Historic matchup
Clunn, VanDam is old vs. new in more ways than one
By Steve BowmanGILBERTSVILLE, Ky. — It isn't lost on me that the final day match-up in the Bluegrass Brawl is as close to historic as any we've seen in decades.
It's even a little more appropriate that this old vs. new match-up with arguably the two best anglers to ever make a cast in the last 50 years is occurring during a turning point in the way we enjoy our bass tournaments.
Rick Clunn is the grand master, building that title over an amazing career that has kept bass fishermen in awe for more than three decades. He's the old guy in this if you haven't figured that out.
He was teaching the rest of us to fish through news releases that came out a day or even a week later; in television shows that aired months later or in magazine stories mailed to our homes with the speed of the Pony Express. The Internet was the mesh thing you carried inside the rod box.
Kevin VanDam saw some of that. But the last decade he's been at the forefront of a media age that has brought his unbelievable skills to the bass fishing fans almost immediately. We get to see him, through live video feeds, lay his fish on the scales, get to watch him the next week on ESPN2, read up-to-the minute reports on the Internet. Photo galleries of him on the water are on the net within minutes.
Times have changed, even if the fish and the skills needed to catch them are basically the same. That's the beauty of this final match-up.
There are a whole lot of new things going on and it's actually fitting that Rick Clunn is part of it.
One of the biggest new things is our attempt to bring the viewers of this site even more up-to-the minute coverage. If you've been paying attention, you've seen some mention of BassCast, our new, not-yet-refined piece of technology, that hopefully will bring every cast Clunn and VanDam makes on the final day.
This isn't perfect technology and it takes some courage to lay it out there in the name of giving readers and viewers of this site more of an opportunity to enjoy their sport.
It isn't our first attempt and we're far from perfect with it. But perfect or not, we feel not attempting to bring every cast to those tuning into this site, would be a miscarriage of justice on a potentially historic day of fishing.
Take note of the BassCast link. We've installed two cameras in Clunn's boat and two in VanDam's. They work on a cellular signal, which means all those dropped calls you get on your phone, could take place in these videos.
And in this case, there's about a two-hour turn around. It works like this: A camera rolls on the water, capturing whatever the angler and his boat may be doing. After about 10 minutes the video is sent via a cellular signal to some big main frame thingy in a land far, far away. (That's about as accurate and technical as I can get). The video is then processed and digitized for the Internet. After about 12 files (120 minutes) we have full loop and we can start showing the angler's day.
The action isn't live, but it's pretty close to being there without having to make a boat ride. We hope you tune in. We hope everything goes without a hitch.
If it works, then you will be treated to some of the best fishing action you could possibly enjoy with a computer screen at your fingertips.
If it doesn't work we will go back to the drawing board and keep refining, while taking comfort in the fact that just like Clunn and VanDam — sometimes you catch them and sometimes you don't.
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