Entry 192-2
Kevin VanDam on Fishing Lake Amistad in March
Part 2: The First Day of Competition at Lake Amistad
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, on the first day at Lake Amistad, where did you fish, and why did you decide to fish there?
VanDam: The wind was blowing really hard on that first day, so I decided to fish points that would get a lot of wind action. I also chose little pockets on the lake that had wind blowing into them. Because those windy points and pockets were getting so much wave actions, the water would be stained somewhat and had a little color in it. I also noticed that plenty of shad were feeding in that stirred-up water, and I figured the bass would be feeding on the shad in that same area.
Question: Around what kind of structure were you throwing the King Shad?
VanDam: There were numbers of flooded mesquite trees in the area I was fishing around, so I targeted the under-water mesquite trees that were 5-14 feet from the surface. I was swimming the King Shad above the mesquite trees. The bass were suspended up in the water column above the trees because the water was stirred-up, and the shad were feeding in that top story of water. 
So all these conditions created the perfect environment to fish the King Shad.
Question: How quickly were you reeling the King Shad, and how deep were you running the bait?
VanDam: I was running the bait about 2-feet down with a medium retrieve. Since the water temperatures were in the mid-50s, I didn’t want to reel the King Shad too fast. The King Shad had a real lively action to it because it was a jointed bait. It also made a lot of noise as it moved through the water, which enabled the fish to hone in on it.
I didn’t want to reel the bait too fast because some of the bass were having to come from 10- or 12-foot-deep water to get to the bait. If I’d reeled it really fast, the lure wouldn’t have been in front of the fish when they came up to strike it. Later on, as the water warms up at Amistad, I’m sure you’ll be able to reel faster because the body metabolism of the fish will have gotten faster. 
However, at the time of year that we were fishing in March, knowing that the bass were still somewhat sluggish, I used a medium retrieve.
Question: How big was the first bass you caught?
VanDam: I caught a tremendous number of 1- to 3-pound bass, and I had to sort through a lot of those small fish before I caught the 5- to 6-pound bass. But I finally caught a limit of those 5 to 6 pounders and wound up with 26 pounds for 5 fish on the first day.
