Tournament Fishing with Kevin VanDam
Critical Factors to Success - GPS and Wind
 Editor’s
Note: Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, currently
ranks number 29 on the B.A.S.S. trail, and led in the
last B.A.S.S. Elite Tournament held on Kentucky Lake
in Benton, Kentucky, for two out of the four days of
the tournament. This week we’ll learn how VanDam
found, caught and lost fish, and what elements caused
him to drop from first to third place. We’ll also
learn how to find and catch bass in the summer by following
VanDam through the tournament and learning why he made
the decisions he made. This week, you’ll be able
to get inside the head of Kevin VanDam and learn what
makes him tick.
Question: What was different about the places you were
fishing from the spots everyone else was fishing?
VanDam: I was fishing my places thoroughly and trying
to pinpoint the exact spot there where the bass really
wanted to relate. Some  of
the places I was fishing might only be as big as your
boat. When you were talking about fishing in the middle
of the Tennessee River, which might be 1/2-mile or more
from bank to bank, finding a little productive place
like that could be difficult. Once I found those bass
holding on a spot like that, I made good notes on how
to line up on that site with structure on the bank and
with my GPS so that I could make the exact cast I needed
to trigger the strike.
Question: Kevin, how accurate is your GPS?
VanDam: The new GPS’s are right on the money.
The receivers in them and the technology are so good
that you can get right on a spot that may not be any
bigger than the hood of your truck. Today’s GPS’s
are very accurate.
Question: Kevin, how many places did you find and identify
that you needed to fish?
VanDam: I had more spots than I could go to in one day.
I had more than 100 coordinates, but I felt very confident
about 15 or 20 of them.
Question: Kevin, after you fished a spot with a Series
6 crankbait and with a jig, did you fish that same place
with another lure?
VanDam: Generally I’d try the big swim bait and
the big worm on the spot, but I quickly learned that
I was better off leaving a spot and going to another
one if I couldn’t catch the bass on the Series
6 crankbait or the Pro-Model jig.
Question: Did you return to any of the places where
you’d caught fish earlier and re-fish them?
VanDam: Sure I did. Some of the places where I was catching
fish, I’d already fished three or four times that
day. I could be at that spot at the same time a school
of bass would pull up on that spot and start to feed.
I knew that when ledge-fishing in the summertime, my
timing would be critical. I defined timing as realizing
what was happening around you in the environment when
you caught bass on that spot the first time. For instance,
if the wind was blowing a certain direction when I caught
bass on a spot, and then the wind changed and blew from
a different direction and I didn’t catch bass
there, then I would think whenever I had a wind blowing
from the right direction, to make those bass active
on that spot, I needed to go back and fish it again.
Throughout this tournament, I found this type of timing
to be deadly effective.  During
the first and second days of the tournament, I didn’t
start catching bass until later in the morning. Later
in the day, when the wind started blowing, I could pull
up to some of those places where I’d caught bass
when the wind was blowing and really hammer the bass.
Question: Many people don’t consider the effect
of the wind on a fishing spot when they’re in
the middle of a lake. If they’re fishing down
the bank, they know the wind can muddy-up the shoreline
and turn bass on or off. Most of us don’t know
that the wind has an effect on deep-water fish in the
middle of the lake. Why do you think the wind is so
critical for productive summertime fishing on ledges
in the middle of a lake?
VanDam: The wind’s always a good thing as far
as causing the bass to become active, especially in
the summer. It creates current and moves plankton, and
when the plankton’s moved, the shad move, which
is what bass eat. I really believe that the wind activates
the entire food chain on the lake. The wind can have
just as big an effect on deep-water bass as it can on
shallow water bass.
Tomorrow: From Goat to Hero
– Day 1
|
