KVD’s Cayuga winning pattern and baits

Three patterns. That’s how Kevin VanDam won the Cayuga, NY Bassmaster Elite Series event. Most guys had a couple things going on, but KVD had three and that made the difference. The deets:

> “I had 3 distinct patterns. One was sight-fishing in the lower lake, where the water was a little bit deeper. There were a lot of smallmouths — some largemouths too, but mostly smallmouths.

> “My second pattern I found when I was looking for those sight-fish. I found groups of largemouths either staging to spawn or they were post-spawn or just kind of resting. You’d go down the bank and see 12 of them sunning under one dock. I had a couple areas where groups of largemouths were wolf-packed together.

> “The third pattern was in the north end. A lot of people were up there on those expansive grass flats. I concentrated in 8-11′ and looked for clean spots, holes in the grass to pitch into.”

Competition days

> “Day 1 I started sight-fishing for smallmouth. In 1.5 hours I had 18 lbs so I didn’t want to catch any more there — I wouldn’t be gaining much by doing that. I went and targeted the largemouths around the docks and some cruisers. I caught quite a few, but the little ones were getting the baits before the big ones.

> “I checked the grass fish in the north end, and caught a bunch doing that too but didn’t upgrade a whole lot. I probably caught four 18+ bags to cull up to 20 lbs the first day.”

Over the course of the tournament the sight-fishing faded — “a lot of those fish got caught or left their beds by the end of the weekend” — so he transitioned more to the north end pattern.

> “I at least looked at all three [patterns] every single day.”

Baits

> “For the sight fish, I alternated between a dropshot and a tube.

> “With the dropshot I used a Strike King Half Shell, which is a new dropshot bait, and the [Strike King] Dream Shot.”

[Here’s a close-up pic of the new Half Shell in the morning dawn color:]

> “I used some really bright colors, like siren — sort of a pearl chartreuse — and some natural colors like KVD magic, KVD kick, green pumpkin and bold bluegill, which is a new color [not yet available]. I literally had a couple dozen bags of these baits in the boat, all the colors…just put some in my pocket and cycled through them to get a reaction.

> “For the dropshot I used a 1/4-oz Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten Drop Shot Weight and a couple different sizes of my signature Mustad Double Wide Drop Shot Hook. [Leader length was 1′.]

> “The tube was a Strike King Coffee Tube in green pumpkin and KVD kick. Some fish wanted the tube on the bottom, really liked the dropshot.

> [He fished the docks] with a wacky-rigged Strike King Ocho. I used green pumpkin and honey candy, but my best color was honey candy. No weight, and the same Double Wide Drop Shot Hook. I used the 4″ and the 5″ sizes. When it was slick calm and real tough, I caught a lot on the 4″.

> [In the north end] I fished a Texas-rigged Strike King Ocho [5″] with a 1/8-oz Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten sinker. I used quite a few colors, but blue craw and honey candy were the two best colors. I used 14-lb fluoro which gave it a real slow glide. Just let it fall to the bottom, shake it a couple times, pick it up and do it again.”

More

> Dropshot and wacky gear: 7′ 4″ Quantum KVD Tour spinning rod (medium), Quantum KVD Tour 40-size reel, 8-lb BPS XPS fluorocarbon.

> Texas rig: 7′ 4″ Quantum KVD Tour rod (medium-heavy), Quantum Tour MG reel (7.1), 14-lb XPS fluoro. Kevin calls this his “finesse flipping” setup.

> “One of the most critical things for me this week was my MotorGuide X5 105-lb thrust trolling motor because I covered many, many miles on high searching for spawners in practice and in the tournament. I was covering 30 miles of the lake sight-fishing. I have that motor paired with Lithium Pros batteries [36-volt], which give me incredible power and runtime — a much longer runtime than with a standard lead-acid battery.”