Kevin VanDam Wins BASS Cayuga Lake

Kevin VanDam's winning weight of 71-13 at the Cayuga Lake Elite Series ultimately fell well short of many competitors' predictions that it would take nearly a 20-pound daily average to be victorious. That's how good the fishing was in practice - there was quality and quantity at both ends and on both sides of the lake. After day 1 brought exceptional results for many competitors, the rest of the event was mostly a grind and VanDam, who was tied for 11th after Thursday, managed to climb a few spots on the leaderboard despite catching smaller limits each day. VanDam stuck with three different patterns throughout the event and had a mix of smallmouth and largemouth in his bags on the first three days before weighing in all largemouth on Sunday when he rallied from 3rd place and erased a 1-pound, 12-ounce deficit. While finishing his drive home to Michigan on Monday morning, he said his 22nd career B.A.S.S. win felt much different than his triumph at Toledo Bend last month. "I had no expectation going in that I had a chance to win at Toledo," he said. "I didn't know what I was on. Here, I knew at the end of day 1 of practice that if I could manage my areas and execute I'd be in contention. It's rare to fish an event any more where you have that feeling. Most of the time, when I feel that, things have gone awry. I thought that at Wheeler Lake (earlier this season). I felt like I had a chance to win and had a great day 1, but just missed it on day 2." This was VanDam's third career win in New York - he's won twice at the St. Lawrence River - and he thinks his familiarity with natural lakes up north gives him a leg up. "There's a comfort level," he said. "Knowing these fisheries and the forage base in them - alewives were spawning (at Cayuga) and that's an important thing to know. Most of the guys might not even know there were alewives in the lake. I think that's why those fish were relating to the inside grass line in the morning because that's where the alewives were."

As he stated above, it didn't take VanDam long to realize he had an opportunity to do really well at Cayuga. Smallmouth and largemouth were spawning all around the lake, but there were groups of fish in pre-spawn mode and another group that had already moved out of those areas. It was a matter of dialing in which areas had the better quality. Locating as many fish on beds as he could was his first priority. He found a mix of both species. "I marked a lot of fish," he said. "I had like 30 miles of 'em, but there were a lot of stretches where you'd go a long way and it'd be one here and there. Over the course of the event, I checked them all. "In doing that, I found areas with groups of largemouths staging on the inside grass line. I'm not sure if those were pre- or post-spawn, but I fished for those with 4- or 5-inch Strike King Ocho wacky-rigged." He also identified a couple of key docks that were holding fish, which proved valuable because not every dock was productive. "There was one where I could see 12 fish under there," he said. "You could then go a couple miles and not find another one holding fish. It reminded me of Clear Lake in that sense."

Competition:

VanDam caught mostly sight-fish Thursday, tallying 18 pounds of smallmouth in the first two hours. He later culled two in favor of largemouth and wound up with 20-00, one of 12 20-pound stringers caught on day 1. "I must've caught four 18-pound bags to catch 20, but I knew I needed to do that," he said. "I just had that sense that I needed to get to 20." In the back of his mind, he figured he was burning through fish that might've helped him later on in the event. "I had some areas where there were schools of fish on previous days," he said. "I caught a lot of fish the first and second day that I didn't use that I sure would've loved on Sunday." When it came to the areas where he was looking at fish, he didn't back through that water later on. He did, however, revisit areas where fish were holding on grass lines and hanging out around holes and hard bottom areas in the grass on the northern end. "On Friday, I caught a bunch of 3 1/2-pounders that I couldn't use," he said. "That's the way it goes. The fish were grouped up and when you'd pull in, there'd be a bunch of 4-pounders following the 2-pounder on my line. I think that surprised a lot of people from when we were here last time." His 18-15 bag on Friday included three largemouth and two smallmouth and moved him into 6th place entering the weekend.

Conditions were calm and hot on Saturday and he managed 17-07 to move into 3rd place, behind Brett Hite and Jordan Lee, but well within striking distance of the lead. He continued to work over stretches of grass with a finesse flipping approach that included a Texas-rigged soft plastic stickbait along with a wacky-rigged stickbait that he threw along grass lines. He fully expected the breezier conditions for Sunday to activate the bigger fish that had seemingly turned off their feeding switch. He caught his two best fish in the first hour and rode that momentum to an early limit to put the pressure on Lee and the rest of the top 12. "On Sunday, the wind didn't blow as hard as I thought it would," he said. "I actually started out in the grass because I felt like early on some of those schools would be biting. I was spot on." He worked the inside grass line with a wacky worm, but also broke out a jerkbait, something he hadn't done since the first day of practice. He caught three on the Strike King KVD jerkbait and weighed in two of them. "It was just a hunch," he said. "There were fish up there cruising in the wind and I got them to react to it."

Winning Gear:

Finesse flipping gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Quantum Tour KVD PT casting rod, Quantum Tour MG PT casting reel (7.0:1 ratio), 14-pound fluorocarbon line, 1/8-oz. Strike King Tour Grade tungsten worm weight, 3/0 Mustad KVD Grip Pin EWG worm hook, 4" and 5" Strike King KVD Perfect Plastic Ocho (blue craw, honey candy, green-pumpkin). He felt the lighter line and smaller weight allowed the bait to glide a little slower through the water column compared to others who were using 20-pound line and a heavier weight. "It made a difference in the number of bites I got," he said. "I tried the heavier set up, but went back to this one. It's a great set up for finesse flipping."

Wacky-rig gear: 7'4" medium-action Quantum Tour KVD spinning rod, Quantum Tour KVD spinning reel (size 40), same line (8-pound), #1 Mustad Double Wide Gap KVD dropshot hook, same baits (honey candy). VanDam said he cycled through several colors of the Ocho and caught multiple species on the wacky-rigged version. "The critical thing with that pattern was I had to make a really long cast," he said. "If they saw you, they didn't bite." When sight-fishing, he used a mix of Strike King Dream Shots and a Half Shell, a new soft plastic that will be unveiled at ICAST ("It's a neat little bait that's designed to stay horizontal in the water," VanDam said) as well as a tube.

Main factor: "One thing that experience brings you is that it helps you understand how to manage a four-day event. The reason I won this one was managing the patterns I had - and I almost messed it up. I wish I'd saved a few more sight fish, but at the time, you're wanting to make sure you're there because if you're not fishing Sunday, you have no shot to win."

Performance edge: "My (Humminbird) electronics. On the north end, it was critical to find those clean spots. It all seems the same, but as I fished through there when you found a spot that was clean and hard, it was key. Once I saw that in practice, that's what I spent my time looking for - areas with a lot of grass that had really good, clean spots. It wasn't everywhere."

Cayuga Lake Winning Pattern BassFan 6/28/16 (Todd Ceisner)

For Jordan Lee, there was a comfort level with the main tactic he used at Cayuga Lake because it's similar to how he fishes for spawning fish in Alabama. "They do the same thing at Guntersville," he said. "They spawn in the holes and I catch them on the same baits. Finding the right area is key. Matt (his brother) helped me dial it in in practice. He got a few bites on a dropshot in practice so that's what clued me in." Cayuga was a new venue for the 24-year-old and he said he's growing more comfortable with how he approaches a lake he's never been to before. "To me going to a lake for the first time, you fish it like a new lake," he said. "That can help sometimes. I feel like I'm getting more and more confident and I'm finding fish a little quicker. Fishing's fishing. They're all different. There's always something on each lake that is the deal or certain areas that are always good. You pick up on those kinds of things each time. That's why a lot of these guys are really hard to beat." Lee was tough to beat through the middle portion of the tournament as he dialed in an expansive grass flat that had largemouth milling around in the gaps and holes in the grass. He was blind-casting to those openings and more often than not, he'd catch good quality fish doing that. "I wasn't expecting much coming in based off practice," he said. "Things just happened to go well in the tournament. Everything I did just worked out. I made the best of what I had. "You don't always need to be on the mother lode to have a shot to win. I feel like in some tournaments you can be, but this one I wasn't on the mother lode. I just made good choices and found the right fish." He caught his day-1 weight sight-fishing smallmouth, but spent the majority of the final 3 days, combing a section of the north end where the grass was scattered and thick. His day-2 stringer had two smallmouth in it that he'd found late on day 1. "It wasn't topped out and it was 3 feet down in some places," he said. "The fish were bedding in the holes. There were holes all over the flat. I got into a certain section where it was 8 feet deep. It wasn't a secret spot or anything. I just picked it apart and pitched to as many holes as I could." A methodical approach was a key to his success. "I tried to cover a lot of water, but also tried to fish slow and be thorough," he added. "I knew the fish weren't going to be in the thicker stuff. I would use the holes as targets. What I liked that about that area was there was so much scattered grass that you couldn't dial that stuff in. I just focused on those targets and became confident in those."

Bed-fishing gear (smallmouth): 7'2" medium-heavy Quantum EXO Tour PT spinning rod, Quantum EXO Tour PT spinning reel, 20-pound Seaguar Smackdown braided line, 12-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line (leader), #1 and 1/0 unnamed wacky hook, Strike King Dream Shot (green pumpkin sapphire), 1/4-oz. Strike King Tour Grade tungsten dropshot weight.

He also threw a weightless wacky-rigged Strike King Ocho soft stickbait (hard candy) on the same combo.

Dropshot gear (largemouth): Same rod, same reel, same line, 2/0 Roboworm Rebarb worm hook, 6" unnamed hand-poured worm (various bluegill imitation colors), same weight.

Main factor: "Having smallmouth to go to on day 1 because there were some big smallmouth. I caught a 5-pounder right off the bat. Then having largemouth to go to after that - I didn't know the largemouth would be that quality."

Performance edge: "Probably my Lowrance (electronics) because I was out in that grass. I had different colors for my trails every day so I could see where I'd been and where I hadn't been."

Cayuga Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 6/30/16 (Todd Ceisner)

Brett Hite did was he does best at Cayuga - he fished in the grass all week. "I had some history here," he said. "I didn't do well in 2014 and that upset me because it sets up how I like to fish - in the grass. I learned some stuff last time. I learned that these fish are really grass oriented with some finesse tendencies to them." With that in mind, he relied on a one-two punch of a vibrating jig with a swimbait trailer as well as a wacky-rigged worm and a dropshot for when he wanted a finesse change of pace. "That was my combo," he said. "I'd throw the Jackhammer (vibrating jig) a lot and have a spinning rod as back up once I found the areas." Hite likened the north end of Cayuga to a couple well-known sections of Lake Okeechobee and even Frank's Tract on the California Delta. "It's similar to the Monkey Box of Fisheating Bay," he said. "It's a big area, but when grass is in the equation and shallow, it's all fishable. On the lower end, you have to be on the bank or you're in 200 feet. Up north, there's just a lot more surface acres and I know the fish live there." His best area was up north in roughly 10 feet of water. There was grass all around, but he located a strip or vein of rocky bottom where the fish would be grouped up. He used his Humminbird 360 Imaging to dissect it and understand where the sweet spot was. "The Humminbird 360 is a great tool for that style of fishing," he added. "I like it for 20 feet or less especially when grass fishing."

His tournament started with a modest 15-10 stringer that left him in the 60s on the leaderboard. He was around plenty of fish on the north end - every time he'd reel one in from a particular spot, a group of fish would come with it, but he only caught the small ones Thursday. On Friday, he got the bigger fish fired up and bagged 21-03. The trend continued Saturday as he caught 20-06 to pull into 2nd place behind Lee. Hite caught all largemouth during the tournament after souring on the idea of running south to pick off spawning smallmouth. "I caught a couple during practice when I decided not to go down south," he said. "I spent 6 hours down there and it didn't feel right. I had a good day 1 up here and came back and put my head down and found a bunch of spots."

Vibrating jig gear: 7'3" heavy-action Evergreen Leopard glass casting rod, Daiwa Tatula CT Type R (100 size) casting reel (6.3: gear ratio), 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 3/8-, 1/2- and 3/-4oz. Evergreen Jackhammer (green-pumpkin), 4" Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Zako (green-pumpkin) trailer. Most of Hite's big fish came on the 3/4-oz. version of the Jack Hammer, which is only available in Japan. When he moved into shallower water on day 4, he downsized to 1/4- or 3/8-oz. The Zako is a segmented soft-plastic swimbait that pairs well with a vibrating jig. The Zako will be officially introduced at ICAST in a few weeks.

Dropshot gear: 7'1" medium-action Daiwa Steez AGS spinning rod, Daiwa Exist 2500 spinning reel, 16-pound Sunline SX1 braided line, 8-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line (leader), 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb worm hook, 1/4-oz Reins Tungsten pencil dropshot weight, 6" Roboworm straight-tail and Fat worm (watermelon magic and margarita multilator).

Wacky rig gear: Same rod, same reel, same line, same hook, 6.5" Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Kut Tail Worm (watermelon candy), 3/32-oz. Reins Tungsten nail weight.

Main factor: "Figuring out that spot within the spot."

Performance edge: "My Costa sunglasses (amber lens with green mirror finish) were key to helping me see the edge of the grass. They made a huge difference."

Cayuga Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 6/30/16 (Todd Ceisner)

Jacob Powroznik was all-in on a sight-fishing pattern in 4 1/2 to 8 feet of water for much of the tournament. He targeted mostly largemouth, but wouldn't pass up the smallmouth were scattered around the grass flat. He said he employed some of what he learned from the 2014 Elite Series stop at Cayuga to his game plan last week. "I learned that these fish do not go very far and they stay right there where they've been," he said. "It's a fantastic lake. I love it. Everything just set up perfect for them to be on beds. It was a full moon the night after day 2 of practice. The lake was 54 degrees in the middle. That told me they had to be spawning. I expected a big wave to move up. I just needed to be able to see." He saw just fine the first 2 days and he rolled up 40-03 at the halfway point. "When you got into an area, there'd would be a bunch of largemouth spawning," he said. "Different were using the older beds." He focused on three areas mainly and he pitched a soft plastic stickbait to holes in the grass. "I fished the mid lake a little, but majority was on the north end," he added. "It was just a big area. It was a needle in a haystack sort of thing, but when you found 'em, you found 'em. It reminded me of fishing the grass flat up north at Champlain. It's about 10 feet deep with grass all across it."

Sight-Fishing gear: 7'4" medium-action Quantum Tour KVD PT spinning rod, Quantum Smoke PT spinning reel, 10-pound Hi Seas braided line to 8-pound Hi Seas fluorocarbon line (leader), 2/0 Lazer TroKar dropshot hook, V&M Baits Trickster (green-pumpkin), unnamed hand-poured worm (various colors), 3/8-oz. Elite Tungsten dropshot sinker.

Flipping gear: 7'10" and 7'6" heavy-action Quantum Tour KVD PT casting rods, Quantum Smoke HD casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 25-pound HiSeas fluorobarbon line, 1/2-oz. Elite Tungsten worm weight, 4/0 Lazer TroKar flipping hook, V&M Baits Swamp Hog and Baby Swamp Hog (blue haze, watermelon candy). The Smoke HD casting reel is the same reel used by Greg Hackney during his win at Lake Texoma. When the bedding fish wouldn't commit to the dropshot presentation, he resorted to flipping a creature bait in the bed's vicinity. He also caught a few fish on the Livingston Walking Boss.

Main factor: "My Costa sunglasses. I used sunrise yellow lenses and amber when the sun got up high."

Performance edge: "That Hi Seas fluorocarbon. I used 8-pound test and with the water being so clear, I think that light line helped a lot."

Cayuga Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 6/30/16 (Todd Ceisner)

To get a feel for what Cayuga Lake might have to offer, Koby Kreiger and Hank Cherry spent a couple days on Seneca Lake, the largest of all the Finger Lakes located just to the west of Cayuga. "That put us on the docks program," Kreiger said. "I saw some spawning and I knew the same thing would be going on (at Cayuga). That kick started the whole week and pointed us in the right direction." He caught 18-14 quickly on day 1 sight-fishing and found another bay with some largemouth on beds that he saved for later in the event. He worked over some leftover bedding fish and managed a small limit on a topwater walking bait. "I had a stretch of docks at the south end that I practiced on," he said. "I went there and culled four of my fish, but I lost two 4-pounders doing that." That was the last time he made the long run down toward Ithaca. "It was a long way to go for a gamble," he said. He started day 3 slinging a topwater and didn't catch one until the eighth blow up. He then went back to the bay where he'd found some largemouth on day 1. He picked off a 5-pounder and then it got slick so he was able to hunt for more spawners. He added a 4-pound smallmouth before heading to his key stretch of docks up north to close out the day. While Cayuga had plenty of docks, there were certain characteristics that separated the better ones from the others. "The right dock stuck out the further and had most shade," he said. "It usually was the biggest platform on the end and there'd be 2 to 6 feet deep."

Topwater gear: 6'8" medium-heavy Powell Max 3D casting rod, Abu Garcia Revo MGX casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), 17-pound Berkley Trilene XL monofilament line, Heddon Super Spook Junior Saltwater Series (bone white).

Wacky rig gear: 7'1" medium-action Powell Max 3D spinning rod, Abu Garcia Revo MGX spinning reel, 10-pound Spiderwire braided line, 10-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon line (leader), #2 unnamed straight shank hook, 5" V&M Baits Chopstick (green-pumpkin).

Main factor: "I have to give props to Gerald Swindle. I've been struggling all year and I had a terrible day 2 (at Lake Texomas) so I called him and we had a talk at the meeting (before Cayuga). He just told me to fish slow and don't let the lake push you. When day 2 was going bad, I reminded myself to take it easy and relax; same thing on day 4. I knew those fish were there and I got them to bite. Listening to him and slowing down were key."

Performance edge: "My 12-foot MinnKota Talons were the most important piece of equipment on my boat. On Sunday, when it was windy there was no way I could've have fished those docks without them."

Cayuga Lake 2-5 Patterns BassFan 6/30/16 (Todd Ceisner)