What can you say about these guys and others like them? For me, maybe like you, it never gets old seeing who wins a tournament. Sometimes it's a surprise, but I wasn't surprised that Kevin VanDam and Larry Nixon won last week's events.
We all know that a big chunk of the field on the Bassmaster Elite Series and FLW Tour can beat anyone on any given day, but VanDam and Nixon have done it more than most.
We also know it's not just skill. What is it? Believe it or not, us reporters spend a decent amount of time thinking about that because at some point you run out of questions beyond the nuts and bolts to ask these multiple winners. They've just got "it," whatever that is.
Here's my latest shot at "it": Nothing fazes them. (Have I said this before?) These guys are psychological rocks, masters of the mental game.
VanDam has said it best: When he has a bad day or even a bad hour, he "gets mad at them." I believe that literally. I've seen it in his eyes, up close. I think he gets mad at everything, not just the fish.
But the flipside is what we're really talking about here, which is that neither he nor Nixon nor Brauer nor (put your favorite hammer here) is put off by not catching fish. They might not be on them, but they're not going to panic or wallow in self-pity about it.
And as anyone who's gone fishing knows, that's pretty darn tough to do. Smack five figures of entry fees on there, the fact that you're doing this for a living, maybe some serious credit card debt, World Rankings and whatever else, and you can see that it's a pressure cooker out there, same as – or worse than – other sports.
But not for these guys. Or maybe it is, but they never lose it mentally.
Take a look at Mike Iaconelli last year. He was "fishing in the moment," and said he wasn't worrying about what he couldn't control. It worked. Or how about Jeff Kriet this year? Things aren't bothering him and he's fishing well.
I'm sure plenty other examples are out there, and I don't mean to leave anyone out.
Yes, bass fishing at the top level does all boil down to the mental game. Then again, guys like VanDam and Nixon do have something special.
Maybe their competitors feel it on the weigh-in stage. They're standing up there, and there's one guy left to weigh in. It's – to borrow a phrase from a friend – the 800-pound gorilla!
That'll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Anyone = VanDam?
I'm pretty sure everyone who bass fishes has thought of that question at least once over the last couple of years. The guy is unreal, and we may not see anyone like him for decades, if ever.
But I need to use something he said after he won to make one of my pet points. He said: "These guys are definitely the best in the world. This is the toughest series out there – it has the best anglers."
I'm not going to take sides on that one here, but one thing's for sure: It doesn't have anywhere near all of the best anglers.
It's a crying shame that our sport is in such a state that VanDam and Nixon (and many others) don't fish against one another. Ever. That, to me, is nuts. Banana nuts with doofus sauce slathered all over it.
Why on Earth both major tournament organizations (I could include the PAA here) would want to effectively bar some portion of the best pros in the world from their events is beyond me. Sure, several things are involved, and sure some pros have said they don't want to (or can't) fish one trail for one reason or another.
But that implies choice, meaning that there would be some field overlap in certain events. But there isn't any.
The only conclusion the evidence points to is that the tournament organizations aren't really interested at this time in bass fishing being "a real pro sport" – as the pros and the fans want it to be.
All the other pro sports I'm aware of have the best – or a majority of the best – competing in one league, or at least with each other in several events. But not bass fishing.
So does anyone equal VanDam? You might recall when the Elite Series was announced, we jokingly called it the KVD Tour. That wasn't a slight against the rest of the guys, but was a comment about VanDam's domination of late.
A little – just a little – of calling it that was an indication that any field without Nixon, Mark Davis, Jay Yelas and maybe lesser-talked-about but still killer sticks like Dave Lefebre, Andy Morgan, Anthony Gagliardi, David Dudley, Matt Herren, Luke Clausen and others, isn't as challenging as it could be.
And the same can be said the other way about tournaments without VanDam, Hack, Evers, Rojas, Reese, etc.
We tried to fix this problem a little in 2005 with the Cabela's Top Gun Championship, and might try to again at some point. The PAA moved in the same direction with their participation in the Toyota Texas Bass Classic and I assume will have more tournaments here and there.
I hope the leagues do their part.
You want TV ratings? Swallow a little pride and do BASS vs. FLW on network TV. Prediction: The hype, and viewership, would be spectacular.
Another prediction: Never happen. Too bad.
