Preview: Elite 50 Finale

PADUCAH, Ky. — Bass fishing’s most innovative tournament series comes to a climax June 16-19 in Paducah, Ky. and anglers and fishing fans can hardly wait. The Bassmaster Elite 50 season finale will crown the series champion and send 10 pros to bass fishing’s world championship, the CITGO Bassmaster Classic.

The season finale will be played out on the Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers with daily weigh-ins at 7 p.m. at J.R.’s Executive Inn and Convention Center. The top 50 pros from the CITGO Bassmaster Tournament Trail will compete across more than 100 miles of fishable waters.

One of the highlights of this tournament will be the crowning of the first series champion. After three Elite 50 events, a pair of three-time CITGO Bassmaster Angler of the Years — Kevin VanDam and Mark Davis — sit in the leader board’s top two slots in the race for the $150,000 winner’s purse.

Davis, a 40-year-old pro from Arkansas, is just five points behind VanDam and will be aiming for his third consecutive Elite 50 victory after triumphing in Mississippi and Alabama.

“It’s going to be real hard to win three in a row,” Davis said. “I had been fishing a long time and never won two in a row. But I’ll sure be trying in Paducah.”

In addition to the series championship, the tournament will determine the final 10 invitations to the 2004 Classic, July 30-Aug. 1 on Lake Wylie in Charlotte, N.C.

The Elite 50 series highlights an all-star line-up in the sport’s first no-entry-fee circuit with a minumum $20,000 purse for every participant — a milestone in the competitive league created and nurtured by the BASS.

The Elite 50 series marks the first time that an entire tournament series matches the cream of the crop of today’s bass pros in limited-field events. These top pros earned their Elite status through either their combined performance over the past three CITGO Bassmaster Tour seasons or based on careers of excellence that placed them atop of the BASS all-time money list.

One of those pros is Paducah’s own Mark Menendez, who is widely considered a pre-tournament favorite.

Despite his fellow pro’s expectations, the recent rain-swollen state of the rivers has largely negated any hometown advantage, Menendez claims, pointing out that the increased size of the river means more areas are open for fishing, including spots that he may have never seen.

“The higher water makes it more a crap shoot,” he said. “It takes the advantage out of my hands. A guy could go find a place that I have no idea even exists and make a good catch there.

“With it being within the banks and in normal parameters, I would have a very distinct advantage. I really would. If it gets down to 18 to 20 (feet) by tournament time, it will play into my hands that much better, but I don’t know that it will get down that low.”

Menendez noted that the water has been dropping rapidly in recent days, which should help his chances.

“The water came up 25 feet since the last day of (pre-tournament) practice,” he explained. “But it’s coming down about 3 feet a day. As long as we don’t get more rain on the Ohio River in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, it should continue to fall. It’s 36 (feet) now and supposed to be 26 for the first day of practice and continue to fall after that.

“It’s going to get better and closer (to normal pool). It’s going to fall out of the woods and all of the backwaters. There’s not a lot of backwater here you can get to unless it’s at flood stage. But with it falling as fast as it is, you won’t be able to get to some of those old oxbows and stuff like that.”

Menendez said the pre-tournament action was “phenomenal.” That was just before the tournament waters went off-limits 30 days before the event, and the Ohio River was as low as he had ever seen it. Still, he looks for the Elite 50 contenders to catch plenty of bass regardless of the water level.

“There will be a lot of ways to catch them,” Menendez said. “It depends on which species you’re going to fish for. There’s a lot of strategy that needs to go into deciding what you’re going to fish for because it can be won on all three species. The spotted bass up the Cumberland can be a major player. The largemouth in Smithland Pool on the Ohio is most likely where it would be won by an out-of-towner. And the smallmouth have shown up in the Cumberland and the Tennessee in recent years in pretty good numbers.”

Unlike the previous Elite 50 tournaments, the Paducah event will not feature the finals format in which the top 12 and six performers rotate through designated areas throughout the day. Tournament director Trip Weldon said the finalists will be allowed to fish all of the designated tournament waters.

The daily launches will take place at 10 a.m. at the downtown Paducah Riverfront.
 

From BASS