Entry 149-2
How Kevin VanDam Won the 2005 Bassmasters Classic
What VanDam Learned on the Practice Day at the Classic
Editor’s Note: Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, won more than $250,000 this year at the Bassmasters Classic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Three Rivers area. This Classic has become known as the “Minnow Classic,” because the participants caught so many small bass and was won by the lightest weights of fish in the history of the Classics. VanDam won the tournament by a mere 6 ounces. According to VanDam, “This was the most mentally-challenging tournament I’ve ever fished.” This week you’ll see VanDam’s strategy, his frustration, his disappointment and his eventual triumph.
Question: Kevin, what did you learn in the one day of practice you had before the
2005 Bassmasters Classic?
VanDam: The weather was the key on the practice day with lots of wind and cloud
cover on the practice day. There were also thunderstorms coming through the area. We had water clarity of 2- to 4-feet deep. On these types of days, the bass bite really well. On that day, I spent most of my time running and gunning with reaction baits like top-water lures, jerkbaits and spinner baits. I tried to figure out what had happened to the bass during the month since I’d practiced, and the water went off-limits. By using fast-moving baits, I was able to key into the things I needed to know. I could see plenty of shad on the surface, which told me that fish would be feeding up off the bottom.
By running to all the rivers, I saw that some of the rivers were more stained than others, so the river I decided to fish was the clearest of them all. Water clarity is very important when you’re fishing for smallmouth because they’re basically sight feeders. If you’re a reaction-type bait fisherman like I am, you know the fish have to see the bait to react to it. The water clarity keyed me into the area I needed to fish.
Seeing the shad told me there would be a large population of bass looking up to feed on the shad near the surface. It also told me the types of lures I needed to fish and where in the water column I needed to concentrate my fishing. On practice day, I used Strike King’s 3/6-ounce bleeding spinner bait, Strike King’s 1/4-ounce Pro Model buzzbait, Strike King’s 3X Finesse worm and a jerkbait.
