Entry 192-4
Kevin VanDam on Fishing Lake Amistad in March
Part 4: The Third Day of the Tournament 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, what happened on this third day of the tournament?
VanDam: Going into day three, I was in 4th or 5th place in the tournament and feeling pretty good about my chances to win. I knew that if the conditions stayed the same, I could catch 100 pounds of bass during the tournament. I was only 2 pounds off the lead, and I felt I had a great chance to win.
But Mother Nature dealt me a joker instead of the ace I needed. The wind quit blowing, we had high skies and a bright day, and early in the morning I saw that the bass weren’t gonna hit the King Shad. I realized that to have a chance of winning, I had to switch baits. Most of the fish I caught that day, I caught on a Strike King Zero and the Iguana by pitching these baits in the trees. I only caught about 17 pounds on the third day. That day really hurt my chances for winning. On that day I only caught one 5 pounder, 2, 4 pounders and some other small fish.
Because the wind quit blowing, I really had a tough day. I needed the wind to fish the King Shad because at Amistad, we could see 20-feet down into the water. The clarity of the water, combined with high, bright skies and no wind, caused the bass not to come up to the surface to take the King Shad like they did when the water had a little chop and some stain. The wind and the stained water would cut down on the light penetration. Then the bass wouldn’t be as reluctant to come to the surface. However, not only did my conditions change, and I had to switch baits to better match the conditions, I lost a couple of really-big bass that could’ve kept me in the hunt to win. I just really had a tough day.
Question: Why did you decide to use the Iguana and the Zero?
VanDam: When you get high, bright skies during postspawn conditions, typically a vertical presentation of your lure will produce more bass than a horizontal presentation will. Both these lures are big-bass lures. The subtle fall of the Zero is very enticing to the bass. I chose the 8-inch Iguana instead of the 10-inch model because I wanted a faster fall since I was using a heavy sinker and fishing very-deep structure. In very-clear water’s like we had at Amistad, I preferred to fish with a heavy sinker and a smaller bait so that the Iguana would fall quickly through the underwater trees and hopefully trigger a reaction strike. This tactic worked because I did have two big bites. If I could’ve landed those bass, it would’ve kept me in the hunt to win. But I just didn’t land my fish.
