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Bass Champ Kevin VanDam Explains Success
By: Mark Decotis, FloridaToday.com
June 28, 2010
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Unfortunately for the bass, Kevin Van Dam knows bass fishing.
The 42-year-old Michigan native is the all-time money winner on the Bassmaster Tournament tour, earning more than $4.1 million. He has won three Bassmaster Classic titles (2001, 2005, 2010) and five Toyota Tundra Angler of Year titles (1992, '96, '99, '08 and '09).
Van Dam, sponsored by Bass Pro Shops, was at Daytona International Speedway on Tuesday as part of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Coke Zero 400 media day along with Daytona 500 champion Jamie McMurray, who also is sponsored by Bass Pro.
Van Dam fished the speedway's Lake Lloyd with McMurray, catching two bass to none for the driver, and later raced go-karts, finishing second to McMurray. In between he sat down for a question and answer session with reporters.
Here's a sampling of his responses.
QUESTION: Did your life change when you won the Bass- master Classic?
ANSWER: The Bassmaster Classic is the biggest event in our sport. It's like the Daytona 500. It kicks off our season just like the 500 does for NASCAR. This past year for me was pretty special because it was on the same place in Birmingham, Ala., that two years before I was leading going into the final day and ended up third. It's the third time that I've won it. I think anybody will tell you the first time you win a championship or a big event, it's huge, there's nothing like it. But the second time's even better, and the third time.
For me, it was really special.
Things have to work, you don't just go, 'Hey, I'm going to win the Daytona 500, I'm going to win the Bassmaster Classic.' You want to and you put a plan together but when it all comes together and you're there in the end, it was really big.
Q: Any parallels you can draw between racing and tournament bass fishing?
A: The big thing that's different is that NASCAR is such a team sport. In fishing, we do have a team that helps us with our equipment and things like that but we're out there pretty much on our own. the one thing I would say though, is that once they're out there on the track and he's (McMurray) is racing . . . it's head to head and that's a lot what we are.
We're more competing against the fish but I've got to be aware of the other competitors are doing, what they're catching. Our events are four days.
You've got to be consistent, you've got to deal with a lot of variables, the weather, things like that. We don't have any rain delays, snow. This year at the Bassmaster Classic it snowed three inches on a practice day.
In any sport, the best athletes are very competitive by nature, have to be. You have to work, you have to love what you do and give it 180 percent because if you don't, there's too many guys who are giving it that and you'll fall by the wayside.
Q: How do you become a pro bass fisherman?
A: I would say it's pretty much very similar to the way the golf tour is set up. You have qualifying levels. There's 23 million bass fishermen around the country and a lot of those guys just fish for fun. but a lot of them fish in tournaments and lot of them just fish at a local level in a club . . . That's the starting point to work your way up the ladder. You actually have to earn a tour card to be able to compete . . . our top series is called the Elite Series.
I've been competing professionally for 20 years. One of the things about our sport is it is physically demanding. We fish 9-hour days in the heat whatever, make a lot of casts and things like that. It's different than other sports. I've fished with a lot of other athletes that just are amazed at the intensity level that we carry. The one thing that really is beneficial is if you can channel both that competitive drive and the physical intensity along with experience and knowledge, it makes you a better competitor.
Q: How many days a year do you fish?
A: I probably fish about 225 days a year. Less than I ever have. Now it's competition, it's television, it's promo. I get to fish for fun very little. But I do love it but every chance I get . . . I really enjoy it.
Q: Are you a seat-of-the-pants fisherman or a scientific fisherman?
A: Bass fishing is a science that's far from exact. I'm not a seat of the pants guy. You have to be very aware of your surroundings, they're very much controlled by their environment, the conditions, the weather, the currents, sunny, cloudy, water clarity, water levels. There's a lot to it. There's a lot of science to it.
Bass are different because they are controlled, being cold-blooded, they're controlled by their environment a lot. Their moods are controlled by that. The big thing is, people think you go out and you don't catch fish, well they're just not biting. They're always biting. They don't have to be feeding to catch them. You can catch a bass by making him mad, by a reflex reaction, surprising him. There's a lot of different ways to get a bass to bite.
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