Tourney Patterns

How KVD won at the Niagara River

KVD-riprap-bassblaster-bass-fishing-160726

Experience and confidence. That’s how Kevin VanDam won.

Not that he’s fished the Niagara River before. He’s just done a lot of river smallie fishing, notably the Detroit and St. Clair rivers in MI. So even with just 1 day of practice, he knew what to look for.

Where he found ’em

> “That river has extremely strong current, so with the history I have fishing smallmouths on the Detroit River and St. Clair River, I knew I had to find current breaks. A lot of those were sea walls or the bank itself. The other thing I looked for was current-swept flats, where they would have clean stretches on them….

> “We had 1 practice day. I spent most of the practice day power-fishing. The wind blew 30+ so I fished a spinnerbait and jerkbait. I didn’t get a lot of bites but I got enough. I could see the spots that had the right ingredients to have more fish on them, and I found most of the areas then.

> “The second round for me was in the afternoon, and it was pretty calm and sunny. I learned a ton in that one, just being able to see some of thee clean spots. I saw a lot of bass, got to practice, had a good lead — basically I got to look at some of these areas, and prepare for the third and fourth round that way.

> “I caught some as deep as 30′ on some sea walls, and as shallow as 5′ on some of the flats. It was just a mix. I’d hit quite a few different spots in a day’s time. The only thing that was common between them was they provided a good ambush point — close to the fast current but with something to get them out of it, like rock on the bottom, weed clumps, the corner of a seawall, a riprap shoreline, it doesn’t take much.

> “For the most part I didn’t hit those spots multiple times. But if it was a school I might try to let them the rest so a couple times I did [go back to a spot].”

His baits

His two main baits were a Strike King KVD Jerkbait and Strike King KVD Deep Jerkbait, and the new Strike King Half Shell dropshot bait.

KVD Jerkbaits, top to bottom: chrome blue and crystal shad (“my favorite color”), then clearwater minnow and pro blue.

KVD-SK-jerkbaits-bassblaster-bass-fishing-160726

Here are the Half Shells — colors are edge (top 2), KVD kick, KVD magic and green pumpkin purple:

KVD-SK-half-shells-bassblaster-bass-fishing-160726

> “I caught 80% of my bass dropshotting KVD kick and KVD magic. When the water got clear, I threw the KVD kick.”

> “I was trying to match the forage and the exact conditions at the time — if it was sunny, partly cloudy or whatever. And in certain stretches, because of the current, the water was chalky while in other places it was crystal clear.

> “That river’s got everything in it [baitfish types] because it’s connected to the Great Lakes, but I noticed they were feeding on spot-tail and emerald shiners. The birds were diving on them….”

He also caught a couple on a 3.5″ Strike King Coffee Tube in KVD kick.

> “I tried to fish so the bait was coming with the current or across the current. In some places the current was so strong where the boat was I couldn’t.”

More

> Jerkbait gear: 6′ 10″ medium-heavy Quantum Tour KVD rod, Quantum Tour KVD reel and 12-lb BPS XPS fluoro. Palomar knot and swapped hooks out to Mustad KVD #4 trebles.

> Dropshot gear: 7′ 4″ medium Quantum Tour KVD spinning rod, 40-series Quantum Tour KVD spinning reel, 8-lb PS fluoro, a 1/2- or 3/8-oz Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten Drop Shot Weight, #2 Mustad Drop Shot Hook (12″ leader to the hook).

> Tube gear: Same as the dropshot except a 3/16-oz Strike King Tour Grade Tube Jig Head.

> “The Lakemaster mapping was really good. It helped me find those flats in that short practice day. My MotorGuide X5 with 106 lbs of thrust with the Lithium Pros batteries gave me a ton of power. I was running on high all day into the current, sometimes just to hold in place and in some places I couldn’t even do that. I also used my Power-Poles to keep me locked into position near the bank sometimes.”

> “The biggest fish I caught all week was a 3-12. I saw a lot of those bigger fish, but I’d  always catch the small one and the big one would be trying to eat the bait off of it. I think this time of year, not that far after the spawn, a lot of those fish move out to the lake for the summer.”

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