Entry 149-1
How Kevin VanDam Won the 2005 Bassmasters Classic
Pre-Practice and Game Plans
Editor’s Note: Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, won more than $250,000 this year at the Bassmasters Classic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Three Rivers area. This Classic has become known as the “Minnow Classic,” because the participants caught so many small bass and was won by the lightest weights of fish in the history of the Classics. VanDam won the tournament by a mere 6 ounces. According to VanDam, “This was the most mentally-challenging tournament I’ve ever fished.” This week you’ll see VanDam’s strategy, his frustration, his disappointment and his eventual triumph.
Question: Kevin, what kind of chances did you think you had to win going into this year’s Bassmasters Classic.
VanDam: I knew that winning this Classic would be extremely difficult. Since I realized the weights of bass weren’t going to be very high, I developed a game plan as to where I planned to fish to maximize my efficiency while I was on the water. I wanted to spend my time in the water that I felt would produce the most fish in the shortest time. I felt like anyone who could weigh in a five-fish limit each day would win. I decided if I wanted to win, I had to target smallmouth bass on the main river. I also decided to fish anything that had a current break and provided an ambush point for smallmouth. I felt the best ambush points were the bridge pilings up and down the river. Around Pittsburgh, all the rivers are loaded with bridges. I found a few underwater gravel points that stuck out into the main river and created current breaks.
Question: Why did you decide to target smallmouth, when everyone else was targeting largemouth?
VanDam: In pre-practice a month before the tournament, I learned that smallmouth are the dominant species in this region. I felt like the smallmouth bass were bigger than the largemouth bass. Too, there were spotted bass in the area, and I didn’t find any place in pre-practice where I thought I could consistently catch largemouth for three days. I felt that on the bridge pilings, the smallmouth would replenish themselves each day. Also, being from Michigan, I had quite a bit of experience catching not only smallmouth bass, but river smallmouths. I knew how they liked to position themselves when there was a current and when there wasn’t a current.
In Pittsburgh, there’s a river system, but the river’s controlled by a series of locks and dams. The river’s more like a reservoir than a river because sometimes there’s current, and sometimes there isn’t current. The critical key to winning the tournament was not only knowing how smallmouth positioned themselves when there was current coming down the river, but where the smallmouth would be when there was no current coming down the river. On the final day of the Classic, there wasn’t any current coming down the river, so predicting where the smallmouth would be ahead of time was the key to catching bass then.
Question: Where did the smallmouth position themselves when there wasn’t any current?
VanDam: When there’s current running, the smallmouth will hold tight to cover. But when there’s not current running, the fish will scatter out and suspend. That’s the reason on the final day fishing the jerkbait was so critical, because when the bass suspended up well off the bottom and well out in front of those bridge pilings, they would often be 15- to 20-feet away from the cover. The jerkbait has a lot of drawing power to get the attention of the fish and cause them to come in and bite. I had to use a shallow-running jerkbait so I could fish above those suspended bass and get them first of all to see the bait, and then come up to get it.
