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VanDam and the Wild Thang

More About How VanDam Fishes the Wild Thang

Editor's Note: Thirty-three-year old Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, likes to fish with Strike King lures and particularly Strike King's Wild Thang, a creature bait, that he used to win the 2001 BASS Masters Classic in New Orleans, Louisiana. Chosen Angler of the Year on the B.A.S.S. circuit in 1991, 1996 and 1999 and ranked No. 1 in the world of professional bass fishing by www.bassfan.com, which is evaluated on statistics from the tournament bass-fishing trails like B.A.S.S. and FLW, VanDam also enjoys being with his family and hunting deer.

Question: Kevin, with your creature bait, the Wild Thang, are you catching the bass while swimming the bait, or are you catching the bass on the fall?

VanDam: You can catch bass both ways with a creature bait. For instance, you can swim the bait like a spinner bait, by changing the speed of the bait. But the creature baits don't have that loud presentation a spinner bait does, yet they do have good profiles going through the water. Strike King makes a great pearl one that's a dynamite bait. I asked Strike King to not have a stark-white color for a shad imitator but rather more of a subdued pearl, because of the water clarity. These baits work best in off-colored water. The stark white is just too overpowering -- too bright. However, this gray silver Wild Thang has a good shad look to it and causes numbers of bass bites on the swim. Bass will come up and smash the pearl Wild Thang like they do a spinner bait.

Question: Kevin, what size hook and what size line are you using on creature baits and why?

VanDam: I start with 20-pound Bass Pro XPS fluorocarbon and then change sizes, depending on how thick the cover is. I'll usually fish this bait around scatter cover and sometimes in the thickest cover. If I'm trying to make longer casts and fish in more open areas, I'll throw this 20-pound line on a 7-foot heavy-action pitching rod and use a sinker that gives me the sink rate that I need. I always throw a heavy Mustad Bigmouth two-bait hook made of bright nickel that has been designed for flipping. This hook that has been designed for two baits has a really wide gap, and I like the 4/0 size. You want a big hook for a big, wide bait to have the highest hooking percentage.

Question: Because the creature bait is a big and bulky bait, are you letting the bass have the bait somewhat longer before you set the hook, or are you hitting the bass with the hook as soon as the bass takes the hook?

VanDam: Since the Wild Thang is a big-bass bait, you don't catch many 12 inchers on it because of the sheer size of the lure. When a bass bites the Wild Thang, the fish inhales it. I always set my hook right away. One of the neat things about this bait is that you can very easily modify it by pinching off some of the wings and the flappers or both and making the bait into a large tube.

During the Classic, I cut the wings off the front of the Wild Thang and used the big flappers on the tail and the tube back as my bait. Doing this cut down on the lure's profile, changed the action of the Wild Thang and allowed the bait to sink just a little bit faster. However, even when the Wild Thang is configured like this, it still pushes a tremendous amount of water. In the Classic, I wanted to cut down the profile of the lure to catch the 12 inchers. And that's another of the reasons why I like to fish with creature baits -- all the modifying you can do.

Next: VanDam's Favorite Wild Thang Colors




 

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