Of Bucks and Bass

Hello, my name is Tony Hansen and I'm a bassaholic. Okay, so that's a lame cliche play on a serious problem. But, hey, my addictions are serious in their own way. It's whitetails and it's bass. More specifically, big whitetails and bass tournaments. I am a competitor and when my athletic days were behind me, I readily admit that I was a tough person to live with. I had no way to vent the competitive nature within. Until I discovered competitive bass tournaments. Now, I fish about 30 tournaments a year as I kill time waiting for the whitetail season to kick off. This week I had the chance to spend some time with some of the very top anglers in the world and what do you think the topic of choice was as we checked out some new boats from Nitro and cast our way around Missouri's Table Rock Lake? Well, whitetails of course.

I was excited to learn that two of my fishing heroes Kevin Van Dam (aka The Man, aka World's Greatest Angler, aka Bass Messiah) and Edwin Evers. Van Dam is a four-time BASS Angler of the Year while Evers is arguably the best young angler on the BassMaster's Elite Series.

Both, I learned, are diehard whitetail hunters who get that spark in their eyes when talking about deer that tells me they're not just casual hunters. No way.

"I love it. Absolutely love it," said Evers. "Bowhunting is a passion. We've got some good deer on my place in Oklahoma and I just love every aspect of bowhunting. I can't wait for it to start."

Edwin told me he'd recently spent some time putting in his food plots and also talked about how his decision to start using Bad Boy Buggies on his property rather than noisy gas-fueled ATVs has made a big difference.

"I've really noticed a change in the impact we have when we move around the place," Evers said. "You're not making the noise or disturbance in the Bad Boy. I'm sold on those things. They're just awesome."

VanDam will start his bowhunting season with a trip to New Mexico to chase elk before heading back to southern Michigan where he'll be looking to tag one of the deer he knows survived last year.

"Those deer are something special. They've survived a couple of seasons and that's not easy to do. I have them on trail camera so I know they're around. Getting them on their feet in daylight is a different thing," VanDam said. "But I'm really looking forward to the chase."

Spending a couple of days with these guys was a dream come true for a bassin' whitetail nut like myself. And, unlike some other pro athletes that I've met, there was zero disappointment. In fact, I have more respect and admiration for these guys than ever. They're great people with a genuine passion and respect for the outdoors. Our kind of guys for sure. The only downside was that I failed to have KVD sign a hat for my 6-year-old son Noah who is arguably Kevin's biggest fan. Oh yeah, dad was in trouble when he got home.

Keep an eye out for more of these two in future posts. I'm hoping to share some stories of their success this fall.



Tony Hansen, Michigan Man