John's Journal...

Kevin VanDam Adds the 2010 Bassmaster Classic Win Championship to His 2009 Angler-of-the-Year Title

Fishing the Red Eye Shad in #406 and the Gold Sexy Shad Colors Pays Off for Kevin VanDam in the 2010 Bassmaster Classic

Click to enlargeEditor’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.Click to enlarge

Question: Kevin, you won the 2010 Bassmaster Classic with two-different colors of Strike King’s Red Eye Shad. What two colors did you choose and why?
VanDam: The water on the main river at Lay Lake was dirty. But Beeswax Creek had two little feeder streams in the back of it, causing that creek to clear faster than the main lake. The water had a nice, green color to it, and there were a lot of shad – particularly gizzard shad - not only in Beeswax Creek but everywhere in the lake. I’m sure the gizzard shad were there because they like to feed on the grass and the coontail moss that were in Beeswax Creek. Since the Lay Lake region had had cold weather, some of these shad were stunned and dying. A gizzard shad made an easy, big meal for a big bass.

I wanted a lure that would match the size and color (a golden sheen) of the gizzard shad to fish in the back of Beeswax Click to enlargeCreek. In water that’s not really clear but has a little stain to it, gold-colored lures give off a better flash than nickel or silver, especially on sunny days. All three days of the Bassmaster Classic, we had high, bright skies with plenty of sun for most of the day. Knowing that gold was a visible color in stained water and that   the Red Eye Shad in the gold Click to enlargepatterns looked a lot like the gizzard shad, I chose a 1/2-ounce Strike King Red Eye Shad in two-different colors – the gold, black back Red Eye Shad, # 406, and a new color I developed, the Gold Sexy Shad. I alternated between those two colors of Red Eye Shad, because both of these colors matched the forage on which the bass were feeding. Since I was fishing a very-small area and the same spots over and over again, I wanted to show these bass a little-bit different but natural-looking color. I alternated between the # 406 gold and the Gold Sexy Shad colors.

Question: What kind of action were you giving the Red Eye Shad to make those bass bite?
VanDam: With the water as cold as it was, I wanted to make sure that the bait hit the bottom and all the cover like grass and stumps around which I was fishing. Anytime I’d hit or tick the cover with my Red Eye Shad, I’d hop the bait forward, kill the bait and let it flutter down. The Red Eye Shad has a really-unique action that no other lipless crankbait has. It shimmies (swims) as it falls and doesn’t turn over on its side like many other lipless baits do. One of the problems that other lipless crankbaits have had in the past is when you stop or kill the bait, the lure falls over on its side and drops to the bottom like an anvil. Also, some lipless crankbaits often will tangle-up in your line as they fall. Then you can’t continue your retrieve after you kill the bait. But the Red Eye Shad keeps its balance. After you tick the cover, jerk the bait up, and then kill the lure, it stills swims as it falls. So the retrieve that I was using was to hit the cover, jerk the bait up and allow it to fall. The bass were taking the bait on the fall. Ninety-nine percent of the bites that I had would be right after the bait ricocheted off the cover, jerked-free from the grass or fluttered down.  

Tomorrow: Kevin VanDam Fished a Section of Beeswax Creek on Lay Lake near Birmingham, Alabama, to Win the 2010 Bassmaster Classic


Check back each day this week for more about "Kevin VanDam Adds the 2010 Bassmaster Classic Win Championship to His 2009 Angler-of-the-Year Title"

Day 1: How VanDam Felt about Winning the 2010 Bassmaster Classic
Day 2: Fishing the Red Eye Shad in #406 and the Gold Sexy Shad Colors Pays Off for Kevin VanDam in the 2010 Bassmaster Classic
Day 3: Kevin VanDam Fished a Section of Beeswax Creek on Lay Lake near Birmingham, Alabama, to Win the 2010 Bassmaster Classic
Day 4: Fishing the Last Day of the 2010 Bassmaster Classic
Day 5: No Letdown for Kevin VanDam as He Fishes the 2010 BASS Elite Tournament Circuit

 

Entry 550, Day 2