Becoming the final angler to make the day-2 cut at a Bassmaster Elite Series event is a fortuitous circumstance that happens to one angler at each derby. Going on from there to make the second cut, however, is a Herculean task that's almost never achieved.
Jonathon VanDam pulled it off, though, in last week's event at Lake Havasu. His bags kept getting bigger – he was up 3 1/2 pounds on day 2 from day 1, and then another 3 pounds on day 3 – and he just kept leap-frogging other competitors. Because weights at the Arizona desert impoundment were so tightly bunched, every few ounces equated to several places in the standings.
His daily progression went like this: 81st, 52nd, 12th, 9th.
"The way that tournament played out, something like that could happen," he said. "If you got a couple big bites, you moved up a lot."
He didn't get any of those on day 1, when he caught only five keepers and weighed just under 12 pounds. He went through four times that many legal fish on day 2, though, and qualified to compete on Saturday.
"I essentially did the same thing on both days," he said. "My primary technique was dropshotting, but I did throw a crankbait a little more on day 2 and I got some of my better bites on it.
"On day 3 I relied even a little more on the crankbait (a Strike King 6XD) and expanded on my areas a little bit. I did catch one 4 1/2-pounder on the dropshot, but I had one that was 4 3/4 on the crankbait."
He said he sweated through the entire day-2 weigh-in, but the day-3 ceremony was pretty stress-free.
"I was really wanting to get a check to help make up for the expenses of the trip. On day 3, when I caught the big bag, I felt like I could make the 12-cut, but I had the truck packed and I was ready to go home.
"I was definitely happy to fish the final day, but I obviously hadn't planned on it."
The Sunline Strong Performer, which focuses ons the angler who makes the most significant single-day move in the standings at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great people at Sunline.
