New BASS Angler of the Year for 2010 – Kevin VanDam
Day 5: Kevin VanDam – His Two New Concepts in Bass Fishing
Editor’s Note: Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, won his 6th Angler-of-the-Year title last week in July, 2010, using some brand-new Strike King Lures.
When Kevin VanDam introduced the Sexy Shad color on a crankbait and then went out and proved its value by winning three tournaments, we all learned that VanDam could catch bass and help create lures and colors that would help us all catch more bass. Almost every year VanDam has a new lure that plays a major role in his success for that year. He had phenomenal success with the Red Eye Shad, and to prove that wasn’t a fluke, he went out and won the 2010 Bassmasters Classic on the Red Eye Shad in the chartreuse color. For most of this year, VanDam has been touting what he believes to be the best deep-diving crankbait on the market – the Series 6XD. And to prove its value, he won the Kentucky Lake Tournament on that lure. This year he also started testing and using silent-running crankbaits. Strike King introduced a Strike King Series 6XD that was silent with no rattles in it. At the ICAST Show at Las Vegas in July, Strike King introduced silent-running crankbaits throughout their line of crankbaits and two new shallow-running crankbaits – a 1.5 and a 2.5. So, what did VanDam do? He used the new Series 5XD and the 1.5 and the 2.5 crankbaits to come from behind and win the coveted crown of the Toyota Tundra Angler-of-the-Year last week. What makes these new lures that VanDam has helped develop so effective, and what’s in the future for Strike King, Kevin VanDam and the other Strike King pros? We posed these questions to VanDam in today’s video. Check it out.
Today's Video Clip
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