My favorite moment of 2017 was at one of the tournaments I didn’t attend. I remember exactly what I was doing when the moment happened – I was making a sandwich at my house.
While I only go to about half of the Elite events, the other half of the time I’m still watching every moment of them, making sure we do the best job we can covering them for our fans. And despite the relative closeness of the Ross Barnett Elite, I was still in Birmingham on the final Sunday of the event, watching Bassmaster LIVE and, as I said, making a sandwich.
That’s when they cut to Dustin Connell idling in after a long day looking over his shoulder at a surging Kevin VanDam. Just watch this video below.
We’ve been sticking a lot of cameras in a lot of boats for three years now. It makes perfect sense that a moment like this, when a rookie on the Elites is facing his own doubts, would he has enough to beat KVD, could happen. But it still was shocking and amazing, especially live.
The good news is that he did have enough! Dustin ended up being the Rookie of the Year and part of an amazing rookie class that changed the landscape of the Elite Series in 2017.
And that sandwich was delicious!
B.A.S.S. asked contributors, staff and anglers to reflect on their favorite moments of 2017. You can read more of them here.