Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 3, 1993 TAG: 9305030295
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BILL COCHRAN OUTDOOR EDITOR
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
He was there in 1975, as a youngster cradled in the arm of his dad, Woo Daves, who won the contest by snatching victory from the best names in bass fishing. Bill Dance finished second; Roland Martin fourth.
On Friday, Chris, who is 21, would like to get there on his own. He joined his dad on the B.A.S.S. tournament circuit this season, and Kerr is his final event of the 1992-93 year.
It also is one of the most important, as practice began Sunday for the Wednesday-through-Friday competition. Both Chris and Woo need to finish well. In many ways, it has been a tough season for the Daveses, who live in Spring Grove and see Kerr as a coming-home event.
Woo, who has fished 11 BASS Masters Classic tournaments, has yet to pile up enough points to qualify for the 1993 Classic scheduled on Lake Logan Martin, Ala., Aug. 12-14.
Chris has placed in the money once in the five B.A.S.S. Invitational events this season. He stands no chance of making the Classic cut, even if he does well at Kerr, but an impressive finish would give him a high going into next season, which begins mid-September, back at Kerr.
His best finish was at Sam Rayburn Lake in Texas, where he placed 49th and won $1,400 in March.
"I was fishing the fourth tournament of the year and hadn't made a check yet, and I was getting down," he said of the Texas event.
The good showing helped pump up his confidence and wallet, but less than a month later he finished a dismal 265th on Kentucky Lake, where April winds kicked up 9-foot waves, causing 40 anglers to come in early or to call for a trailer to pick them up.
Even so, Chris maintains a positive attitude about his rookie year. "I have done pretty good," he said.
What counts is the experience he has gained, said Woo, who is Virginia's most successful competitive angler.
"He is picking up a lot of experience by fishing with different fishermen. I am not sending him in there to win every time. I am sending him in there to learn; to lay that brick the proper way. He's already a good fisherman - probably three times better than I was at his age - but he has to pay his dues."
The dues for a youngster breaking into B.A.S.S. can be steep. For one thing, Chris doesn't own a boat, so during tournaments he is classified as a nonboater. This means he draws a partner and fishes from the back of that competitor's boat. A good part of the day can be spent looking at his partner's back and casting to left-over targets.
Then, too, there is the matter of sponsorships. Even most of the pros don't win enough money to get by. So sponsorships from boat or tackle manufacturers become an important key to survival. When you are young and unproven, you aren't likely to nail down a significant sponsorship, although in Chris' case he does get help from Mann's Bait Co. and Stren line.
Breaking into B.A.S.S. is harder than it should be, believes Woo.
"I am really tickled to death that he is doing this, and trying hard, but I am disappointed that an organization like B.A.S.S. doesn't seem to care about the young tournament fishermen," Woo said.
"They are going into their 26th year and they really don't even have a rookie-of-the-year award. They don't have any kind of program to help a young fisherman get a sponsor. I have talked about it with them a couple of times; and it is kinda like, `Yeah, we need to do that,' but then the next year comes and they haven't done a thing."
Some newcomers, like Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich., are able to make a giant leap into the big time. During his first two years of competition, VanDam, in his early 20s, never failed to make the money in a pro event and won the coveted B.A.S.S. Angler-of-the-Year title last season. But that's never happened before, which means tournament bass fishing has become a game for guys in their 40s.
"The way I look at it, one day those old people are going to have to retire," said Chris. "The sponsors are going to have to go looking for some young people."
Adding to the problem for anglers like Chris is the fact that the level of competition has grown immensely, Woo said.
"We used to have 15 to 25 guys who realistically could win. Now you have maybe 100 to 150 at every tournament who are capable of wining anytime, and another 100 who could win."
That means the $3-million annual purse gets divided up more frequently, and the sponsorship pie is served in smaller pieces.
Even during its early days, the sport was tough enough to break into, Woo remembers. When he won the 1975 Kerr tournament, he was ready to give up. He had his boat up for sale and he was trying to get a refund on his entry fee. He was 29, his job as a trucking-firm dock worker was anything but secure, and he harbored the feeling that the pursuit of his dream of career fishing was leading to neglect of young Chris and his sister, Windy.
Then Woo reeled in a three-day catch that weighed 63 pounds, 12 ounces. It earned him $4,140 and a chance to fish the Classic. He was on his way.
Now he enjoys traveling to tournaments with Chris, the two sharing lodging and fishing information, "everything but where we are catching them," said Woo.
The Daveses had expected Kerr to give them a home-court advantage. Woo spent his boyhood on the 50,000-acre Southside impoundment, the son of boat-dock operators.
"It is my favorite lake, too," said Chris. "I've always wanted to fish a B.A.S.S. tournament there."
But some of their expectations have been dashed by flood conditions which have discolored the water and pushed it back into the shoreline cover. When Kerr is in the bushes, everyone is on equal footing.
It was a good bit that way last year when winner Jack Hains tossed a large, three-quarter ounce spinnerbait with a No. 7 willow-leaf blade, to the windy points, reeling in 15 bass that weighed 57-pounds, 4 ounces.
"I was hoping it would be at normal or a little below that," said Woo. "At a normal or normal-low level, I know the lake real good. I would know a lot more spots. It would be more to my favor."
But Woo still expects to make the Classic. He can qualify with a reasonable showing at Kerr, or a good catch the following week during the final Top 100 event of the season, on Lake Murray, S.C. He has enjoyed a fourth- and seventh-place finish in the Top 100 circuit this year (Chris is not fishing that series). The pro Classic contenders come from the top rankings of the Invitation and Top 100 tournaments.
"Six times out of the 11 times I have qualified for the Classic I have made it on the last day," said Woo.
As for Chris, "I'm probably going to borrow somebody's boat for this one," he said.
The weigh-ins are 3 p.m. at North Bend Park (east of Clarksville on U.S. 58, go right on Virginia 4.)
by CNB