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Daily Blog Archive February 4 - February 28th, 2009
February 28, 2009
Instead of sleeping in on a Saturday, I got up and drank my morning cup of coffee on the road. I picked up my nephew Kevin, and we headed down to Kalamazoo to D & R Sports for a Kevin Van Dam seminar.
Nephew Kevin and I out stalking KVD.
We got there about twenty minutes early, and when we went in to sit down there were only a few chairs left. I kind of figured as much. When Mr. Bass, Tiger Woods of fishing, the Kalamazoo Kid is in town what else are you going to do.
As the 10:00 am session neared its start time, there was a standing room only crowd. KVD made his entrance through a side door with an armload of rods and a shoulder bag full of planos. He greeted the crowd with his broad smile and soon had them chuckling as he described his performance in this year's Classic.
Kevin talked about how he hadn't wanted to go down to the Red River too early and be influenced by patterns that may be altogether different once Classic time rolled around. He reminisced about a second place he had about 7-8 years ago in an FLW event down on the Red. From that experience he felt he knew where he wanted to be when this year's Classic started. He felt Pool 4 would be where he would start.
He had a good prefish, the Classic anglers all get three days of practice just prior to the event. On the last day of practice, Kevin drew his buddy Mark Zona as his media person. Mark and Kevin live near each other in the Kalamazoo, MI area. They spent the day in Pool 5, because Kevin had thought that he needed to look for some out of the way spots close to the take off area. They fished Pool 5 most of the day with just a few bites. Late in the afternoon, KVD found a flat in a backwater oxbow that had a deep ditch on each side. He like the thought of some deep water access. The fish would use the ditches to funnel in to the flat. Once Kevin began moving around up on the flat, he began to see some good size fish cruising. He also saw some sandy spots indicating bedding behavior. Kevin said he really felt that he had happened on an area that would have the kind of fish he would need to win. However, the two days between practice and the start of the Classic the weather turned cold and the water temperature dropped twelve degrees.
Kevin said he knew the fish would pull back off the large stump filled flat, but remembering the ditches paralleling the flat, he figured he could pull out with the fish and catch them there. Unfortunately, and for whatever reason, the fish he was counting on just weren't cooperative. He said that Pool Five just didn't afford him as many back up spots when this area turned out to be a bust. When he checked the few other spots he did have, there were already anglers sitting on them. It was too late to lock through to Pool 4, so he ended up in Pool 5 with just four dinks that weighed four pounds. His first day ended very disappointingly for him.
Kevin though, has too much pride to throw in the towel. He regrouped and on Day 2 he headed to Pool 4 looking to make the top twenty-five cut and save a little face. He caught some better fish there, but he felt he needed one more good fish to crack the top twenty-five and be able to fish the third day.
He locked back through to Pool 5 and headed to a spot where he knew there might be a good fish living. He was throwing a spinnerbait down a log with twenty-five pound test line when he hooked up to the fish that he felt he needed. Kevin said that he had never broken off using this line before, but as luck would have it, halfway to the boat the line snapped. At the weighin he missed the cut by a pound. He had given it his best and almost pulled off what he called his redemption.
At that point of the seminar, Kevin talked briefly about the highs and lows of tournament fishing.
Losing isn't in his make up. You can just tell. You could also tell that with the number of experiences that he has had over his illustrious career he knows how to lose as well as how to win. He said he would use the experience as motivation in his next effort which is coming up soon down in Del Rio on Lake Amistad. He didn't do so well down in Texas last year, but something tells me he's going to put a hurtin' on the fish this year!
Before he continued with part two of his seminar, an audience member asked him about his thoughts concerning women fishing the Classic. Kevin spoke well on the importance of opening the tournaments up to any and all. He did mention though, that at the Classic, Kim Bain Moore had some sort of incident that he didn't elaborate on concerning rules during the practice session. He said that there seemed to be some sort of leniency extended her that he said wouldn't have been afforded to the others for the same infraction. Interesting.
During the rest of the seminar KVD talked primarily about Spring fishing. He commented that when the water is cold a rattle trap, specifically his "Red Eye Shad" is the best choice of lures. What he likes about the Red Eye Shad, is that when you stop cranking it, it wobbles belly down in an enticing motion. He likened the action to that of a senko. The undulating fall makes it more irresistible than other lipless baits.
As the water warms, Kevin said he starts throwing the jerkbait more. Then, as spring moves into summer he gets out his secret weapon, the crankbait. You could see his eyes light up when he started talking about throwing them at the weed edges or off ledges. He's pretty well known for throwing those deep diving cranks. Toward that end, he says he uses fluorocarbon exclusively on everything except topwater and spinnerbaits. The fluorocarbon with its low refractibility is nearly transparent in the water and being a dense line it sinks allowing him to fish his cranks deeper.
If you've used fluorocarbon, you know how stiff it is. (If you want a very affordable fluorocarbon look at Vicious fluorocarbons. You won't find a better quality line at even close to what Vicious sells for.) Using it on baitcasters is easiest, but if you spool it on a spinning reel, KVD recommends you use one that has the biggest spool you can find, and then, treat the line with a good line treatment . It just so happens, he has one he markets. Years ago, before his line conditioner, he use to simply recommend silicone spray. One last thing about fluorocarbon is that he will occasionally use six pound, but most of the time he spools eight pound test.
Kevin also spent some time talking about his new line of Strike King Soft Plastics flavored with coffee scent. Kevin said these new lures from Strike King have been designed with a softer plastic and are 50% salt. These were two conditions that KVD gave to Strike King before he agreed to put his name on the new line.
I did a little web surfing, and I didn't find a site that had all of the new baits in one place. I'll keep a look out and try and feature them soon.
Kevin was very keen on these new Strike King baits, and I am especially interested in trying his Ocho. It's an eight sided stick bait resembling a senko. With the way it's cut, it has a very appealing wobble to it as it sinks. Kevin claims that he uses it on a shakey head as a go to big bass bait.
Before I conclude today I have a couple other pictures that I took as KVD was signing autographs and posing for pictures with a large group of fans.
