Faircloth’s Run on KVD
July 2, 2008 by admin · Leave a Comment
Todd Faircloth of Jasper, Texas, needs one more burst of speed to retake the lead in the race for the prestigious Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year crown and the $250,000 prize that comes with it.
Sunday he moved in on Kevin VanDam, chopping the Kalamazoo, Mich., pro’s 65-point lead in the Trail to the Trophy to 12 points.
It could have gone the other way, with VanDam’s 65-point margin morphing into a mountain. Going into the June 26-29 Tennessee Triumph presented by Longhorn on Old Hickory Lake, KVD was red-hot. He’d just won his fourth Bassmaster Elite Series win and grabbed the points lead — from Faircloth.
Faircloth didn’t appear to be fazed. “I’m not worried about what everyone else is doing,” he said on the BASS weigh-in stage on the Tennessee Triumph’s first day. “I’m going about it the same way I’ve been going about it all year. If I can put together a limit each day of quality fish, I feel like I have a legitimate shot at it. … We have this event, and two more. There’s a lot of fishing left to be done.”
Then, on the Tennessee tournament’s third day, Faircloth made the final top-12 cut. VanDam did not. Sidelined, VanDam could only watch.
On the final day, when it was clear Faircloth wasn’t going unseat VanDam, Faircloth was his same even self. “We’ve got two more events after this one, and the points are real tight now. … I’m looking forward to it. I’ve never been in this position in my career to have a shot at Angler of the Year, and it’s a goal of mine, and I hope I can accomplish it.”
VanDam already owns three AOY titles. Faircloth is seeking his first crown.
The race’s last leg will be in New York. The July 31-Aug. 3 stop will be in Buffalo, N.Y., where the pros will compete on challenging Lake Erie and the Niagara River. The finish line will be on Oneida Lake near Syracuse, N.Y., Aug. 7-10.
“I love fishing up there because we can catch a lot of big smallmouth bass,” VanDam said. “It (points race) is going to be fun; that’s what it’s all about. If it was not close, it wouldn’t be exciting. These next two events, they’re going to be nerve-wracking. … And it’s really easy to have a bad tournament — you can have a breakdown or something like that, you just never know.”
Faircloth is eager to get to the New York fisheries, too.
“I had a pretty good tournament there (Lake Erie) last year. Catching those big 4-, 5-pound smallmouth on 6- and 8-pound-test line, and looking at them on the graph, that’s a lot of fun, I enjoy doing that. Oneida is a good fishery as well.… I’ll have to look for some largemouth and hope Kevin goes for the smallmouth.”
Besides determining the 2008 AOY, the points race will qualify 36 Elite pros for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic, Feb. 20-22 in Louisiana out of Shreveport/Bossier City.
