Entry 303-2
Kevin VanDam’s Shaky Heads $100,000
Editor’s Note: When Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, looks at a lake where he’ll be competing, he figures out the obvious pattern on that lake for the tournament. VanDam predicts where most fishermen will fish and then develops a pattern and a strategy using the Strike King lures that most fishermen don’t use. With his most-recent win at Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta, Virginia, VanDam now has 15 victories on the BASS Elite Series and is approaching $3.5 million in bass career earnings. After his victory, VanDam said, “This was just one of those magic weeks where everything fell into place. I’m just really proud of the decisions and the adjustments I made.” Let’s look at the strategy and the lures VanDam used in this tournament that may help us learn how to find and catch bass better each time we go to the lake.
Part 2: Deciding to Not Fish Where Everyone Else Was Fishing and Going Smallmouth Instead of Largemouth
Question: Kevin, what did you do on the first day of competition?
VanDam: I went to an area with two small stretches of bank where I found a number of spawning bass. Although this site didn’t have a lot of big spawning bass, it had a concentration of 2 pounders. I knew the day would be windy, and these banks were protected from the wind. Early in the morning, before the sun rose, I thought I might be able to catch a few bass off this stretch of bank. I always try to catch a few bass as quickly as I can to boost my confidence for the remainder of the day. When I went to this particular spot, I caught three keeper bass quickly. But the wind picked-up and moved a lot of pollen near the shore, making seeing the bass on the bed difficult.
When the sun rose, more bass moved to the shallow water. I forgot to mention that during practice days, I spent a lot of time looking for smallmouth bass. 
The smallmouths are more aggressive than the largemouths and easier to catch, especially when they’re spawning. I’ve learned that getting the smallmouths to bite when they’re on the bed is much easier than trying to convince a largemouth to bite when it’s on the bed. I found three big smallmouths during practice and checked all three on the first day but caught only one of them. The other two smallmouth bass had left their beds.
Question: What lure did you use to catch the smallmouth?
VanDam: I caught the smallmouth on a 1/8-ounce Strike King Shaky Head jig with a 4-inch dirt-colored KVD Super Finesse Worm on a spinning rod and 8-pound-test line. As the tournament progressed, I caught about 80% of the bass I weighed-in using this bait, rod and line combination.
Question: Why did you pick the dirt-colored 4-inch Finesse Worm and the Shaky Head jig as your primary lures?
VanDam: When I’m fishing for spawning bass, I want a lure with a lot of action that I can fish in one spot for a long time. With the Strike King 3X 4-inch worm, even though it has salt in it, which makes the worm a little heavy, the plastic is still super-buoyant. So, when I put that 3X worm on a Shaky Head jig, the worm floated up. 
When I pulled the worm on the bottom and stopped it, the worm slowly stood-up, while the jig stayed on the bottom. So, the 3X worm still has movement, even when the jighead stops. The plastic is so soft that when a bass sitting on the bed moves its tail, this little worm will wiggle. Even when the jighead is sitting still on the bottom, this worm has a lot of action. There’s no other soft plastic with this much motion when the jighead stops.
Question: Why did you choose the dirt color?
VanDam: The dirt color is basically two colors – pumpkin on one side and laminated with a watermelon color on the other side. This color is my favorite because it looks very natural and blends-in with the bottom of Smith Mountain Lake. Minnows in clear water try to blend-in with their surroundings. So, when I need a natural color, dirt is my color choice.
Question: You had three bass by 10:00 am. What did you do next?
VanDam: I decided that instead of going to the backs of pockets and coves where the other competitors were fishing to try to find largemouth, I’d fish the sides of main lake points, secondary points and deep creeks, searching for smallmouth bass. 
In these same smallmouth spots, I thought I’d also catch largemouths. However, I had to fish a lot of water to find the bass I caught. I caught a limit of smallmouths on the first day of competition and about a 4-pound largemouths. I weighed-in three smallmouth and two largemouth at the end of the day, and I caught all my bass sight-fishing with the dirt-colored 3X Strike King Finesse Worm.
Question: In what place did you finish at the end of the first day of competition?
VanDam: I was tied for 12th place with a total of 15 pounds and 7 ounces of bass.
Next: Catching and Cruising
Contents:
- Part 1: Developing a $100,000 Fishing Game Plan
- Part 2: Deciding to Not Fish Where Everyone Else Was Fishing and Going Smallmouth Instead of Largemouth
- Part 3: Catching and Cruising
- Part 4: The Shad Spawn Was the Key to Big Bass
- Part 5: Fish the Bass Coming to You and Not the Bass Moving Away from You
