I can't believe they left Mike Linnabury's name off the list. After all, he has won every single tournament he's ever entered.

Both of them.

The Lake Granbury (Texas) Open in 1998 was his coming out party - he thrashed the other seven competitors; second place finishing 8 pounds behind him. To put an exclamation point on his tournament dominance, he bested a 10 boat field the following month at the Squaw Creek Reservoir Invitational by a little over 5 pounds. Then, like all athletes should do when on top of their game, he retired. He said goodbye to competitive fishing having never been beaten, leaving a legacy of perfection. "Just ain't fair to the rest of the boys, me takin' their money like that," he said.

Yet, he still did not make the list created by BASS officials of the top 35 anglers ever to grace the front deck of a bass boat. At first I thought there must have been some sort of bias against anglers who fished non-BASS events. Then I noticed names of pros fishing the FLW trail (Dan Morehead, Clark Wendlandt, the Hibdons) - killed that theory.

The Greatest Angler Debate has been designed to sift through every angler that has ever paid an entry fee in a national tournament circuit and, in the end, name THE guy better than the rest. The list was created by using a points-based qualification system including: Classic victories (Rick Clunn has four), Angler-of-the-Year (AOY) titles (Roland Martin owns nine), FLW Championship victories (no angler has won more than one, and I don't recognize most of the names in the category), Bassmaster and FLW tournament victories, and the number of appearances in the Classic and FLW championships. (Sorry Linnabury, they had to draw the line somewhere.) After the parameters were set, the statistics of every angler who qualified were applied and the cream rose to the top.

Now, the fun part begins. We, as bass fishing fans, get to decide who will walk off the Classic stage in Pittsburgh next year as the greatest bass angler of all time. Yep, this race is entirely democratic. The guy who gets the most votes wins.

I've already been asked at least a hundred times who I consider the Top 5 candidates. And I've given at least 10 different answers. But finally, I think I have my favorites nailed down.

Kevin VanDam is an automatic. The guy has won the Classic, seven other BASS events, three CITGO Bassmaster Angler-of-the-Year titles and one FLW Angler-of-the-Year title, and he has qualified for 14 Classics. Plus, he has finished in the money in almost 80 percent of the tournaments he's fished. That's pretty dang strong.

You can't ignore Rick Clunn. He has won 14 Bassmaster tournaments plus the Big Show a record four times and owns one AOY ring. Oh, and he holds the record for most Classics fished - 28, consecutively.

Interestingly, no angler has chalked up the Super Six (Classic and FLW championship win, AOY title on both circuits, and a regular season win on both circuits). The angler nearest this goal is Davy Hite. Hite is only missing an FLW Angler-of-the-Year ring to have at least one mark in each category. Very impressive.

Then of course you have to consider the great Denny Brauer, all-time money winner in the sport with nearly $1.9 million in earnings (and that's not counting money he's won on the FLW circuit). And of course there's Roland Martin who has won more BASS events (19) and AOY titles than anyone. Can you discount Bill Dance, who won seven BASS events before the first Classic was ever held? What might he have accomplished had he not given up tournament fishing for a career in television? And don't think for a second that Larry Nixon won't be in the hunt. He's won 14 BASS events, a couple of FLWs, the Classic, and BASS AOY, twice.

If I looked at the numbers hard enough, I might be able to pull a couple of more guys into my Top 5 choices (Gary Klein and Mark Davis come to mind). But, really, a guy has to draw the line somewhere.

Do you disagree with me on any of the above choices? Send me a note with your thoughts (editorial@bassmaster.com). But let me warn you in advance: You're wrong.

By December of this year, a blue ribbon panel of experts will narrow the list of 35 down to 10. Beginning in the 2005 season, ESPN2 is dedicating a 30-minute weekly show to the Greatest Angler Debate, putting the Top 10 anglers in a head-to-head comparison based on their stats and allowing experts to lend insight into strengths of each angler.