament.
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FINAL STANDINGS

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