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KVD continues to lead heading into Championship Sunday. Here are a few videos from today’s weigh in.

Happy-go-lucky pro Fred “Boom Boom” Roumbanis once showed up at a cold Bassmaster Classic in Shreveport without shoes. Well, actually, he had flip-flops, but because his trusted bride Julie wasn’t able to help him pack for that particular trip, the California native who now lives in Oklahoma, toughed it out with minimal footwear at that Classic.

Today at Toledo Bend, Roumbanis could be seen wandering uncomfortably under a flood light in the dark and spacious Cypress Bend Park boat ramp while other competitors launched their boats just down the hill.

“I’m a mess this morning,” said Roumbanis. “The button on my shorts popped off from all the crawfish I’ve eaten, so I’m up here hoping I’ve got a belt in my truck that’ll hold my shorts up while I fish today.”

Thankfully, Fred found a belt, but that’s not his only struggle. “My right armpit is chafed too – I guess from sweating, and all the friction from my jersey during all the casting I’ve done. I don’t think it’s my deodorant, and my left armpit is fine,” shared Roumbanis, who always seems to have a comical struggle of such.

Down at the dock Mike Iaconelli was doing all he could to make sure often challenging post-spawn fish care was no sweat.

“The water here is around 80-degrees, and these fish are beat up from the spawn, so I carry at least two bags of ice everyday to try to take good care of my catch,” said the Team Toyota pro.

“I add one bag ice to my livewell late in the morning, then after lunch, I flush out all that water from the morning, and pump in brand new water that I’ll add the second bag of ice to later in the afternoon,” he added.

Finally, adjacent to Iaconelli on the dock was the “Ice Man” himself, tournament leader, Kevin VanDam, applying sunscreen, while surrounded my cameramen. “The cameras and the microphone don’t bother me at all,” said a gracious VanDam.

“Actually, I’ve worked with cameramen Wes Miller, Brian Mason, Rick Mason, and Carey Barrett for about 17 years – so when any of those guys are with me it’s like having a friend in the boat. But I will say now that we have Bassmaster Live, you gotta stay super polished and on point with what you say,” grinned VanDam.

Day number three is underway, here are a few videos from this mornings take off.

Here are a few videos from today’s weigh in at Toledo Bend.

Toledo Bend didn’t garner the ranking of America’s #1 Bass Lake from the editors of Bassmaster Magazine because it’s full of starving bass hoping to pick-off grasshoppers.

Nope, the massive 186,000-acre reservoir on the Texas-Louisiana border is rich with largemouth groceries ranging from plentiful shad schools to an abundance of bluegill, as well as the region’s agricultural cash crop – crawdads.

So just before Mike Iaconelli threw down the throttle to take on Day 2 at the 2016 Bassmaster Elite Series event on the famed reservoir, his thoughts focused on what menu items to offer throughout the day.

“I’m getting more bites early in the morning on shad style baits like crankbaits at the mid-depths of say 8 to 12 feet, and even deeper like 18 to 25 feet,” says Ike. “But as the day progresses, I’m moving toward the shoreline where the bass are eating bluegills.”

“That’s kind of the opposite of what you’d think should happen,” says Ike.

“Typically in warmer weather, we’re trained to think bass move deep and we should too. But here on Toledo Bend, it seems like there are so many bluegill and crawdads around the flooded shoreline habitat, that when that sun gets hot and high in the sky later in the day, everything moves to the shallow shade, especially bluegill, and bass move in there to gorge on them around that shallow shaded habitat.”

Iaconelli had at least a dozen rods on deck as he idled out. “Breakfast” offerings ranged from shad-imitating lures like soft swimbaits, to Rapala DT crankbaits in the “Blue Back Herring” color. And for “lunch” a heavy Texas-rigged Berkley Havoc Pit Boss will be served around flooded habitat to mimic bluegill and crawdads.

“I’m covering all depths – shoreline, mid-range, and deep – or maybe I should list those deep, mid-range and then shallow – because the bottom line is you have to be where the bass are when they’re ready to eat, and so far it seems it’s shad early out deeper, then shallow later in the day when they’re in that shady flooded habitat,” concluded Iaconelli.