According to Mark Menendez, Rufus "Nerves of Steel" Johnson could be one of the best ever.

Is Rufus Johnson The Next VanDam?

Tuesday, July 31, 2001

If you ask Kentucky pro Mark Menendez, Rufus Johnson is the next Kevin VanDam. Of course, that's been said before. But Menendez insists that Johnson is the real deal.

Johnson certainly blasted onto the BASSMASTER Tournament trail. He won the first B.A.S.S. event he ever fished, the Alabama Invitational in December 1999 on Lake Martin. And this year, his first full year on the trail, he qualified for the BASS Masters Classic by finishing 2nd in the Eastern Invitationals, just behind Roland Martin (Menendez finished 4th).

"He has a sense about him," Menendez says. "He has a God-given ability to understand what bass do, why they do it and how to react to it." Menendez says he learned that in spades when he spent time with Johnson at the BASSMASTER Eastern Invitational, held in March 2001 on Pickwick/Wilson in Alabama.

"It was a tough event and Rufus caught as many fish as anyone," he says. "What got me is that he was focusing on bass I hadn't even thought about fishing for - - and they were very close to the places I fished when I won." (Menendez won the BASSMASTER Top 100 there in March 1998.) At the 2001 Pickwick tournament, Johnson finished 6th and Menendez finished 16th.

Okay, so Johnson can find fish. So can a lot of other pros.

"He has the ability to make exactly the right presentation," Menendez says. "Some guys are great decision-makers, but when it comes to presentation they leave something to be desired.

"Another thing Rufus possesses is a cast that no one else except Craig Powers can do. It's a backwards roll cast that allows for short, accurate presentations under overhanging cover. I would say 95 percent of the pros I fish against every day cannot make that presentation," Menendez says. "I'm still a schoolboy perfecting that cast."

Powers, who won the May 2001 FLW on the Red River and who counts Johnson as one of his best friends, says Johnson is "the absolute best dock fisherman ever been in the boat with. I know that doesn't make sense, but he can read a dock like no one else, and he can put a spinnerbait in places that you just can't believe.

"Plus he can pretty much tell you before he casts where he's going to get the bites. I've been in the boat with him and tried to figure it out, but it's just one of those things."

Two other factors seem to work into Johnson's success. One is his ability to handle pressure, both pressured fish and fishing pressure. He grew up fishing Tennessee River impoundments that are fished often and hard. As a result, "he's had to figure out an edge in every different presentation," Menendez says.

And when it comes to on-the-water pressure, "Rufus has nerves of steel," Power says. "The pressure just doesn't get to him."

Johnson also hates to lose. "He won't get mad at anyone else, just mad at himself," Power says. "We've had bad tournaments where we didn't catch any fish, and after everyone went home we'd go out and spend the rest of the night fishing."

To all of this, Johnson says: "I think (Menendez and Powers) are as good as there is. To know that they think about me makes me feel good." Respect "is what you want when you're coming up," he adds.

"This is how highly I think of Rufus," Menendez says. "He's a better person than he is a fisherman, and he's a heck of a fisherman. You just can't say that about everybody you meet."