Tournament Fishing with Kevin VanDam
From Goat to Hero – Day 2
 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 happened on the second day of the tournament?
VanDam: I had to relocate a school of fish. After fishing
for awhile, I finally found a good school of bass in
the middle of th e
morning and caught between 12 and 15 bass consecutively.
I had a 14- to 15-pound stringer.
Question: Okay, Kevin, wait a minute. Let’s go
back to the start of the second day of the tournament.
You said you had to relocate a second school of bass.
What happened?
VanDam: A school of bass will move every day. They don’t
build little houses and live on a spot. Main lake fish
move up and down ledges. If there are many shad in the
area, the bass will move on tops of the ledges and start
to feed. If there’s not a school of shad on top
of those ledges, the bass will scatter and hang out
and wait for conditions to be right for the shad to
be back on top of the ledge. The second morning of the
tournament, I didn’t find the bass where I’d
expected to see them. I realized that if I kept moving
around and checking different places, eventually I could
find the fish. That’s summer fishing. You have
to keep moving until you pinpoint bas s
on a ledge that are actively feeding. Another thing
I learned from Thursday and Friday’s fishing was
that on Saturday there was going to be a big local tournament
held on the area of the lake where I’d found all
my fish. I was fishing in the Paris Landing region,
which was where the tournament would be held. For the
first few days of the tournament, all the locals who
were going to be in it were following me around and
using GPS on my sites. I knew those guys were probably
going to be fishing the water on Saturday. Besides worrying
about trying to catch bass and win the tournament, I
became concerned and distracted by the other fishermen
who were using me as a birddog to find spots for them
to fish.
Question: How distracting is having other fishermen
follow you around and mark your favorite spots?
VanDam: To be honest, it’s hard not to let this
kind of activity bother me. I was getting irritated
because I knew those other fishermen were marking the
spots I’d fished and planned to fish them on the
final day of the tournament.
Question: On the second day of the tournament, how
many pounds were you in the lead?
VanDam: I would say maybe by a pound or more.
Question: At the end of the second day, did you think
you could fish any of the spots that you’d p reviously
fished, or did you think that those other fishermen
who followed you around would be on those spots on the
last day of the tournament?
VanDam: I was pretty confident that I would have a hard
time fishing the spots I’d found and catching
bass. I was betting that those other fishermen would
be sitting on my spots on the last day of the tournament,
and I was right. When I arrived at most of those spots
on the last day, local tournament fishermen were on
every one of my best spots. However, I didn’t
give up because the places that were holding bass on
each of these spots were so small that I didn’t
think most of the local anglers could trigger a strike.
As it turns out, I was right. However, I was blocked
from reaching my good spots. When I was able to get
to one of my better spots, I caught a few bass. I wasn’t
able to spend as much time as I needed to on the last
day to catch the really-big bass that were holding on
those places. Knowing bass are on a spot and you can
catch them, but there’s another boat sitting there
is frustrating. But that’s tournament fishing.
That’s the reason you have to have plenty of backup
spots.
Tomorrow: From Goat to Hero
– Last Day
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