New Red Eye Chrome Sexy Shad
He's the No. 1 ranked angler in the world. He's a two-time Bassmaster Classic champ, three-time Angler of the Year, and his win 4 days ago at the Toho Bassmaster Elite Series was the 12th of his career, and his third within the past year.
Not every one of his wins comes down to something "secret." Many times he just outfishes the crowd. But what was especially notable about Toho was that he did have a secret going. A few of them actually. And no, they weren't coursing through his veins.
One was tied to the end of his line, the other was in a box on his deck.
In the following story, VanDam explains for the first time in detail what exactly is so different about the Strike King RedEye Shad, and why it triggered bites at Toho even when the fishing turned brutally tough. And alongside that, he reveals an electronics technique he used in the final hours of the last day to trigger the winning fish to bite.
VanDam's main weapon was Strike King's RedEye Shad in his own Chrome Sexy Shad (sexy-shad/blue-chrome configuration).
Since the lipless crank was invented, it's been used to fish the grass, and the traditional method is to "rip" it off the grass when it snags, which often triggers bites. VanDam did a lot of that in the hydrilla, of course, but according to him, there's a special way the Strike King RedEye shad falls after he kills his retrieve, and that made all the difference.
"The key for me was making that bait fall, and the RedEye Shad's different than any of the other lipless baits in the way it falls," he said. "When you're either ripping it through the grass, or fishing it in the open, you just pull it and stop you yo-yo it like that." He noted that, especially when it was slick-calm, the fish would only bite on the fall. And all his big fish, including a 9-pounder, bit that way too.
"I'd rip that bait up, let it flutter down, and the way it swims to bottom is the deal," he added. "It shimmies from side to side as it falls. Anyone who's ever fished a Zero or Senko knows what I'm talking about, and no other lipless bait does that.
"We designed it on purpose to do that'" he added. "It's pretty amazing. In fact' I'm surprised it took me this long to win a tournament on it it's that good of a bait. If you take it and drop it in a pool' you'll see that it stays horizontal' just the nose tilts down' it swims just a little forward' and wiggles right and left like a Zero or Senko falls. That's what we were trying to emulate."
The Color
VanDam let the secret out on his custom color when he won at Guntersville last year. He calls is "sexy shad" and he threw the RedEye in that color' with the addition of a blue-chrome back.
Also notable is he's in the process of developing a whole range of sexy shad colors for different water clarities.
