Kevin VanDam Adds the 2010 Bassmaster Classic Win Championship to His 2009 Angler-of-the-Year Title
Kevin VanDam Fished a Section of Beeswax Creek on Lay Lake near Birmingham, Alabama, to Win the 2010 Bassmaster Classic
 Editor’s Note: Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, won the 2010 Bassmaster Classic on Lay Lake near Birmingham, Alabama, on February 21, 2010. VanDam also won the 2009 BASS Angler of the Year Championship in September, 2009, earning almost $3/4-million in bass-tournament money from these two wins in less than 6 months. He also jumped to the top of the leader board for all-time tournament winnings with a total of more than $4-1/2-million. The number-one question on every bass fisherman’s mind is, “How does Kevin do that?” This week, we’ll take an in-depth look at how, why, where and with what lures VanDam won the 2010 Bassmaster Classic. You’ll learn the mental and the physical processes VanDam employs to be one of the best bass fishermen the world ever has seen.
Question: Kevin, you had some company in Beeswax Creek. Some other competitors were fishing that same creek. How did you deal with that?
VanDam: Really and truly, the only competitor who came to the part of the creek that I was fishing, which was underneath the bridge, was Takahiro Omori. Late on the first day, Takahiro had had a good day fishing up the river and only came into my area for the last hour of fishing before he checked-in at the launch site. He didn’t catch very-many bass while there. After that first day, when he saw that I was leading the tournament, he graciously gave me that region and didn’t come back in to it. He had no idea how many fish were there where I was fishing, and he realized that the right thing to do was to let me have that section of the creek.
I never had any other competitor fishing behind the bridge where I was fishing, but there were 8 or 10 other competitors fishing in Beeswax Creek. There were a lot of bass all over Beeswax Creek, which had coontail moss from its front and its back. It also contained a lot of channel drops, little ridges and abundant structure. All the contestants in the top rankings of the 2010 Classic each day were fishing Beeswax Creek, including Jeff Kriet, who finished second, and Todd Faircloth, who finished third. Brent Chapman, Kevin Wirth, Shaw Grigsby, Russ Lane, Mike Iaconelli and other competitors who were doing well in the Classic also were fishing in BeeswaxCreek.
Question: Kevin, on the final day, Jeff Kriet, who finished second behind you, was fishing a little hump out in front of the section of Beeswax Creek where you were fishing. Many spectators and some of the other contestants thought that Jeff would probably win the tournament because he was catching the bass that should have been coming to the back of the creek before they reached the area w here you were fishing. Why did that scenario not play out?
VanDam: I’m sure Jeff did catch a lot of fish that could have come to the back of the creek where I was fishing. But you have to remember, there are a lot of bass in Beeswax Creek, and there’s a lot of other structure besides the hump Jeff was fishing. Jeff was only fishing one ridge that was probably 100-yards long. But the area I had was much-more diverse. I had two creeks coming together in the back of Beeswax Creek plus numbers of flats there where the bass were spawning. Too, because the weather was warming-up on that last day of the 2010 Classic, I think there were many-more bass moving toward the back of the creek than were staging on the hump where Jeff was fishing. Of course, I’m sure that more bass were replenishing that ridge every night where Jeff was fishing. Since I’d fished that same ridge in the 2007 Classic, I knew that spot pretty well.
Too, where Todd Faircloth was fishing was the place where I’d caught most of my bass in the 2007 Classic when I finished third. Because I had practice-fished in the entire creek, I knew all these areas fairly well and realized that any one of those three spots could produce enough bass to win the Bassmaster Classic. But the section behind the bridge in the back of the creek had the most-different types of structure of any area in Beeswax Creek. With the water warming-up the way it did on the last day of the 2010 Classic, I knew that that was the place the majority of the bass would want to go to spawn. I thought as that area continued to warm-up, there should be more and more bass heading to those flats behind the bridge at Beeswax Creek. The timing of the spawn, the weather conditions, the water conditions and the lack of fishing pressure made me believe that I could win the 2010 Classic on the last day in the back of the creek where I’d fished the two previous days.
Tomorrow: Fishing the Last Day of the 2010 Bassmaster Classic |
