he shared. “I caught six or seven with one being about three and a half pounds.”
CLEAR LAKE
Clear Lake is among his favorite lakes, based on the size of bass and it was also where he had his first experience with big swimbaits. “I remember I was there in practice and caught a 10-pounder on a “tennis shoe” size swimbait right away and that was my first time ever using swimbaits that big,” he said. “After that, I took the hooks off and had followers all day and thought ‘surely, I can get them to bite during the tournament; but I was wrong,” he said.
That was the event that Steve Kennedy set the all-time Bassmaster Elite Series four-day weight record (since broken) and VanDam recalls it as heartbreaking and a big learning experience. Those followers did not commit to his swimbait for the tournament.
“I learned a lot about fishing swimbaits at that event and it has helped me since then,” he said. Following his Clear Lake experience, the development of swimbaits that could be fished faster was initiated as he felt the
SPRING 2017
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