Entry 245-2

Another $100,000 Win for Kevin VanDam Using the New Sexy Shad Chrome Color

Part 2: Day 1 of Competition

Question: Kevin, what was the morning like on the first day of competition?

VanDam: We had a bright, sunny day, with almost no wind, which made positioning my boat easy. Then I could find those little sweet spots in the grass where the bass were holding. However, without any wind and having high, bright skies, the bass weren’t very active. I struggled to get my first bite, but I finally caught a 5-1/2-pounder. Later, I caught another quality-sized fish. It took me until about 1:00 pm to finally catch a solid limit.

When I knew I had at least 15 pounds, I started moving around and looking for new water to catch more bass. By moving around, I was able to catch a few more bass and cull the bass I caught earlier. I ended the first tournament day with 18 pounds. I was really thrilled at having 18 pounds, because I didn’t feel like I had a good place to fish and hadn’t caught many fish in the morning. After the weigh-in, I was in eighth place.

Question: How were the leaders catching their fish?

VanDam: Just about all of them were catching their bass by sight fishing, which surprised me. I couldn’t believe there was that many quality bass still on the beds. But the first day of the tournament was a perfect day for sight fishing. The water was clear, there was no wind, and we had a high, bright sky. The sight fishermen were able to see well under these conditions, and that’s why they caught big stringers on the first day.

Question: Kevin, did you catch the most of the bass you weighed-in off the first two places you found in practice?

VanDam: Yes, I did. But I also spotted some bass schooling. The region I was fishing was at least 1-mile square, and most of the area was solid grass with a lot of mats scattered throughout. So, I moved around and marked other spots where I caught bass. I tried to learn my area a little better than I’d learned it in practice.

I’ve learned that if you find an area in Florida that’s holding bass, if you’ll mill around in that region and keep working, chunking and winding, you can figure out what the bass want to bite and how they want to take the bait. You can’t run all over the lake and locate bass everywhere. So, when you find bass, there’s a reason for them to be in that region. I’ve learned that milking the area where you find bass is better than trying to find another place where the bass are concentrated.

Question: What did you learn after your two honey holes played-out on the first day?

VanDam: More than anything else, I became really confident in my techniques and the pattern I was fishing with the Red Eye Shad in the new Sexy Shad Chrome color. I said to myself, “Kevin, you can catch these bass in this area with this bait. Use this same pattern tomorrow and you should move up on the leader board.”

Question: Did you stay with the Sexy Shad Chrome color all day?

VanDam: I stayed with the Sexy Shad Chrome all day, but I threw a worm and a Carolina rig, as well as a jerkbait and a pig-n-jig. I even tried a top-water lure. But I learned that my best bait was a Red Eye Shad in the new Sexy Shad Chrome color.

Question: What kind of retrieve did you use, Kevin?

VanDam: I was yo-yoing the bait. When I was in the open water, I would pull the bait and drop it. The Red Eye Shad is the only lipless bait on the market that flutters and swims when you let it fall. Under those conditions, to get the bass to bite, you had to let the bait fall after you’d rip it out of the grass or after swimming it through open water. The bass wouldn’t take the bait on a steady retrieve. I found that the Red Eye Shad’s ability to swim as it fell seemed to be the action that triggered the strikes from the bass I caught. Most of the fish I caught were taken when the bait was falling.

Next: Day 2 of the Tournament

Contents:

• Part 1: What I Learned in Practice
• Part 2: Day 1 of Competition
• Part 3: Day 2 of the Tournament
• Part 4: Day 3 of the Tournament
• Part 5: The Final Day of Competition