It’s day two at Champlain
FLW Angler of the Year, Championship qualification hang in the balance
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – With a slight smile and a nod, angler Kevin VanDam went to work along with 177 fellow pros on Lake Champlain Thursday morning for day two of competition at the Wal-Mart FLW Tour’s Forrest Wood Open. With the tournament field setting weight records Wednesday, everybody knows what it will take to advance into Friday’s semifinals and beyond for a shot at the $260,000 top prize: a sack full of five big fish.
This could be the most crucial day of the year for many anglers. It’s do-or-die time to move into the top 48 yearly standings spots and qualify for the championship and, for VanDam, he needs to press hard to hold off Jay Yelas, who is making a run at his Angler-of-the-Year title.
Yelas needs to beat VanDam by more than 28 places this week to steal the title away. Wednesday he took a step in the right direction by placing 19th while VanDam placed 30th. Those numbers are a little misleading, however, since the difference between Yelas’ and VanDam’s catch weights on day one was a mere 10 ounces.
Since nearly the entire field caught a limit of fish Wednesday, the difference between the first-place weight and the 100th-place weight was only 6 pounds, 13 ounces – an extremely tight competition. Today’s conditions are similar to yesterday’s, so anglers should bring in another record-type number of limits. That means there will be heavy jockeying on the leaderboard, and just 1 ounce of fish out of a stringer of five 3- and 4-pound bass will be the difference between fishing for $210,000 and going home.
That means it’s also going to be a tight race between VanDam and Yelas – and, for that matter, Bernie Schultz, who’s third in points and needs to make up 57 places on VanDam. Any other tournament and VanDam would probably already be posing for photos on the Kellogg’s box. But this is Champlain; almost everybody’s going to catch a limit Thursday and it’s simply going to come down to who catches the biggest fish.
Here’s the Angler-of-the-Year scenario:
Kevin VanDam, 15-13 on day one, 30th place
– If VanDam makes the cut, he wins. He also wins if he finishes 28th or higher.
Jay Yelas, 16-7 on day one, 19th place
– Needs to beat VanDam by 28 places or more. If VanDam moves up even one place Thursday and finishes 29th, Yelas not only has to make the cut, he has to win the tournament.
Bernie Schultz, 14-8 on day one, 58th place
– Needs to beat VanDam by 57 places or more and Yelas by 29 or more.
The top-20 cut weight estimates in the Pro Division are hovering as high as 32 pounds. For the co-anglers, it could be close to 26 pounds.
FLW action continues at today’s weigh-in, scheduled to take place at 3 p.m. at Mooney Bay Marina located at 15 Mooney Bay, Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Today’s conditions
Sunrise: 5:09 a.m.
Temperature at takeoff: 57 degrees
Expected high temperature: 82 degrees
Water temperature: 62 degrees
Wind: Calm
Relative humidity: 83 percent
Day’s outlook: Mostly sunny
Day-two links: