In 2009, Kevin VanDam won his 5th BASS Angler-of-the-Year Award and second in two years, winning 2 of 9 events and finishing in the top 10 at 4 others. In the last two years, he’s notched four victories at the highest level of competition. At nearly all these competitions, he used either a crankbait, lipless bait, or hard-plastic swimbait to catch most of his bass.

Willing to provide details of his success, VanDam hopped into his Nitro Z-9 at Big Cedar Resort on Table Rock Lake, Missouri, and revealed his approaches with swimbaits, crankbaits, and lipless crankbaits—specifically Strike King’s King Shad, Pro-Model Crankbait, and Red Eye Shad. He’s been with Strike King for 12 years and is paid to promote their products. Besides being part of their pro staff, he’s involved in their lure development.

Many of  his colleagues on the tournament trail feel VanDam’s skills as a salesman equal his abilities as an angler, but he won’t hype products that don’t help him catch more bass. And he uses lures made by other manufacturers when needed.

The Reign of King Shad

VanDam, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, wasn’t an immediate devotee of swimbaits. He described his first experiences with swimbaits as “bittersweet.” Though he attracted and occasionally hooked big largemouths while slowly retrieving massive soft-plastic swimbaits, rarely could he coax seemingly curious bass to eat.

He feels the drawback to traditional swimbaits is that they don’t work well at a fast retrieve. Under calm, sunny conditions bass get too good a look at these slow-moving baits. They follow but are reluctant to strike. He couldn’t figure out how to provoke bites by pausing, twitching, or changing pace. “My main success came during the Prespawn Period, under cloudy, windy conditions at clear lakes,” he says. “But even then, I might have done as well with a spinnerbait.”

He had such an unflattering opinion of swimbaits that he wasn’t impressed when Phil Marks, lure designer for Strike King, showed him a prototype of their King Shad. It looked like yet another rendition of the Japanese and California swimbaits he’d become frustrated with.  But after initial tests, VanDam told me, “Bells, whistles, and lights went off in my head.”

He liked the King Shad’s erratic action and the retrieve options it offered. When a dramatic pause interrupted a speedy retrieve, it darted to the side and almost backed up. It could also be worked like a jerkbait, with subtle twitches and pauses or assertive jerks and stops. Moreover, he liked its size at 4 inches, big enough to entice lunkers and small enough for 2-pounders often essential in tournament situations.

VanDam’s confidence in King Shad was boosted by a fall smallmouth bass trip to Lake Michigan, when he caught more big smallies than ever, along with 12 trout and salmon. He admitted it was so different from his accustomed powerfishing approaches that he had to learn how to fish it. After much testing, it’s become one of his most dependable lures. Though he’s yet to win a tournament with a King Shad, it’s propelled him to several top-5 finishes, and he feels a win will come before long.

Swimbait Tackle: He fishes the King Shad with Quantum’s new 7-foot, fiberglass-graphite composite rod (TKVD705M), in the series he helped design. Landing bass hooked on hefty swimbaits is challenging, as they can throw the lure with violent headshakes. He first fished the swimbait on a graphite spinnerbait rod and lost several key fish in tournaments. The new composite rod eliminates that problem.

He likes the Quantum Energy E100 HPT reel with a 7:1 gear ratio spooled with 17-pound-test Bass Pro Shops XPS Fluorocarbon line, tied with a palomar knot. Because fluorocarbon sinks, it helps the shallow-diving King Shad run a bit deeper. To get it down to 5 feet, he also clips an 1/8-ounce Eagle Claw Quick Clip Weight to each hook hanger. Pointing the rod tip down also increases running depth. In ultra-clear lakes where bass may hold 15 to 22 feet down, VanDam claims that working the weighed version about 5 feet down draws bass from the depths, and they pummel it. To keep it shallower in other conditions, he switches to 25-pound-test monofilament.

For insurance, VanDam replaces factory hooks with #1 Mustad 3X Strong 36329BLNs when fishing snaggy environments where he may have to rein in a lunker. They don’t flex and are extremely sharp, upping his hookup-to-landing percentage. In open water,  #1 Mustad 1X Strong 36300BLN hooks suffice. He feels fluorocarbon helps hook penetration as well.

Retrieves: VanDam likes fast retrieves, so when he says “you can smoke the King Shad,” be assured it’s capable of maintaining balance and attraction at top speed. The pro also punctuates fast retrieves with erratic highlights. A smallmouth favorite, for example, consists of an exceedingly rapid rotation of the reel handle, then a dramatic stop, which turns the King Shad sharply to one side. Smallmouths also like a King Shad retrieved with aggressive jerks and pauses, as if it were a jerkbait. During cold-water situations, VanDam holds the rod tip at the 1 o’clock position, slowly and steadily turning the reel handle.

Anglers, including VanDam, have long relied on spinnerbaits on cloudy, windy days, as well as in stained water and around partially flooded willows, sycamores and buckbrush. Lately, VanDam uses a King Shad in the same conditions. It’s also yielded dividends at a BASS tournament at Lake Toho, Florida, in mid-March 2008. In stained water about 5 feet deep, he caught bass by cranking the King Shad just above patches of submerged vegetation.