After only five disjointed years of competitive fishing, Region 6's Vernon Wilson is heading to the Federation National Championship. Last year, he lived a fishing season in which everything seemed to go his way, and he’s hoping that trend will continue when he heads to Oklahoma’s Keystone Lake later this month.

Wilson, a member of the Lake Country Bassmasters, first fished competitively for two years in the early 1990s as a member of the Ace Bassmasters out of Cary, North Carolina. Shortly thereafter, however, he moved to the shores of Lake Gaston. While one might assume that this would lead to an increase in fishing time, for Wilson it had the opposite effect. Between certain personal responsibilities, plus rebuilding a home, he was forced to abstain from competing in tournaments for a few years.

Maybe it was the fact that Lake Gaston was staring him in the face every day, but three years ago, Vernon Wilson got the itch to compete in bass tournaments once again. He joined Lake Country and set his sights on becoming competitive again. It didn’t take long for the now 53 year old program manager for IBM to achieve that goal.

Wilson is quick to assert that flipping and pitching are his favorite tactics. Last year, conditions played to his strengths. Most of the spots on the Virginia State Team come through Buggs Island, and "the water was high there almost all summer," he says, enabling to cash a check in "almost every tournament I fished, including a 5^th in the BFL."

With tough competition among his fellow club members, he made the Six Man Team as a non-boater. While this can occasionally lead to a good finish, working outside the comfort of his own boat may have put him at a slight disadvantage. Although anglers paired up are guaranteed equal time on their water and on the front of the boat, in practice it often doesn’t work that way, with the boat owner, commanding the majority of control.

On the first day of the tournament, Wilson "had to go where I was taken." Still, by flipping senkos into buckbrush and at the base of trees, a technique that he surmises not many fishermen were using, he managed to catch a sizeable limit, while his boater partner caught only a single keeper.

With the first day over and Wilson in good position to make a charge for the money, his partner said "you pick the places." Wilson set out that day to flip a senko in similar places, but it quickly became apparent that "the bite had left the buckbrush." Using his intimate knowledge of the lake, he pulled off the bank and fished creek channels, often letting his bait sink in sixteen feet of water, thus reconnecting with the fish that had abandoned his first day pattern.

When the scales stopped spinning, Wilson had made the state team.......once again, however, he’d be going to Champlain as a non-boater.

Immediately after the Chapter Teams tournament, Vernon started to prepare for the Eastern Divisional at Lake Champlain, on the border between New York and Vermont. He called people he knew to see if they could give him any advice. In particular, he credits fellow BFL competitor Wally Szuba with putting him in touch with several anglers from that part of the country. Unfortunately, "most of them were fishing the same tournament," he says, and therefore "were not extremely helpful."

As at Kerr, though, the partner pairings worked to his advantage. At the Six Man, he had drawn a partner willing to go to Wilson’s fish when things were going his way. This time, Wilson drew out with a gentleman who was a full-time guide on the lake, and had the fished locked in.

"It was a unique experience," Wilson says, "the fish were on the fall feed and on the first day everyone except one weighed in fish." On that first day, his partner taught him how to catch fish by wacky-rigging a senko in ultra-clear water, and he caught a quality limit of smallmouths that day. In fact, the three consecutive limits he weighed in were comprised entirely of smallies except for a kicker four and a half pound largemouth he caught on the last day.

Citing basic sportfishing ethics, Wilson did not plan to go back to his first day partner’s fish on the second day. His second day partner, however, had spent the previous day fishing with his first day’s partner’s best friend, and they were invited back to fish again. "I was in the same place," he says, "on the same three hundred yards of bank."

The second day was tougher, and the competition for supremacy on the Virginia team was beginning to shake out. "I figured that if I was catching fish," Wilson says, "that everyone was catching them just as well," but that was not the case. Wilson was 11 ounces behind state team leader Lee Allison, who commented in passing "I would have never thought of you as the one I’d have to worry about." Whether that inspired Wilson further he won’t say, but the third day came down not just to fishing skills, but also to managing the weather.

The tournament coincided with the passing of Hurricane Isabel. Even before the anglers left the launch area that third morning, they knew that they were only going to get a partial day of fishing. They were instructed to be in by noon. Wilson’s fish were not a terribly long distance away – on a normal day the ride would take 15-20 minutes, but his partner had an eighteen foot boat with a 150 HP motor, and it took them nearly two hours to get back. They were back on time, but the whole ride home Wilson was "wishing to hell I was in a bigger boat."

After weighing in his fish, for a three day total of over 44 pounds, Wilson started doing some quick calculations to see where he would place. By the time most of the Virginia team had weighed in, Charlie Beale told him "I think you’ve got this." Wilson’s reaction was shock: "I think I started to crying.....to realize that I had beaten a bunch of darn good fishermen."

Immediately upon his return from Champlain, Wilson wanted to start preparing for the National Championship. There was only one problem: B.A.S.S. hadn’t announced the site yet. The competitors were told that it was a place that B.A.S.S. hadn’t fished before, but that was it. When the announcement came out in late October that they were going to Keystone Lake in Oklahoma, the typical reaction was "Where?!?!"

Wilson started the process of preparation by searching the internet for information. There was little to be found. "There are no guides on the lake, not a lot to learn." In fact, he says he probably did "more research on lakes within 100 miles of Keystone, than on Keystone itself."

He managed to contact a local who would help him out, and around Thanksgiving (the lake would go off limits December 31, except for a week in March) he flew out to Oklahoma and spent a few days riding around the lake. It was at this point that he learned its strange set of characteristics. "It is a true flood control lake," he says. "Kerr can go plus or minus 20 feet in a year, but Keystone can go up 10 feet in a day or down 5 feet in a day." For example, when he went for the official practice in March, the lake was 18 feet high three days before he arrived. During the four days of practice it dropped 11 feet. "There are logjams there larger than your house. In one cove, it was 23 feet in the front of the logs, but it was still 100 yards to the bank."

Wilson believes that the lake will fish small for the approximately 50 competitors who’ve made it this far. "The two rivers meet at the dam, and while it’s about a 25-30,000 acre lake, it fishes about 5,000 acres. There are only 2 or 3 creeks." He adds that dirt in Oklahoma is red, and that muddies up quite a bit of the available water.

In four days of practice last month, Wilson did not catch a fish. In fact, he didn’t get a bite. He is sharing information with one angler from each of several other divisions, and all agreed that it was "extremely tough. There were probably only 7 fish caught that week."

Most of the fishable water is rock and sand, and Wilson figures that the fish should be spawning when the anglers get there. "Whoever finds those spawners will win, but it all depends on the water level."

Looking back, Wilson remains in awe of the way in which the Virginia team worked together. "The team that went to Vermont was fantastic," he says, especially because they freely shared information. "It took me about three days to realize it, but if you don’t share none of you will do well."

He says that with Mr. BASS just gone by, "I’m still trying to make it for next year, and if I do, I’ll know that the most important thing is that we’re up there as a team. There’s always a winner in the end," but what’s lost in many of the stories about the tournaments is the team effort that got that angler into the winner’s circle.

When asked if he has allowed himself to think about the possibility that he’ll be fishing in the Bassmaster Classic, Vernon allows that "I simply don’t want to embarrass myself. I’ve had nightmares about blanking at Keystone." Still, he allows that by getting this far, he has achieved "a lifetime dream in five years."

This time he won’t have convince his partner to go to his fish, or rely on a partner to show him a new technique. He’ll be the only fisherman in the boat. He won’t have to worry about the ability of a small boat to get him back safely. He’ll have a top of the line bass rig with trained service crews at his disposal. Now the spotlight falls squarely on Vernon Wilson, and with the strong support of the Virginia Federation, he seeks to demonstrate that his appearance at the "big show" is not a fluke, but rather a sign that his opportunity has come.....perhaps quicker than it comes for many fishermen, but right on time as far as he’s concerned.

Vernon would like to express deep gratitude to the Lake Country Bassmasters, the Virginia BASS Federation, and especially to the anglers who accompanied him to Lake Champlain. Additionally, he thanks his sponsors, Falcon Rods, and Lunker Lure/Hawg Caller, for their great support.

If you’d like to contact Vernon Wilson, his email address is VDWilson@us.ibm.com

Copyright 2004 Peter Robbins All Rights Reserved
robbins@vabass.com