Meh
He was doing what the competition was doing and then beating them on game day.
It is human nature for guys to talk fishing when they meet pro fisherman, with that comes tricks, tactics, and spots. More people wanted to talk to KVD than other anglers. This was an advantage, but not cheating. Fishing guides are still using their knowledge to help pros out. Now it is cheating.

Roland Martin with KVD 2nd.

Jacob Wheeler has to be the current best.

roland martin, rick clunn, and KVD.. in no particular order

KVD has 8. 7 with Bass. 1 with FLW. Plus 4 classic victories. And more wins than Roland
KVD is the best and is not even questionable

Right now it's gotta be KVD. Seems to me he's won consistently (every couple years or more) over a longer period of time than anyone else. I think Wheeler is actually performing better than anyone ever right now, but he's gotta keep it up for a good long while to be par with KVD. It's hard for me to not say Clunn because I like him so much, he has to be able to power fish, and fish pretty fast to do well it seems. I'm glad to see Thrift got mentioned a couple times, I've always thought he's been kind of underrated. Christie needs a couple of AOY's and he's up there; his record between BASS and FLW combined is is beyond impressive. So for now it's KVD, he was winning in the 90's and he's still winning now. He was winning one or two tournaments a year still with BASS before he jumped to MLF, and he's won once with them and finished high in AOY this last season. His resume outweighs everyone.

I'll give an honorable mention (he's not really in the GOAT conversation but definitely a great) to John Cox. What that guy has done over the last decade, the way he's done it is insane. I think he knows a lot more about how his success happens than he lets on. He might be the best sight fisherman ever.

Ott Defoe. Okay, I am ready to receive my lashings for this choice.

He’s maybe a top 15….I like him and enjoy watching him, but he ain’t the GOAT.

KVD hands down,not only is he a bass fishing bad [censored].He is also a hard core deer hunting machine and loves guns and his country.That Wheeler kid is damn good but he comes off as being soft.

He’s a mommas boy, but that doesn’t impact his fishing.

Clunn, KVD, Wheeler and maybe Thrift are in a class by themselves as far as ability

Lets go by Region.

Florida - Roland Martin
Northern lakes - KVD
Deep east Texas lakes, Toledo and Rayburn - Larry Nixon, Rick Clunn, and Bill Dance
East Texas lakes, Pines, Caddo, Patman - Doug Rutland and Justin Tunnell
S Texas lakes, Paul Elias
Cali delta, Skeet Reese
Tennessee, NC, SC, Ky, A Martens

KVD to me and it's not really close. Lot's of respect to Clunn and Martin as well, but those guys did it in a far less competitive era. KVD 's ability to eliminate and cover water changed the sport. Technology, faster boats, and better gear definitely helped him do this. He also "commercialized" the sport and brought it into the mainstream.

My "Mt Rushmore" would be KVD, Martin, Clunn, and Dance. (Thrift, Wheeler, Parker are close) I could easily see Wheeler surpassing Dance in the near future.

I thought for the longest time Rick Clunn had established his self as the best of all time. Then I thought KVD and a couple of others might have passed him. Then 20 more years went by and even to this day he is still out there and has beat the best in tournaments the last few years so because of his excellence at his age and the fact he is still out there and competing at the top level I am going to have to stick with him again as being the all time best at this time.

Kvd

But I’d like to see how the no information rule would have played out all those years.

You guys knew who I was referring to and I didn't even have to say his name. Of the guys mentioned above are all great fisherman and each one has contributed to the sport of bassfishing and impacted bassfishing in a very positive way helping to move the sport forward and make it mainstream, which then opened up streams of income for alot of people involved with bassfishing especially the fisherman. You guys mentioned some big names in the sport, IMHO the only one to even come close too promoting bassfishing to the world anywhere close to what Kevin Van Dam has is Bill Dance. (He was a great tournament angler, but it was his tv show that really introduced mainstream America to bassfishing, KVD took the ball and ran with it).You can go anywhere in the world and say KVD and people who know nothing about bassfishing will know exactly who you are speaking of. As far as longevity in the sport at a high level, hard to argue about Rick Clunn. He's right up there with VanDam, just not as well known outside of fishing circles. Hell,some of the guys that Clunn fishes against now were not even born yet,while he was in this game kicking butt and taking names. How old is Clunn now anyways?