Kevin Van Dam is Angler of the Year Again.

Somehow I missed the fact that Elite Series Angler of the Year race final 2 tournament days were on Thurs. and Fri.

Congratulations to KVD for pulling it out. I didn't think this was going to be his year.

Skeets to Lose

The first Elite Series Angler of the Year "playoff" tournament is done and Skeet is in the drivers seat. He hasn't Vblogged about the situation.

Elite Series Oneida Day Final

OK I'm a little late with this, so what. The big news is that rookie Chad Griffin holds on for the win. Congratulations to him. Between the choice of Rookie of the Year or winning and Elite Series Tournament, I think you would have to go with winning the tournament.

Here is the Top 12 that will compete in the Angler of the Year Playoff.
1. Kevin VanDam: 205
2. Skeet Reese: 204
3. Alton Jones: 198
4. Kelly Jordon: 182
5. Todd Faircloth: 180
6. Randy Howell: 180
7. Tommy Biffle: 180
8. Mark Menendez: 180
9. Gary Klein: 179
10. Cliff Pace: 177
11. Mike Iaconelli: 175
12. Gerald Swindle: 174

I wasn't sure after Ike's choke at Oneida that he was going to make it. I thought he would but knew it would be close.

Elite Series Oneida Day 3

The Griffin looks like he is going to win. BassFan reported that this will be only his second bass tournament victory ever. I wonder if that is excluding club/small field tournaments? Surely he has won some of those.

I have not yet heard if the Top 12 for the Elite Series AOY Post-Season has been finalized. Had it been the normal AOY race than I believe Skeet Reese would have slightly edged out KVD. 2009 has been a banner year for Skeet. I should check his voice blogs more often(Apparently he hasn't really been keeping up until now.).

Elite Series Oneida Day 2

Chad who?

Chad Griffin, a rookie, took the lead today. I can't recall EVER seeing his name before.

Here is the Top 12
1 Chad Griffin 5 15- 3 5 18- 8 10 33-11
2 Bernie Schultz 5 15- 7 5 16-12 10 32- 3
3 Jason Quinn 5 15- 7 5 16- 5 10 31-12
4 Randy Howell 5 17- 9 5 13- 8 10 31- 1
5 Greg Hackney 5 13- 7 5 17- 4 10 30-11
6 Dean Rojas 5 14- 8 5 15-15 10 30- 7
7 Takahiro Omori 5 16-11 5 13- 4 10 29-15
8 Pete Ponds 5 15- 9 5 14- 3 10 29-12
9 Matthew Sphar 5 12- 1 5 17- 9 10 29-10
10 Terry Butcher 5 15- 6 5 14- 1 10 29- 7
11 Jeff Kriet 5 13-12 5 15- 9 10 29- 5
12 John Crews 5 14- 0 5 15- 2 10 29- 2

Huge surprise is that Ike didn't make the 50 cut.

Another thing I noticed was that all 98 anglers got a limit both days. Lowen and Lane had their fish DQed and that's why they have 0's on Day 1.

I have now looked it up and my Fantasy Team is:
KVD 33rd
Skeet 17th
Herren 76th
Fralick 74th
Hackney 5th

Mediocrity reins again.

Elite Series Lake Oneida Day 1 (Yesterday)

So this is the last stop of 2009 for the top levels of Professional Bass Tournament Fishing. Who's on my fantasy team anyway?

I know I've got KVD, Skeet, and Herren, but I don't recall my other two.

Anyway Randy Howell who is having a good year was tops on Day 1 with 17-9.

Bobby Lane and Bill Lowen both made the mistake of boxing 6 fish then throwing the extra fish back when they realised the mistake which resulted in a DQ for the day for both of them. It's unclear whether or not if they would have brought 6 back to the weigh in if a DQ would have resulted. Under BASS rules when a fisherman brings back to many the biggest fish gets culled until you reach the tournament limit of 5 and then those fish are weighed. However, the NY limit is 5 bass, so having 6 in possession might put them over the limit if the Marshal doesn't have a fishing licence. I would think a Marshal with a fishing licence would make it a case where the boat could legally hold 10 bass.

Anyway, it's a mistake that should never happen. If you only carry enough culling tags for your limit and then always immediately tag fish that are going in the live well, there is no way to get your numbers in the livewell wrong because to cull you have to take a fish off a tag to put a new fish in the well. Simple/Easy.

Elite Series River Rumble Day 2

Basstrakk appears to be working so you can get unofficial weights today for the Top 11 in the Angler of the Year race. From today it looks like Randy Howell continues to catch quality sized fish and Skeet Reese looks to jump up in the standings.

Today on Bass Cast you can watch video of Matt Herren and Greg Vinson...

Elite Series Mississippi River Don't Miss!!!

Carl's Bassackwards Fishing Blog's Carl Spande is a Marshal at this weeks Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on the Mississippi River and he is blogging it.

His first day pairing is with Guy Eaker

Elite Series Kentucky Lake Day Final Liveblogging the Leaderboard

With a 10lb lead going into today it is pretty much a foregone conclusion that Bobby Lane is going to win the tournament. However whether Bobby will beat 100lbs and who finishes ahead of who with KVD and Skeet are matters of some interest. I really have nothing else to do, so I am going to liveblog the results as they come in on the leaderboard.

So far
Roumbanis 13-5
Kriet 15-10
Swindle 19-4
KJ 20-15
Steve Kennedy 23-14 (He would have been on my fantasy squad had I changed my line up)
Rick Morris 22-11

Waiting on Britt Myers...
Looks like the live leaderboard is stuck cause it's taking longer than it should.

It's almost 5PM Central and I assume the weigh in is now over, but things are still stuck on Britt Myers. ESPN does a bang up job once again!

Elite Series Guntersville Day Final Liveblogged

The Hunt for the Century Club:
Kevin Wirth weighs 29-3 and I believe breaks the 100lb barrier. Yes he does 102-3!!!

Menendez weighs 20-14 and comes up a little short of the century mark, which he really wanted to hit.

Byron weighs 18-1 and comes up short of 100.

Martens stumbles with 19-15, but that is more than enough with 107-8 and Martens wins!!!

Fralick only catches 17-7 and is well short of 100.

Ouch, Alton only weighs 12-11, doesn't break 90.

Reed and Faircloth have also come up short at this point.

Skeet sacks 27-11 for a total of 104-4 and he takes the lead.

McClelland weighs 17-00 and comes up short at 94-4. Hardly a surprise as Mike has been running out of steam.

IKE just makes it with 101-1. He had 20-15 for the day.

Stone weighs 18-8 and comes up short at 99-5.

Will Martens choke and Skeet walk through the door? He only needs 16-12.

Man are they dragging this out! Weigh the fish already!

Martens stumbles with 19-15, but his 107-8 takes it, Martens Wins!!!

Elite Series Guntersville Day 2 Liveblogged

Bass Trak is working for KVD, Faircloth, Short, Pace, and Herren...
I think it is probably a given that Faircloth does indeed have a drop in weight for the day but KVD could easily have more than Bass Trakk is letting on.

Weigh in started:
For some reason Mark Tucker who was last to weigh in yesterday was not the 1st to weigh in today. I was a bit worried but I now see his name in the queue, so it's all good. With 10 weighed it looks like the fishing was excellent again today with 5 of the bags being 25lbs plus.

KVD only weighs 23-7, not good! Meanwhile Evers sacked 26-5, the schmuck!

IKE sacks 27-5 for the 2nd straight day and takes the lead. How impossible is it to catch two 27-5 bags in a row. The odds on that have to be mind blowing.

Ahhh the dogs went nuts and we had a doggy visitor from next store. As I was bringing the little guy home I stepped in a big pile of dog crap. NICE! At least I didn't collect any ticks.

Boyd Duckett takes a tumble ONLY 17-12 will 43-15 be enough to make the cut? I think it will.

Mark Tucker on weighs 17-8. This fantasy pick is a bust! FYI- It was Hellabass that tipped me off on this one. He is going down with the ship too.

Egads, just picked a little tick off me, pretty good chance it was a Deer Tick. After a much more thourough inspection I didn't find any more. The little bugger must have jumped me from a tree.

Tim Horton 15-13 Ouch, my fantasy team is taking it on the chin.

Skeet weighs a respectable 24-14 and will be my top guy, both he and KVD will have a shot at the 12 cut with good bags tomorrow. I have 3 guys outside the 50 cut, that is a disaster!

Martens Sacks 29+ again and takes the lead by an ounce short of a pound and a half.

Here is my pathetic Fantasy Line Up after Day 2
Skeet 14th
KVD 18th
Horton 58th
M. Tucker 69th
Herren 84th

Here is where the 12 cut sits:
1 Aaron Martens 5 29- 2 5 29-12 10 58-14
2 Mike McClelland 5 30-10 5 26-13 10 57- 7
3 Todd Faircloth 5 31- 0 5 24-15 10 55-15
4 Byron Velvick 5 29- 4 5 25-14 10 55- 2
5 Michael Iaconelli 5 27- 5 5 27- 5 10 54-10
6 Rick Clunn 5 25-14 5 26- 0 10 51-14
7 Alton Jones 5 28-12 5 22-15 10 51-11
8 Kevin Wirth 5 24- 6 5 27- 4 10 51-10
9 Jami Fralick 5 26-11 5 24-11 10 51- 6
10 Mark Menendez 5 24- 7 5 26-12 10 51- 3
11 Edwin Evers 5 24-12 5 26- 5 10 51- 1
12 Marty Stone 5 26-15 5 23-13 10 50-12

Looks like I made a huge mistake with Evers. I will keep Horton for Kentucky Lake however.

2nd Guessing Aaron Martens

Normally it is kind of hard to 2nd guess the decisions of a Tour level pro, especially when they have a good day, but Aaron Martens did something inexplicable on Guntersville Day 1 that is ripe for some armchair quarterbacking.

Here is what BassFan reported:
His marshal had him down for 137 fish. He said about 80 of those were keepers and 60 or so weighed at least 3-pounds. And here's the biggie – he culled at least a dozen 5-pounders.


Under the circumstances I just do not think trying to cull up when he had at least 25 pounds in the well was good decision making. How can you just throw away 25+ pounds of fish in a 4 day tournament?

Caveat: We might not have the whole story. Maybe Aaron was sacking fish in a quest to find new stuff and was just popping fish no matter where he went. If so it is a little more excuseable.

We will soon see if Martens maddness matters or not.

Update: Martens weighs 29-12 on Day 2 and takes the lead. He must be on an insane good pattern.

Elite Series Guntersville Day 1 Liveblogged

I did put a fantasy team together last night. I decided to drop Edwin Evers because he just is not having that good of a season. I also dropped John Murray who was kind of a throw away pick from Smith Mountain.

My Fantasy Line UP:
KVD
SKEET
Tim Horton
Mark Tucker
Matt Herren

I have had Herren since the beginning and he is turning out to be the bargin pick of the year. I think he nows goes for $2 over what I have him locked in as.

Once again Bass Trak does not appear to be working...

On Bass Cast they have KVD and Skeet. I think I'll have to watch.

Wow 3 bags weighed, all over 25lbs!!!

Yes Skeet with a 25lb string.

Faircloth in the lead with 31lbs
McClellend Jacks 30-10
Byron in 3rd with 29-4
Martens in 4th with 29-2
Ken Cook with 29-2

Uh-Oh Herren with only 14lbs. That is going to be a lot of ground to make up for the 50 cut. With 64 anglers weighed there are 39, 20lb+ strings.

Horton puts in a respectable 24-1 but Edwin Evers who I dropped laid down 24-12, it's Day 1, this means Jack Squat!

KVD 25-9 which should have him in the Top 20.

Looks like Mark Tucker weighs last.

Pre-tournament favorite Ike weighs 27-5 which will have him in the Top 10.

Just noticed Skeet and KVD have the same weight.

Tucker weighs a mediocre 20-6 which puts him in 57th

So here is my Day 1 Fantasy Team Results
KVD 15th
Skeet 15rh
Horton 23rd
Tucker 57th
Herren 94th

Not exactly a great start.

Here is the Day 1 Top 12
1 Todd Faircloth 5 31- 0 5 31- 0
2 Mike McClelland 5 30-10 5 30-10
3 Byron Velvick 5 29- 4 5 29- 4
4 Ken D Cook 5 29- 2 5 29- 2
4 Aaron Martens 5 29- 2 5 29- 2
6 Alton Jones 5 28-12 5 28-12
7 Michael Iaconelli 5 27- 5 5 27- 5
8 Marty Stone 5 26-15 5 26-15
9 Mark Davis 5 26-14 5 26-14
10 Jami Fralick 5 26-11 5 26-11
11 Boyd Duckett 5 26- 3 5 26- 3
12 Rick Clunn 5 25-14 5 25-14


I contemplated going with Davis and Martens.

Elite Series Smith Mountain Day Final

Today on Bass Cast you can watch Byron and Shaw Grigsby.

Bass Trakk does not appear to be operable today even though you can view the scoresheet.

Update: Kevin Van Dam wins yet again!!! The machine is a killer machine.

BASS Elite Series Smith Mountain Lake

While I was asleep at the switch, it appears that BASS Trakk is finally working for once and so is Bass Cast.

Today KVD and Right Said Fred Roumbanis are the guys with Bass Cast.

Update: According to Bass Trakk KVD is going to be on top after today. That will garner him some very valuable bonus AOY points and he will be that much closer to yet another win. Kevin Van Damage.

Here is the official Top 12:
1 Kevin VanDam 5 15- 7 5 17- 2 5 15- 6 15 47-15
2 Matt Herren 5 17-11 5 11-12 5 15- 0 15 44- 7
3 Kelly Jordon 5 20- 9 5 11- 1 5 12-11 15 44- 5
4 Dean Rojas 5 18- 7 5 11- 9 5 13- 7 15 43- 7
5 Greg Hackney 5 13-13 5 14- 0 5 14- 1 15 41-14
6 Matthew Sphar 5 17-13 5 12-13 5 10-15 15 41- 9
7 Shaw E Grigsby 5 15- 2 5 13-15 5 12- 7 15 41- 8
8 Byron Velvick 5 13- 5 5 14-14 5 13- 5 15 41- 8
9 James Niggemeyer 5 12- 8 5 12- 4 5 16- 5 15 41- 1
10 Jeff Connella 5 11- 9 5 14- 3 5 15- 4 15 41- 0
11 Skeet Reese 5 13- 3 5 11- 4 5 15-13 15 40- 4
12 Aaron Martens 5 14- 2 5 16-11 5 9- 3 15 40- 0

With the fact that somebody could catch a 20lb+ sack, this one is a horse race and KVD is far from a sure thing. Big Bass today was 7-2, so there is the possibility of some real bruisers.

Fantasy Bass Fishing Notes: I landed KVD, Herren, and Skeet in the Top 12 Cut which is probably true of a lot of people. Murray choked the last two days and Evers finished a disappointing 84th. I don't know if Evers is a sight guy or not, but he is not having the year I expected him too. I think I am still going to keep him for Guntersville and hope for a rally.

FLW Norman, Elite Series Smith Mountain Day 1

Day 1 was yesterday and I didn't blog anything because as we all know Day 1 means JACK SQUAT!

However, it is nice to see Jim Moynagh near the top at Norman again. I really hope he can make the cut and bring it home. Go Jim!!!

Update: Jim made the cut in 9th place. Why was he not on my fantasy team?????????????? I didn't go with either guy who made the 2 previous Norman cuts and they, Moynagh and Pugh, both made the cut.

Elite Series Smith Mountain Lake Fantasy Bass Fishing

Get those rosters finalized as the tournament starts tommorrow.

Personally I dropped Gerald Swindle who sucked at Wheeler and went with John Murray. Murray is from the West and used to fishing clear water and finesse fishing, so I thought he was a good choice.

So my line up is:
KVD
Skeet
Evers
Murray
Herren

Elite Series Wheeler Day 4 Part 2

Day 4 is in the books and it was not a good day for the fantasy squad. Yesterday I said I didn't mind that they let 50 anglers fish today because I thought my fantasy line up had more upside than downside, but it just didn't work out that way. I was worried about Evers dropping. He weighed one of the lightest bags of the day and dropped 18 places which is just going to be a killer with Fantasy Points. Meanwhile Kevin Van Dam didn't improve much and Herren dropped 8 places. The only bright spot was Skeet who climed 21 places but I don't think that even negated all the points lost on the Evers fumble.

Looks like they are not going to try and fish tommorrow so Biffle is the winner.

Here are the Top 12
1 Tommy Biffle 5 16- 2 5 19-14 5 14-13 15 50-13
2 Casey Ashley 5 12-11 5 13-14 5 19-11 15 46- 4
3 Takahiro Omori 5 17- 8 5 16- 1 5 12- 1 15 45-10
4 Brent Chapman 5 13-10 5 13- 0 5 18-10 15 45- 4
5 Michael Iaconelli 5 17- 1 5 12-12 5 15- 6 15 45- 3
6 Bradley Hallman 5 13- 1 5 17-13 5 13-15 15 44-13
7 Mark Tucker 5 11- 9 5 18- 7 5 12-15 15 42-15
8 Mark Menendez 5 16- 1 5 11- 0 5 15- 7 15 42- 8
9 Todd Faircloth 5 14-15 5 14-14 5 12- 6 15 42- 3
10 Stephen Browning 5 11-11 5 16- 4 5 14- 0 15 41-15
11 Gary Klein 5 14- 0 5 14- 3 5 13- 2 15 41- 5

I would guess Browning, Klein, and Menendez are going to move to the head of the class in AOY points. Maybe Klein isn't such a fantasy raw deal after all.

Elite Series Wheeler Day 4 Part 1

The Marshal Journals are something that I found interesting. Basically a couple of Marshals are writing about their experience. One is with Guy Eaker and John Murray.

The Marshal Program: I have a couple of things I want to say about the Marshal Program. Apparently at Wheeler lake they were only able to get 81 Marshals for the 100 boat field. I don't know if they were short at Amistad or Dardanelle but I think it is a sad commentary that they are short and my guess is that if this is the case at one event, it will happen at others.

Apparently Kevin Van Dam did not have a Marshal in the boat on Day 1. There is something seriously wrong with the program when there is not a guarentee that a Marshal will be in the boats of the premier stars of the sport. It's ludicrous that a Marshal missed the chance to fish with Van Dam and had to ride with some rookie instead. I think the big name anglers should not be in the pool for Marshal exemptions. I think the Marshals should have a draft where they get a number between 1 and 100. The guy who draws #1 would get to pick his pro, then #2 picks a pro and so on. For Day 2 the guy who was last gets to pick first. This Marshal draft could take place on one of the days leading up to the tournament.

Elite Series Wheeler Day 3

The full field fished today and I am hoping that Swindle can get on something and move up into the 50' or 60's. Weigh in should be going on right now. On the Bassmaster.com they are calling today Day 2.

For my Fantasy Squad:
Edwin Evers sacked 15-6 so he is moving up.
Skeet (7-3) and KVD (10-2) are both going backward and it could be significant.
It's hard to say how much of an improvement Swindle will make at this point but it isn't going to be a very big jump with only 10-10.
Herren posts 12-7 which will keep him right in the ballpark of his Day 1 12-12 29th place.

Notables:
It looks like Biffle is going to be leading with a tournament best 19-14 bag.

Boyd kicked the buckett with 4-11.

Last years Wheeler Champion Jeremy Starks is going to finish near the bottom with 16-13.

Looks like Ike will get a Top 12 despite catching only 12-12 today.

Day 1 leader Alton Jones is dropping big time with 8-12.

Day 3 is now in the books
For my Fantasy Squad:
Evers 8th
Herren 22nd
Skeet 45th
KVD 49th
Swindle 83rd

Update: Word is that BASS has decided to be inconsistant and will fish the top 50 tomorrow rather than cutting to the Top 12 today. I think it is a strange call by BASS but I am not going to complain as there is a pretty good chance this development will help my fantasy points. KVD and Skeet are two of the best when it comes to making adjustments and so they rarely have two bad days in a row. I think Herren is a shallow water flipper like Biffle, so he could move up. The big danger is Evers in 8th as there were several Day 3 collapses by tournament leaders. Evers may have burned his water thinking the 12 cut would happen today.