Given the deficit he faced, however, he would need some cooperation from Reese in the form of a lower than fourth-place finish in order for him to claim the title – the fifth in his storied career. Reese, as you might expect, had other plans and ended the first day in third place.

While Reese and VanDam were basically the only two horses in the race for the title, there were 10 other anglers primed to be spoilers. Among them were Mike Iaconelli (winner of the first half) and Tommy Biffle, who was a favorite to win at the River due to his unparalleled skill with the flippin’ stick. 

With the fishing being less than desirable on Thursday, due in part to a large current swell from Lake Jordan’s drawdown and rain Wednesday night, the majority of the field struggled to bag a limit. All of them agreed that Friday would be a truer reflection of the River’s quality – and the weigh-in didn’t disappoint.

VanDam came to the stage with the biggest bag weighed over the last two days at 16-3, giving him 30-6 over two day’s fishing – which was more than enough to claim victory at the Alabama River. All that remained to clinch five titles was for Reese to finish no higher than fifth-place.

Tommy Biffle wedged himself into the second-place slot on the prowess of his flipping stick weighing 14-2 on Friday, pushing his two-day total to 22-11. Kelly Jordon, despite a slow start at Lake Jordan, finished strong in third place after weighing 11-0, giving him a combined weight of 21-15.

While Mike Iaconelli wasn’t able to clinch the much-sought AOY title, he was strong enough over the last two days to ensure that Reese wouldn’t earn his second title either. The New Jersey pro weighed 11-7 and amassed 21-12 over two days to end the week in fourth place.

Randy Howell finished the week in fifth place, boating 12-1 on the final day, with a combined weight of 20-11, and Skeet Reese, who came to the River as the point’s leader finished the event in sixth place, with a total weight of 20-7 after bringing 10-2 to the scales Friday.

1st Place: Kevin VanDam (5-time TTAOY Winner)
Kevin VanDam is easily among the greatest anglers the sport has ever know, and is without question the most dominating figure in modern-day bass fishing. Winning the title back-to-back puts him in a super-elite category shared only with a precious handful of the sport’s icons.

With his fifth Toyota Truck’s Angler of the Year title and $200,000 in prize money, “Mr. Everything” admitted that though the Alabama River was good to him over the second half, securing the title came down to the unwitting help he received from the anglers who also caught them well this week.

“I knew what I had to do in order to win today after leaving the door open last week at Lake Jordan,” he said. “I had a good day yesterday, and felt confident that I could do it again today, but things just don’t work out for me that way.

“I’ve never been a position where I had to count on other guys to catch them in order to win. It’s definitely a nail-biting experience that this new format creates because a lot of it is completely out of your control.”

Spending his time at the River out in the current, Kevin explained that he focused on subtle irregularities along the river channel using either a Series 3 StrikeKing crankbait in Sexy Shad or a StrikeKing Caffeine Tube. “I focused on areas where the spotted bass could set up as in ambush,” he said. 

“If it had a little corner or a turn, or a super-shallow spot, that’s where I would target. I was running a lot of these little places throughout the day, and sooner or later you’d run into them. I would usually catch two or three at each spot, but you pulled the school up you’d have to let them reposition before you could catch anymore.”

VanDam explained that the Angler of the Year title is what every angler works for all year long, and it’s the one title that is revered among his peers due to the effort required. “You can do a lot of things in this sport, but the Angler of the Year title is most prestigious title there is,” he said. 

“This is my fifth one of them, and I can tell you that each one of them is sweeter than the one before it because of the increased level of competition that I’ve had to face in order to earn it.”

With trophy in hand VanDam was finally able to reflect on the week he’d had – particularly that first day at Lake Jordan. “I just couldn’t believe the day that I had,” he said. “To be totally honest with you, I was just amazed at how badly I’d executed. 

“I had a chance for a really great day, and really, to be able to bounce back – because you can’t imagine how bad things went – and actually weigh in a 10-pound bag was really special.” 

Keeping himself in contention after that miserable first day by posting a solid second day weight is what Kevin credits to keeping him in the hunt. “It’s impossible to completely recover in a two-day tournament because everyone else is going to keep catching them too,” he said. “Fortunately I posted just enough weight to not completely take myself out of it at Jordan.

“Had I not been able to have as strong a week her at the River as I ultimately did, it would be pretty easy to look back at that first day and all of the fish that I lost as being the culprit.” 

In the days and weeks to come, there will be an unending amount of comparisons made to VanDam and Roland Martin given their respective domination during their reigning era. However, as Kevin pointed out, there’s also a bittersweet side to all of it – despite and comparisons that may be forthcoming.

“You have to understand that as much time as we all spend together out here on the road all of these guys are really like a second family,” he said. “It’s always a tough time because you always want to see your friends do well. It’s tough in that regard, but that’s what competition is about.”

2nd Place: Tommy Biffle (3rd in AOY)
Tommy Biffle is certainly no stranger to top-level tournament competition. It is, after all, what he’s done for better part of his life. But during that time, he’s never been faced with the type of format that Championship Week present. With a strong showing at Lake Jordan, Biffle – while mathematically out of contention for the first AOY title of his illustrious career – was poised to play the role of spoiler.

Starting the second half in the whole after a difficult start, Tommy bounced back true to form. “I had a real tough day,” he said. “It seemed like forever before I finally caught anything at all, and it was really until about 1:00 before I got anything going. After that, I caught them pretty good.

“After about 1:00, once the storm blew through, I caught a four-pounder and one that went around three-and-a-half in about five minutes,” he relayed. “From then on, they bit really good.”

Tommy ran new water all day knowing that it was his best shot at moving further up in the final points tally.“The river came up overnight, which helped a bunch,” he explained. “It’s still coming up right now.”
On the week, Tommy said that while things didn’t work out the way he’d hoped they would he’s happy at least to have been a part of the inaugural post-season derby. “It was fun and added a new twist to the season,” he said. “I’m glad that I was here fishing rather than at home thinking about it for sure.”

3rd Place: Kelly Jordon (7th in AOY)
With no where to go but up, Kelly Jordon started and ended the day with one goal: catch five big Coosa River spotted bass. “I spent the day trying to play catch up, but you’ve really got to grind it out on this river,” he said. 

“I got two fish on two casts in one of my areas, and then just had to move on because I couldn’t get anything else. That’s the way it is here.”

“My main deal was just to go down a bank that had current on it and pick apart every piece of cover I could,” he said. “Still I’d go an hour between bites, but that was the only way that I knew to get a big bag so I went for it.”

At the end of a long season which saw him finish seventh in Angler of the Year points, he’s obviously disappointed with how things ended but pleased with things as a whole. “I’m happy with how things went I guess,” he said. 

“I’m disappointed that I didn’t make a real strong run at Angler of the Year, which is what we were all here for, but all in all it was just special to be a part of it.”

4th Place: Mike Iaconelli (4th in AOY)
Of the 12 anglers who came to the Alabama River, perhaps none were more poised to be the ultimate show stealer than was Mike Iaconelli. Riding high on the momentum created from winning the first half of the Championship Chase at Lake Jordan, he was faced with the reality of the Alabama River’s grind.

“It all came down to getting the right bites, and I just never really did,” he said. “I could almost call my shots at times today, but I couldn’t ever get one of those really nice spots consistently.”

During practice, Iaconelli located some key shallow-water haunts; however, with the deluge of upstream water and rain conditions changed continually throughout the event. “I really had four key areas that I fished this week, and two of them I found during practice,” he said. 

“I was really able to catch them pretty good out of those areas, but boy, if you ventured out away from them it was tough to get a bite.”

Iaconelli began the week fishing his practice, but with the water coming up high and muddy he adjusted his program towards the middle of the day Thursday – hitting scattered rock with a Berkley Gripper Jig tipped with a Chigger Craw. “It was actually something that I found during the day Thursday,” he said. “I figured out that since most of the banks here are mud and sand, the fish were relating to rock. 

“The real key was to maintain contact with the cover. If you could find the rougher edges of the rock, it seemed like you’d get bit.”

5th Place: Randy Howell (5th in AOY)
Randy Howell let things slip out of his grasp at Jordan, but after the first day at the River he was headed in the right direction. Friday’s finale was more of the same for the Alabama pro. “I was able to catch back up a little bit today after make some changes,” he said.

“I actually noticed that the water was higher up here (nearer to the launch area) than it had been downriver so I started fishing some of the flooded grass and was able to get something going.”

Swimming a Rattleback jig through the grass, Howell commented that he was able to get a limit within the first two hours of the day. “Three of them were nice two-and-a-half-pound fish and the other two were just keepers,” he explained. 

“I fished around there for another hour-and-a-half but was never able to get any more that would help so I had to scramble around.” 

Spending the rest of the day hitting various spots headed downriver, Howell revealed that while the fishing was definitely better today, his two-hour morning frenzy was never repeated. “Little by little I culled up, but wasn’t able to really get into any more good ones,” he said. “I did catch one two-pound largemouth off a dock that helped a little, but it was pretty much a morning deal for me.”

Knowing that he was out of the AOY race, Howell’s only goal coming into the second half was to finish in the number three spot. “I knew that the highest I could climb was third place, and I wanted that extra little bit of money,” he said. 

“It was a lot of fun anyway. I did the best I could do, and that’s always the goal.”

6th Place: Skeet Reese (2nd in AOY)
The BASSZONE was with Skeet Reese all day long on Friday as he attempted to be only the second angler since Mark Davis to win both the Classic and AOY in the same year. Unfortunately, The Legend’s luck didn’t help the California Kid. “I caught the majority of my weight out of one area,” he said.

“Later in the day I felt like I could’ve gone back up there and caught maybe one more good fish, but I just ran out of time. I never spent the time during practice to adjust and find something on the outside, and to abandon everything and pre-fish the unknown on the final day of a championship tournament just wasn’t something I was willing to do.

“I didn’t have a good practice, and just didn’t have a lot of other things to fall back on. I feel like I milked what I had for all that I could.”

While one area may have produced the majority of his weight, Reese was confident, based on what he’d learned Thursday, that his downriver spot could yield a bonus kicker. “Unfortunately the water conditions had completely changed,” he pointed out. 

“I had the opportunity to have maybe 14 pounds today, but you can’t weigh them if you don’t put them in the boat.”

Reese spent the day grinding throwing a variety of baits – from soft plastics to topwater. “I really thought that if was patient and kept grinding that some new fish would set up on some of the little sandbars I was hitting,” he said. “They never did, and I don’t know if it was because the river kept coming up or what.”

Regarding the weeklong Championship Chase, Reese revealed his disappointment in how things ended up. “I did my absolute best, that’s all I know,” he said. “I had my opportunities during the week, and it likely came down to a four-pounder this afternoon, but I wasn’t able to capitalize on them.

“I know that over the next couple of days I’m going to go through all of the emotions, but right now, I’m disappointed because second place sucks, I had a really good season and can’t really complain about anything.”

FINAL STANDINGS AT THE ALABAMA RIVER

FINAL TTAOY STANDINGS