As Christmas is behind us and 2012 is right around the corner, thought I would take a trip down the Bassin’ Insider 2011 memory lane and highlight a few things in case you missed them!
Back in February Kevin VanDam proved he is bass fishing’s King Kong by routing a top notch field at the Louisiana Delta en route to his record tying fourth Bassmater Classic victory. KVD dominated this event setting a new 3-day (5 bass limit) Classic weight record of 69-11, and rewrote a bunch of the record books in the process, with his win today:
- Eclipsed the previously unthinkable mark of $5 million in career earnings.
- Won his 3rd Classic in 6 years & won 5 of the 6 most recent major B.A.S.S. titles – Angler of the Year (AOY) in 2008, 2009 & 2010, and the Classic in 2010 and 2011.
- Inched within a single win of Roland Martin’s record for total career B.A.S.S. wins (19).
- Surpassed Roland Martin’s record of 9 major B.A.S.S. titles. Roland won 9 AOY titles. VanDam has now won 6 AOY titles and 4 Classics.
Even though KVD got off to a slow start in the Elite Series by his standard, he rallied to earn the Angler of the Year crown once again!
Florida Gators make it back to back FLW College National Championships. Jake Gipson and Matt Wercinski win first two ever championships and you were able to watch it all on Versus/NBC Sports Outdoors.
Proving that usually the acorn doesn’t fall very far from the bass fishing tree, Scott Martin wins FLW Cup on Lake Quachita this summer. Scott won this event targeting deep brush piles while most of the other contenders target much shallower fish.
Proving that not all biggest moments are best Bassin’ moments, Nate Wellman cheating scandal ruled the forums and bass fishing 
discussions for most of September. Nate Wellman allegedly discussed purchasing of a fish from his co-angler during a Bassmaster Open event on Lake Erie.
Just when many had thought they had seen every lure or gadget to put more bass in the boat, the Alabama Rig took the season ending FLW tournament on Lake Guntersville by storm and Paul Elias showed us all he still has what it takes to be a winner!
Rich
RichLindgren.com
