Entry 291-1

Kevin VanDam’s Five-Favorite Bass-Fishing Techniques

Part 1: Speed’s What You Need

Question: Kevin, what’s your favorite method of fishing?

VanDam: I love fishing Strike King spinner baits because they will catch any bass that swims. Too, I enjoy the aggression a bass demonstrates when they hit the spinner bait. I fish for the thrill of feeling the bass trying to annihilate my bait. My favorite way to fish the spinner bait is to burn it. I like to reel it really fast and cover a lot of water quickly. I prefer to use a 7:1 gear-ratio reel with 20-pound-test line, making really-long casts over grass, shallow points or any place where bass are holding.

This year Strike King released the new Burner spinner bait, which is built for high-speed retrieve without rolling over or not tracking straight. With the Burner spinner bait, I can cover a lot of water quickly and locate and catch the most-aggressive bass. I’m a high-energy person. I don’t perform well sitting on the bank all day fishing with a pole and a bobber and crickets or worms. When I’m bass fishing, I like to fish fast, and the Burner spinner bait is perfectly suited to this style of fishing. I prefer to use the Burner spinner bait in clear water because when it comes over the bass’s heads, it imitates a baitfish. When I give the bait a jerking-twitching type of action, which gives the bait a very-erratic swim pattern, the bass thinks it’s a baitfish trying to escape. The bass generally will give chase and eat the bait.

Question: What’s different about the Burner spinner bait?

VanDam: This lure is built for a fast-retrieve-type presentation. Other Strike King spinner baits are designed to be used in a wide variety of situations, so you can fish them slowly or medium fast. The Burner has a lighter wire, and although I still can open-up the wire or close it down, it’s a smaller-diameter wire and much stronger than you’ll find on most spinner baits. The Burner has a set of Raz-R-Blade High RPM blades that are narrow and thinner than most willowleaf-style blades. This new design gives the blades a tighter rotation; therefore, you get a faster retrieve speed. The head is designed to help keel the bait to keep it running perfectly true. Too, the Burner spinner bait features Strike King’s Perfect Skirt, which gives the bait a lot of action, even though it’s moving at a higher speed. It has an extra-long hook to catch the bass that short-strike the bait and this bait comes in 3/8- and 1/2-ounce sizes. So, you have the same speed in a small and a larger version. Since, the Burner’s really-well balanced, when you cast it out, you can run it at high speeds.

Question: Do you add a trailer hook to the Burner spinner bait?

VanDam: If I can fish it in open water where there’s no cover, I’ll add a trailer hook, especially if I’m fishing for smallmouths. The smallmouths will come-up from deep water and hit this bait without opening their mouths because they just want to kill it. By having the additional trailer hook, I can catch hush-mouthed smallmouth.If I’m fishing around brush, bushes or vegetation, I’ll leave off the trailer hook.

Question: Kevin, do you modify your baits in any way?

VanDam: Yes, I alter most of my baits to suit my style of fishing. But the Burner spinner bait is ready to fish when it comes out of the box. I may use dyes to change the color of the skirt, shorten the skirt if the baitfish are really small or pull strands out of the skirt to make the bait more compact to match a particular situation. I love to make a number of casts and cover a lot of water in a day of fishing. The new Burner spinner bait is great for this style of fishing.

Next: Bet on the Big Crankbaits

Contents:

• Part 1: Speed's What You Need
• Part 2: Bet on the Big Crankbaits
• Part 3: I Like to Jerk
• Part 4: Why the Red Eye
• Part 5: I've Learned to Like Dropshotting