Entry 149-5
How Kevin VanDam Won the 2005 Bassmasters Classic
The Final Day of the 2005 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 we’ve seen VanDam’s strategy, his frustration, his disappointment and his eventual triumph.
Although we all respect Kevin for his fishing ability, I think most of us overlook his mental toughness and what’s required to become a mentally-tough bass fisherman. Today we’ll hear how Kevin turned his defeat into learning experiences and positive energy, not negative energy. We all can too. If you use defeat to strengthen your character and resolve, then you too can reach the heights about which other men merely dream.
Question: Kevin, did you think you had a shot of winning the Classic on the last day of the tournament?
VanDam: I very definitely felt I had a chance to win. I’d already moved from fifth place to third place, and as soon as we got to the water to put our boats in, I saw two things I thought might give me an advantage. First, the field was cut from 50 competitors down to 25. Now I only had half as many contestants to compete against as I’d had the first two days of the competition. I knew the reduction of fishermen would take some of the pressure off the water where we were all fishing.
For the first two days of the tournament, current had been coming through the lake. On that last day, when I put my boat in the water, I saw there was no current, which was how it had been sometimes a month before during pre-practice. Some days during pre-practice current came down the river, and other days there was no current. I’d already learned that when there wasn’t current coming down the river, instead of holding tight to the cover, the smallmouth would move away from the cover and suspend well up off the bottom, which made them prime targets for the jerkbait. I believe jerkbait fishing is one of my strong suits.
I knew the other guys in the top 10 were fishing soft-plastic baits on the bottom. Aaron Martens, who’d been leading the tournament, was fishing a drop-shot rig, which even though it was up off the bottom, wasn’t far enough off the bottom to catch the suspended bass. I knew without clouds and wind, the bass were going to be scattered and suspended, and the contestants, who were fishing for those bass that were holding tight to the cover along the bottom were really going to have a tough time catching fish. I knew my pattern for fishing a jerkbait should be stronger than the other tactics being used.
Question: Did you think those other fishermen would make the adjustments they needed to make to fish when there was no current?
VanDam: I didn’t know whether they would or not. But I knew exactly what I had to do, I knew the bait I had to fish, and I knew that I could be in a position to win based on everything I’d seen that morning before we left the launch site. I love to fish jerkbaits, and everything about the day dictated that this was going to be a jerkbait fishing day. The Classic was evolving to play to my strengths. I felt if I could take advantage of what I knew I needed to do, I’d have a chance to win.
Question: Since your strength is in the jerkbait, did you think the jerkbait alone would win the Classic for you?
VanDam: No, I didn’t. Another of my strengths, I believe, is my ability to adjust to
weather, water and wind conditions quickly when I’m on the lake. So although I felt confident that the last day of the tournament was going to be a jerkbait day, I also felt confident that regardless of what happened during the day, I could make adjustments in my presentation and retrieve to make the lure fit the fishing conditions. I think the last day the other competitors really didn’t adjust well to the changes that were taking place.
Question: Kevin, when did you think you’d won the Classic?
VanDam: I really didn’t know until the very end. For the first time on the last day, I had a limit in the box, even though I still lost several really-good fish. In fact, I lost two big bass in the last hour of competition. If I could have landed either one of those fish, I would have felt confident that I’d won the tournament, but I didn’t. The fish got off the hooks. Once again I was frustrated and aggravated knowing I had the two bites and the two fish that could’ve won the tournament for me and wasn’t able to put them in the boat. One of those fish was a 2-pound bass, which was a giant for this tournament, and the other fish was 1-1/2 pounder, which was also a really-good fish for the Three Rivers area near Pittsburgh.
Question: When you got to the take-out point with your limit of bass, did you know then that you’d won?
VanDam: No, I really didn’t. All the guys who were in contention, were talking to each other at the take-out. I saw that no one else had a limit, and I started to think I might have a chance to pull this thing off. I knew that the 2-pound bass might take the tournament for one of the leaders. During the weigh-in, while I was talking to the other competitors, I could tell the tournament would be between Aaron Martens and me. Aaron knew coming in to the final weigh-in that he had only three small fish and that those fish had to weigh 2-pounds each for him to win. He also knew that I had five fish, so he told me later that’s when he thought he’d lost the Classic. When the fish hit the scales, I won the 2005 Classic tournament by only 6 ounces. Even though my five fish didn’t weigh a total of 5 pounds, I still had 6 ounces more than Aaron to win.
Question: What does winning this Classic mean to you?
VanDam: It means a lot. The first time I won the Classic, I didn’t really understand what winning the Bassmasters Classic would mean. I didn’t understand the opportunities I’d have and what a big deal it was. But the second time, I really understood what it could do for my fishing career. So, I appreciated the win of the 2005 Classic so much more than I did the first time I won.
Question: Kevin, some of the real keys to winning the Classic included not only figuring out the fish, the bait it was going to take to make it bite and your ability to adjust on the water, but also your ability to keep your emotions in-check and keep a strong, mental attitude when you were losing so many fish. If you hadn’t lost so many fish the first two days, you would have been the leader in the Classic. Most fishermen would’ve been so destroyed mentally after those first two days, and they might not have fished as efficiently as you did on that last day to win. You lost two big fish on the last day. Regardless, of your fishing skill and your fishing knowledge, losing that many fish can destroy any angler’s confidence. How were you able to keep yourself together mentally to fish hard enough that last day to win?
VanDam: Experience. I’ve learned not to cry over spilt milk. There’s nothing you can do to bring those bass that have gotten away back. When you lose a fish, you’ve got to try and learn all you can about what has made that bass bite, so you can try and get another one to bite. That’s what I really tried to do. When I’d lose a fish, I’d tell myself, “O.k., Kevin, you lost that fish. Now, do the same thing you did to make that one bite to get another one to bite.”
I don’t throw rods in the bottom of the boat, start cussing or jump up and down in a rage. When you lose a fish, getting mad, angry and upset doesn’t help you catch the next bass. If you spend too much time thinking about the one that got away and not thinking about the next one you’re going to catch, you’ll lose, and I know that. It’s tough, really tough to get yourself back together quickly after you lose a fish that may have won a tournament for you. But I’ve learned over the years, that accomplishing that goal is one of the most-critical keys to consistent bass fishing. I’ve tried to discipline myself mentally to recover from a loss as quickly as possible.
Losing bass is just a part of the tournament-fishing environment, just like a baseball player’s striking out when he goes to the plate. If he doesn’t regain his confidence as he walks back to the dugout, there’s a good chance he’s going to strike out the next time he goes to bat. One of two things happens when you lose a fish, you either turn that loss into a positive by learning what caused you to lose the fish and by becoming more determined to catch the next one, or you let that lost fish ruin your day. I decided many years ago, I would not allow losing a bass to ruin my day.
Question: Kevin, with this tournament being so close, and your losing so many fish, how much of this win was determined by your mental attitude versus your fishing ability?
VanDam: You have to have both. But I’ll say that this Classic was the most, mentally-tough event I’d ever fished in my life. The mental pressures were unreal. Keeping myself together and thinking about the next bass instead of the last bass was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done mentally. I had to concentrate, and not allow losing fish to change my focus, which was extremely difficult. I really had a bad start the first day of the tournament, because I lost a lot of fish I felt I should have caught. But instead of viewing those losses as crippling, or taking me out of the tournament, those bass I lost made me more determined to catch the next fish that bit.
I’ve learned to deal with these kinds of emotional problems over the years that I’ve been involved in tournament fishing, and I think herein lies the key to not only winning the Classic, but to winning any bass tournament you fish. You’ve got to use the fish that you lose to make you stronger and more confident and not to make you weaker and discouraged. If you’re going to win in bass fishing, you’ve got to get mentally tough.
