Entry 257-2

Kevin VanDam on Fishing the BASS Elite at Wheeler Lake in June, 2008

Part 2: My Plan for the First Day of Competition

Question: Kevin, what were you thinking about the night before the tournament?

VanDam: I’d found a few spots with multiple schools of fish I could catch. I decided to concentrate my efforts on the locations where I’d caught some of my better-quality fish during practice.

Question: Let’s talk about the first day of competition. Tell me where you fished, and how you caught your bass.

VanDam: I had a late draw to leave on the first day. Since I was the 78th boat to leave the launch site, I decided to fish a shallow drop-off less than 1/2-mile from the launch site. When I pulled up on the spot, I immediately caught a limit with a couple of very-nice bass. I caught all the bass on that spot with a 1/2-ounce Red Eye Shad in the Sexy Shad color.

Question: What made the spot able to hold bass?

VanDam: This was a small ridge about 3 feet from the surface. On either side of the ridge, the depth dropped off to 5 feet. There was a small amount of current where the bass were holding to feed on shad. I discovered the bass moved on top of the ridges early in the morning.

Question: How many bass did you catch on the first stop, and how big were they?

VanDam: I had one 3-1/2 –pounder and one bass weighing 2-1/2-pounds, but the rest were barely keepers.

Question: Where did you go after leaving your first spot?

VanDam: I ran to another area with a deeper ledge. In practice, I found that this spot had quality bass on it. Driving to that site, I didn’t think I’d be able to fish it because other anglers had probably found it, and I thought they’d be fishing it when I arrived. However, there was no one there. I pulled up on the spot and fished my Series 5 crankbait in the Sexy Shad color. I made 10 casts and caught a bass on each one.

Once I had five bass in my live well weighing 3.5-pounds each. I backed off of this spot, deciding not to wear it out but save it for my next day of fishing. I had 18-1/2 –pounds in the live well that I felt good about, and I spent the rest of the first day practicing. I was looking for ledges at the same water depth to catch fish on during the second day of competition.

Question: How were you running the Series 5 Sexy Shad crankbait?

VanDam: I used a medium-fast retrieve. I’d cast the Series 5 to the top of a ledge, reel it down to 5 to 7 feet, and when it came off the 10- to 12-foot drop-off, the bass would bite.

Question: Were you using a stop-and-go retrieve or steadily retrieving the bait?

VanDam: I was reeling the bait on a steady retrieve. There were so many easy-to-catch bass holding on that spot that I didn’t have to give the Series 5 any type of erratic retrieve to get the bass to bite.

Question: What position did you finish at the end of the first day?

VanDam: I finished in fifth place.

Next: The Second Day of Competition

Contents:

• Part 1: What I Knew Vs. What I Thought
• Part 2: My Plan for the First Day of Competition
• Part 3: The Second Day of Competition
• Part 4: The Third Day of Competition
• Part 5: The Last Day of the Wheeler Lake Tournament