Entry 192-5

Kevin VanDam on Fishing Lake Amistad in March

Part 5: The Last Day of the Tournament

Question: Kevin, during this time, you’d fallen into 7th place.

VanDam: But the good news was that the weather forecast was for cloud cover and a lot of wind, which created ideal conditions for me. The wind was blowing 25-miles-per hour in the area where I was fishing, which really helped to muddy the water. Early in the morning, I caught two of my biggest bass on the King Shad. However, as the wind continued to blow, I could see that the water was getting too dirty to fish the King Shad. I changed lures and went to the Strike King KVD Pro-Model Spinner Bait that’s sold only through the Bass Pro Shop stores. I started slow-rolling the spinner bait out to the deeper edge of the mud line. I caught a couple of big bass with that tactic later in the last day to give me about 23 pounds, which helped me move up to 5th place.

Question: Tell us about the two big fish you caught on the King Shad.

VanDam: The first fish of the morning was a 5 pounder that I caught on the King Shad. The other was a 7 pounder that really put on a show for the TV camera. It was the most-impressive fish that I caught during the tournament. I was waking the King Shad by a shallow bush in 3 or 4 feet of water when that 7 pounder came out of the bush like a shark. The bass jumped all the way out of the water as it swallowed the bait. That violent strike scared me to pieces. The bass was a big spawned-out female that only weighed 7 pounds, but the fish had the frame of a 10 pounder. That bass really freaked me out, it took the bait so violently. I landed the bass, which certainly helped me out with my weight of bass. Luckily, I had a camera man in the boat with me, and the whole episode was caught on film.

Question: Alright, Kevin, tell me about the spinner bass.

VanDam: I was fishing with a Blue-Glimmer Shad spinner bait. I chose that color because of the shad in that region and the water clarity there. I was casting up into the stained water and slow-rolling the bait out of the dirty water into the clear water. I needed a bait that best-matched the color of the shad on that lake on that day and the Blue Glimmer Shad did the job. Both the fish I took on the KVD Glimmer Shad were 5-pound bass. I had one small bass for the day’s catch that I wasn’t able to cull.

Question: How do you keep that many big bass in your live well?

VanDam: On the final day of the tournament, we fish by ourselves, and my Nitro boat has big live wells in it in which I can keep plenty of big bass.

Question: In this tournament, there never was a time that you didn’t use a Strike King lure was there?

VanDam: That’s right, Strike King provided me with all the right lures to catch bass in this tournament.

Question: How much money did you go home with for 5th place?

VanDam: I think it was $17, 000. Plus, you have to remember that my entry fee was $5, 000, and I had hotel, food, gas and other expenses for being out there a week. But I got a lot of points toward the 2008 Bassmaster Classic, and I had a great start for the season.

Question: Your next tournament is where?

VanDam: The California Delta.

Contents:

• Part 1: Looking Back at the B.A.S.S Tournament
• Part 2: The First Day of Competition at Lake Amistad
• Part 3: The Second Day of Competition at Amistad
• Part 4: The Third Day of the Tournament at Lake Amistad
• Part 5: The Last Day of the Tournament