Entry 136-4 

Kevin VanDam - What to do When Your Fishing Goes to Pot

When the Sun Comes Out

Editor's Note: Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, has won about every honor an angler can win in professional bass fishing. He must make his fishing count, even when it goes to pot. This week we'll find our how VanDam recovers from a fishing situation like that.

Question: Kevin, how do you fish if you're in a tournament, the rain has been coming down for three days, the lake hasn't muddied-up, and you've found bass and catching them. Now on the last day of the tournament, when you wake up, you don't hear that tap, tap, tap on the roof and realize the rain has stopped. You look outside your motel room and see every star in the sky. Then you know you'll have a bluebird day the next morning, and the fishing conditions have totally changed. What will you do?

Answer: Okay. When the weather's bad, and the rain's pouring down, more than likely I'll be catching the bass on reaction baits like the Diamond Shad, Strike King's spinner baits and Strike King crankbaits. The fishing conditions have completely changed, which means the bass won't take reaction baits like they have the previous day. However, you have a small window of opportunity during that first hour of daylight when the bass still may be on the same pattern.

I'll test the bass with a Diamond Shad just to see if I can pick up three or four fish before the bass determine that the pattern has changed. I'll go to the same places where I've found fish when the rain's been pouring down and see if I can't still continue to pick up one or two bass on that Diamond Shad. I won't change any of my tactics for the first hour. If I've been catching the fish on a Diamond Shad, a spinner bait or a crankbait, then those are the baits I'll keep on using. Regardless of the weather change, if you get on the lake early, you still have a chance to catch bass on the same pattern during that first hour of daylight.

But after that hour of trying to catch the fish the way I've caught them before, I'll almost always rely on a vertical presentation. I'll be flipping, pitching, casting a jig and/or fishing a tube or a worm. I'll be fishing slowly and I trying to finesse the fish into biting. On a clear day, the bass won't be roaming like they have been on the previous rainy days. They'll be holding tight to cover and not wanting to bite. They've eaten good for three days during the rain, and now will be like an 80-year-old man who weighs 300 pounds and has just gotten up from the dinner table and walked in and sat down in his easy chair. He really doesn't want to do anything except possibly take a nap. The only way he'll eat is for you to bring the food to him and put it right under his nose. In the same way, you have to put a lure right in front of that bass's face and finesse fish that bass to get it to bite.

One of the secrets for this type of bass-fishing success is to make multiple casts to the same target. You want to leave the bait in the strike zone for a long time to try and convince that bass that it really does want to hit that bait. You have to fish extremely slowly and give those baits as much action as you can. You have to jiggle and twitch the bait right in front of the fish's face.

Question: Kevin, if you see a bush about the size of a No. 1 washtub out on an isolated point that you're fairly confident holds bass and believe the rest of the competitors in the tournament have overlooked this little bit of cover, how will you catch the bass in that bush on this day?

Answer: I'll flip a Strike King tube - probably the 4-1/2-inch one - into that bush. If the water's stained, I'll use black neon or a black-and-blue tube. If the water's clear, I'll be fishing either a green-pumpkin- or a watermelon-colored tube. I'll be flipping that tube on 20-pound-test line so that when a bass takes the bait I can get the fish out of that cover. My first cast is going to be right to the center of the bush. Once that tube gets down in that bush, I'll keep it in that bush for 1 to 2 minutes by jiggling and shaking the bait. Then I'll pick that bush apart with that tube by making a lot of casts to that bush and jiggling and wiggling that bait until the bass gets so aggravated that the fish finally will take the tube. I'll usually have a rattle in my tube, and I make sure that rattle is talking to that bass the whole time the tube is in that bush. More than likely I'll make 10 to 15 casts to that bush and shake and rattle that tube for 1 to 2 minutes every time I make that cast.

Question: Okay Kevin, if on your eleventh cast, you catch a 4-1/2-pound largemouth, will you leave that bush, go to another spot and then come back later, or will you continue to fish that same bush?

Answer: I'll get that 4-1/2 pounder off my hook and in my livewell as quickly as possible. Then I'll pitch right back into that bush because when you catch a bass in a bush like this, you'll usually excite the other bass that may be holding in that same bush. I'll make four or five more casts to that bush to see if I can get another bass to bite. However, if I don't catch another bass, I'll leave that bush and plan to return there two or three more times during the day.

Next: When Fame Doesn't Pay

Contents:

• Part 1: The Day the Pattern Changes
• Part 2: When a Cold Front Kills Your Bass Fishing
• Part 3: Let Her Blow
• Part 4: When the Sun Comes Out
• Part 5: When Fame Doesn't Pay