Entry 150-3

Kevin VanDam - The Classic Mentor

Staying Focused

Editor’s Note: Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, won the 2005 Bassmasters Classic by only 6 ounces. To be the best bass fishermen we possibly can be, we need to be mentored by the best bass fishermen we can find. So this week, we’ve asked Kevin VanDam to give us some tips and tactics that will help each of us become a better bass fisherman.

Question: Kevin, during the Classic how many boats were following you?

VanDam: Maybe as many as 20, including spectators who were moving around a lot because all the leaders in the tournament were fishing in the same pool, followed me.

Question: Boat traffic and spectator traffic are relatively-new elements in competitive fishing, but even on the weekends if you’re a weekend fisherman, you’ll still have a lot of boat pressure, jet ski pressure and even pressure from other anglers. How do you cope with the distractions of pressures when you’re fishing for $250,000 like you did in the Classic, or when you’re fishing for $500 in a weekend tournament?

VanDam: You have to realize there’s nothing you can do about water skiers, jet skiers, people who just like to ride up and down the lake and other competitors. But what you can look at is how these pressures will affect the patterns you’re fishing. In some cases, boat pressure can totally destroy a pattern you’ve been fishing. Boat traffic can muddy the banks, stir up the water and spook the fish. Pressure can destroy a pattern you’ve established. When this happens, getting upset does you no good. You should leave the area and go find another place and another way to catch bass.

I learned again at this Classic that spectator pressure is one of the elements involved in either winning or losing the tournament. You have to learn to manage that type of pressure. If I’ve got a lot of spectators chasing me, I’ll stop short 100 yards of where I want to fish, a practice that keeps the boat wakes down and also slows down the spectators. Then they won’t create as big a disturbance at the spot I want to fish.

Boat pressure, water ski pressure and fishing pressure all change the environment in which the bass are living. These pressures are all elements of the tournament you have to learn to adapt to if you’re going to win. Getting mad and frustrated doesn’t help you to win. As a matter of fact, it can keep you from winning. But just like a weather change can cause the fish to move, so can boat pressure or spectator pressure. Therefore, you have to be ready and willing to change if boat pressure starts to cause you not to catch bass. Getting mad isn’t a positive change.

Question: Kevin, you also said that during the Bassmasters Classic, most of the leaders in the tournament were all fishing in the same area. How did you keep from getting distracted by the other leaders of the tournament fishing so close to you?

VanDam: For me, that was a pretty easy challenge. I’ve learned over the years to only concern myself with the variables in fishing that I can control. I can’t control the weather, I can’t control the water, I can’t control spectators or boat traffic, and I can’t control other competitors. So, I don’t worry about those things. I can’t control how many bass another angler’s catching, and I can’t control where he’s fishing. I only can control what I do. However, I’m very aware of where the other competitors are, and I watch them to see what lures they’re fishing and how they’re fishing those lures. In the Classic, many of the leaders were fishing the exact same spots I was fishing. I noticed they were fishing with different presentations, techniques and lures than I was fishing, which made me focus more on the lures I was using. Nobody else that I could see was fishing the way I was fishing.

Question: Kevin, what were you doing that was different than the other competitors?

VanDam: I concentrated on fishing for the suspended bass in the top-of-the-water column. I used a very shallow-running jerkbait to try and catch those fish. The other fishermen were almost all fishing soft-plastic lures like tubes, worms and jigs down on the bottom. Or, they were fishing crankbaits in the middle-of-the-water column. Because I was confident in fishing a jerkbait, I felt like I could fish the jerkbait in the top water column where no one else was fishing. For this reason, I had a lot of confidence, even when I pulled up to an area that another angler had just left. I felt like I was fishing for bass that hadn’t seen the lures I was fishing. I had the right bait to catch the bass he wasn’t catching.

Question: Kevin, does this mean you were fishing behind some of the best bass fishermen in the world during the 2005 Classic?

VanDam: Absolutely, I fished behind most of the leaders every day of competition. They would hit a spot and catch what bass they were going to catch and then leave that site. I’d go in, use a different tactic and a different lure and catch my bass as well as some of the bass the other anglers didn’t catch. Now you have to remember also, that other people were catching some of the bass that I wasn’t catching. They were catching some bass on the bottom that I hadn’t tried to catch. So the real question was, were the fish on the bottom going to hold up and produce the winner? Or, were my fish in the top of the water column going to hold up?

The reason I believed in my pattern was because all the other anglers in the tournament were dividing up the fish that were on the bottom. I was the only fisherman fishing in the top fourth of the water column. I was confident that in a day of fishing that I could grind out enough bass in the top-water column to do well in this tournament. Every day I had plenty of bites to reconfirm that the tactic and technique I was using had the potential to produce the win. Herein lies another secret for winning a tournament and/or catching bass when you have a lot of fishing pressure. Look for and try to catch bass in a place on a type of cover or in a segment of the water column where no one else is fishing.

Most of the Classics have been won by bass fishermen who have found ways to catch bass in places and in water depths no one else was fishing. So if you compete in weekend tournaments, and you know everyone’s going to fish blow-downs or grass beds, try to find and catch bass on a different type of cover and structure or in a different section of the water, either deeper or more shallow than the other people are fishing. I knew from watching the other fishermen I was getting as many bites and catching as many keepers, if not more, than anyone else. So, I had confidence in my pattern.

Kevin VanDam - The Classic Mentor

Staying Focused

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