Entry 192-1
Kevin VanDam on Fishing Lake Amistad in March
Part 1: Looking Back at the B.A.S.S Tournament
Editor’s Note: This year we’re looking at how some of our top national pros fish in tournaments and the new techniques they develop on the tournament circuit. B.A.S.S. held its first bass tournament of 2007 at Lake Amistad on the Texas/Mexico border. Strike King’s Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, finished 5th in the tournament. Let’s learn how VanDam fished there.
Question: Kevin, you finished 5th at the tournament at Amistad, what was the weight of your bass?
VanDam: After four days, I’d caught 90 pounds and a few ounces.
Question: Would you have ever believed that 20 bass that weighed 90 pounds wouldn’t win the tournament?
VanDam: I knew the winner would have to catch over 100 pounds of bass over a 4-day period because this lake had a lot of bass in it. I knew that at this lake, you absolutely would have to fish for big bass to win. My primary bait there was the King Shad.
Question: What makes Amistad have so many king-sized bass?
VanDam: The lake has tremendous bass habitat, clear water, plenty of forage for the bass to feed on, a lot of flooded, mesquite trees and hydrilla. Because it’s located in the southern part of Texas, on the Mexican border, the fish have a tremendous growth rate. The lake has tons of big bass that weigh between 4- and 8-pounds each.
Question: What kind of decisions about fishing did you make before you began the tournament?
VanDam: I knew with the warm weather and the warm water, the big bass should be moving up and be ready to spawn. I also understood that big bass liked to take big baits. Lake Amistad was a lake where you would throw a big jig, a big spinner bait or a big swim bait – not just any lure. Strike King’s 10-inch Iguana lizard was also a very-appropriate bait for this lake.
Question: Why did you decide to use the King Shad as your primary bait?
VanDam: I like the King Shad because it’s a swim bait that’s not real big but not small either. The key to having success with the King Shad is that you can reel it really fast, and that’s exactly how I fished the bait. Then I’d twist and jerk the lure to make it look like a wounded shad. Because the water was really clear, I wanted a bait that would swim high in the water column. Since the King Shad only ran a couple of feet down, I knew that the bass in deep water would be looking up and spot that King Shad. That lure would pull the bass out of deep water up to near the surface so I could take them. The first day of competition, I caught 26-1/2-pounds of bass (5 fish), and every one of those bass had that King Shad deep in their throat. They’d just come up and gulp in that bait.
