Entry 194-1

Bass Fishing with Kevin VanDam and James Niggemeyer in the California Delta

Part 1: My Boat Sunk

Question: Kevin, what does being in 2nd place for the Angler-of-the-Year title feel like after only fishing two tournaments?

VanDam: You always want to start the season off well. I’ve had two good events. However, I wasn’t in contention to win either one of them. Derrick Remitz won the first one at Lake Amistad, and Aaron Martens won the second one at the California Delta. I finished 5th in the first and 6th in the one held on the California Delta. Both of those are solid finishes. So, I really feel good about where I am right now. I didn’t really have a good practice day here on Clear Lake in California, the site of our next tournament, because I have a little sinus infection. But I’ve got two more days of practice here before the tournament starts.

Question: In the California Delta tournament, you sunk your boat and kept on fishing. Tell us about that.

VanDam: We had a big storm hit the Delta, and there were a lot of reeds and tules floating on the surface. I was running wide open through them with my boat, and there was a log loose out in the middle of the river. The log punched a hole in the bottom of my boat, and water started coming in faster than my bilge pump could pump it out. I knew I couldn’t fish like that, so I called into B.A.S.S. headquarters and told them what happened. They brought me a boat out. While they were coming out, I used my trolling motor to get close to the shore. I caught two more bass, but they weren’t keepers.

I realized there was nothing I could do about what happened. I lost about 1 or 2 hours of fishing time, but I still caught enough fish to move up in the standings. I didn’t let sinking the boat ruin my day. You feel a lot better about yourself, when you move up in the standings each day, regardless of what happens. One of the things I really appreciate about the B.A.S.S. circuit is that when you have an accident like that, the B.A.S.S. folks really bust their humps to try to help you out and get you back in the tournament. They really kicked into overdrive when I made the call and told them what happened. They got another boat for me to fish in as quickly as they could.

Question: Even though you finished in 6th position, how much money did you win?

VanDam: I won $14,500. Now, the tournament score shows I won $15,500, but the State of California takes taxes out before you get your check. So, that’s where that portion of the money went. A lot of states do that now.

Question: How did you find your bass, and how did you catch them?

VanDam: The California Delta is a really big-bass place to fish. It’s a maze of canals and waterways. I primarily concentrated on points on the weeds and the grass. The Delta’s also a tide area. When the tide’s coming in, the current’s running one way, and when the tide’s going out, the current’s running the other way. So, the tide and the wind determined where and how I fished. But I was mainly on points in the weeds. I tried to fish the points that had currents coming across them because I felt that water movement would cause the bass to start biting. During a couple of days of the tournament, the water was slick, and the sun was bright. I caught my fish flipping a Strike King Denny Brauer Flip-N-Tube and a Strike King Wild Thang, a creature bait. Any day the wind would pick up, I’d fish these Strike King baits.

Next: How Kevin VanDam Fished and Caught Them All

Contents:

• Part 1: My Boat Sunk
• Part 2: How Kevin VanDam Fished and Caught Them All
• Part 3: The Mindset of a Winner
• Part 4: From a Zero to a Hero
• Part 5: When to Fish Little Baits on Big Bass Waters