Entry 363-1

Up and Running Again at BASS Tournaments with Kevin VanDam

Day 1: Change of Bass-Fishing Plans to Oklahoma’s Fort Gibson Lake with Kevin VanDam

Question: Kevin, what happened when you arrived in Oklahoma?

VanDam: We practiced for 2 days, and then storms came through the area. The river was rising fast. At the end of the second practice day, Trip Weldon, the tournament director, had an emergency meeting and announced that he’d made a change and moved the tournament to Fort Gibson Lake near Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, for safety reasons. He also announced that we’d have one practice day with only 8 hours on the water before the tournament started. It would be a short day.

Question: What did you learn in that 8 hours?

VanDam: I wanted to see the entire lake, so I ran a lot of water. The lake reminded me a lot of the Grand River, a tributary of the Arkansas River, which wasn’t too far away. It was summertime, and even though the lake had received plenty of rain, it had a lot of color to it. Construction people had been working on the dam for a while, so the lake was down 4- to 5-feet below normal pool. The lake was low and dirty, and we were in the summer months. I’d just left Kentucky Lake where I was catching bass cranking on offshore structure, so that’s how I started my practice.

But it didn’t take long to figure-out that the bass weren’t holding in 15 to 20 feet of water. The water was just too dirty. After fishing deep for a couple of hours and not getting any bites, I fished much-more shallow water and started catching a few bass. Most of the bass were concentrated in more-shallow water than they’d been in Kentucky Lake. I decided the bass were holding in 3- to 8-foot-deep water on main-lake structure and points, classic summer structure.

Question: What lures did you use to catch the bass in practice?

VanDam: I still was catching them on crankbaits; I was just running more-shallow versions of crankbaits. I fished a Strike King Red Eye Shad on top of a number of shallow points. I also fished the Series 4S. The deepest-running bait I fished was a Series 5 crankbait from Strike King. I caught some bass as deep as 10 feet, but most of the bass were holding in that 3- to 8-foot-deep range.

During practice, I only fished crankbaits, but I also had a 10-inch worm tied-on to one of my rods and a Football Jig tied-on to another rod. I’ve learned that once I find bass with a crankbait, I generally can work the 10-inch Rage Thumper Worm or the Football Jig in the same area I’m catching bass with a crankbait and continue to catch more bass.

Question: So, what was your game plan going into the first day of the tournament?

VanDam: I had four to five spots where I’d gotten bass bites. I’d catch one bass and then not make another cast to that same spot. I thought I’d try to learn a lot on the first day of the tournament and try to figure out exactly on what structure the bass were holding and the type of bait they would take. With only one day of practice, I’d have to spend a portion of each tournament day practicing and finding more places to fish. I didn’t know what to expect for this tournament.

Next: Practicing on the First Day of the Fort Gibson Lake Bass-Fishing Tournament with Kevin VanDam

Contents:

• Part 1: Change of Bass-Fishing Plans to Oklahoma's Fort Gibson Lake with Kevin VanDam
• Part 2: Practicing on the First Day of the Fort Gibson Lake Bass-Fishing Tournament with Kevin VanDam
• Part 3: Kevin VanDam Continues to Mix-Up His Bass Fishing on Fort Gibson Lake
• Part 4: Day 3 of the Fort Gibson Lake BASS Tournament with Kevin VanDam
• Part 5: Kevin VanDam's Final Day of the Fort Gibson Lake Bass-Fishing Tournament