Learn How Michigan’s Kevin VanDam Won the Bassmaster Angler-of-the-Year Title Again
Day 4: Kevin VanDam’s Concern about Lake West Point Since He’d Never Fished There
Editor’s Note: Kevin VanDam won his 7th Bassmaster Angler-of-the-Year title and his 4th consecutive AOY title on Saturday, June 18, 2011, at the Wheeler Lake tournament. We wanted to know how he did it.
Question: Kevin, give me another turning point for you in the race for the 2011 Angler-of-the-Year title.
VanDam: I guess it would have been at the BASS Elite Series Tournament on West Point Lake in LaGrange, Georgia. I’d never fished West Point Lake before, and when I got to the lake, I didn’t have a good practice. I thought that this would be a tough tournament - a low-weight tournament, and that I wouldn’t have to catch many big bass to do well. So, I went-out and caught 14 pounds on the first day. I was feeling pretty good about my weight, but when I reached the scales and weighed-in, I was in 25th place. The guys in the top 10 were bringing in 20- to 23-pound-bags each. I thought, “Whoa! I’ve misread this tournament.” I knew I had to catch some big bass. One of my favorite big-bass baits is the Strike King Shadalicious. So, I pulled-out a 4-1/2-inch gizzard-shad-colored Shadalicious and used a Mustad weighted belly hook. I started fishing trees lying in the water. I had five big-bass bites. I had a great second day of the tournament.
Question: In the summertime, many weekend anglers overlook the Strike King Shadalicious. But the pro anglers on the Bassmaster circuit always have swimbaits tied-on some of their rods. How do you make the Shadalicious so effective at catching bass?
VanDam: The Shadalicious is effective, because you don’t have to do anything but cast it out and reel it in to your boat. Because the body of the Shadalicious is hollow, as it swims through the water, not only does the tail kick back and forth, but the entire body moves. So, if you’re fishing around grass or wood with a belly-weighted hook, you can fish it slowly and create enough action to attract a bass or swim it fast if the bass are really active. You also can fish it on a jighead. The Shadalicious is a bass-catching bait, and yes, a number of weekend fishermen have overlooked it. But it’s just as effective now as it was when it first came out. One of the problems with not only the Shadalicious but many others of these types of lures is that they look like a baitfish-imitation piece of plastic in the store, but when you add water to it (cast it out and retrieve it), the Shadalicious comes alive and looks so realistic that the bass can’t resist it.
Question: What pound-test line did you fish the Shadalicious on at West Point Lake?
VanDam: I fished it on 20-pound-test line, because I was fishing heavy cover. You’ll need strong line to pull the bass out of the treetops when you’re fishing blow-downs.
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