Entry 194-2

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

Part 2: How Kevin VanDam Fished and Caught Them All

Question: Kevin, how were you fishing the Wild Thang and throwing the Strike King tubes?

VanDam: I was flipping all of my soft plastics to the holes in the grass on points that had reeds. I was Texas rigging the Wild Thang weedless and pitching it into the holes. When I was fishing the spinner bait, I was fishing it with a slow retrieve. I was fishing a 3/8-ounce double-willowleaf-blade KVD spinner bait in the shad color. I was slow rolling the bait through the top-2 feet of the water column. The deepest water I was fishing was only about 4-feet deep. I was trying to reel the spinner bait really slowly across the points that had wind blowing onto them. I’m sure the bass thought the spinner bait was a shad.

Question: What was the biggest fish you caught during the tournament, Kevin?

VanDam: It weighed about 7 pounds.

Question: What did you catch your big bass on, Kevin?

VanDam: Most of them I caught on the spinner bait. I also caught a good number of the fish I weighed in on Strike King’s new Red Eye Shad.

Question: How were you fishing the Red Eye Shad?

VanDam: I was fishing it across thin grass points in the same areas I was fishing the Strike King KVD spinner bait. If the grass was really thick on the point, I’d be casting the spinner bait. If the grass was sparse, I’d cast the Red Eye Shad.

Question: Did you catch any bass on the Red Eye Shad?

VanDam: Absolutely. But I didn’t catch any of my 7-pounders on the Red Eye Shad. All the big fish I caught were on the spinner bait. I caught 3- and 4-pounders, however, on the Red Eye Shad, which are really-good-sized fish you want to catch in any tournament.

Question: So, you caught the 72 pounds, 5 ounces of bass you weighed in for four days on several different lures?

VanDam: But, by far, my primary baits were the spinner bait and the Red Eye Shad.

Question: Why did the bass want those particular baits in this tournament?

VanDam: The bass were setting up on these grass points, waiting on the current to bring baitfish to them. There are numbers of baitfish in the California Delta, and the Red Eye Shad and the Strike King spinner bait best imitate the shad these bass were eating.

Question: How were you fishing the Red Eye Shad?

VanDam: I was casting it out of the spotty grass and running the bait through the grass. Then when it would hit the grass, I’d jerk it out of the grass and continue to retrieve. I’d get a bite most of the time, when I’d rip the Red Eye Shad out of the grass. The bass seemed to want the bait to hit the grass and swim fast after they hit the grass before they’d attack it. The Red Eye Shad is really a unique bait because most lipless crankbaits, when you kill them, fall to the bottom like an anvil. But when you kill the Red Eye Shad, it shimmies, shakes and swims to the bottom like an injured baitfish. The Red Eye Shad has an action like no other lipless bait you fish. It is by far the best lipless crankbait I’ve ever fished.

Question: What color Red Eye Shad were you fishing?

VanDam: Red on 17-pound-test fluorocarbon line.

Question: What were you fishing the spinner bait on, Kevin?

VanDam: I was fishing it on 25-pound-test monofilament line, reeling it really slowly. The bait has a double-willowleaf on it so you can swim it slowly. Because it has the Perfect Skirt, I didn’t have to use any type of trailer, even though I did have a trailer hook on it because it’s built into the skirt.

Question: What color spinner bait did the bass seem to like best?

VanDam: The Blue Shad and the Smokey Joe Clear were the two colors I fished with most of the time.

Next: The Mindset of a Winner

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