Kevin Van Dam Forums

Fishing locations

2013-05-19T19:50:03Z

Where does everyone fish? My main places are the glades, Big O, and lake Toho. BH

memorial big bass

2013-05-24T19:24:49Z

I challenge everyone over the weekend for big bass. Must have a pic and dated. Sat. thru Mon. what do you all say? from a boat or shore line. Just no live bait. BH

Rapala Scatter Raps

2013-02-22T18:36:35Z

Heres a link to some videos for these new Scatter Rap Series. Really looks good, in my opinion!! Building a better mousetrap…..hahaha!

Scatter Rap videos

Spro frogs/ similar baits

2012-09-06T16:19:24Z

I’m on a lake that doesn’t hold many bass due to overfishing but the bass we do catch are big for PA. Every serious fisherman I ask tells me they have caught there biggest bass in the lake using a frog in the lilies. What are different retrieve techniques you have all had success with b/c i can not seem to get the bass to hit my frogs. Any input is appreciated

Muddy Erie

2013-05-20T18:02:21Z

The west shoreline on Lake Erie was really muddy this past weekend. Managed to catch 7 sheephead, a white bass and 1 smallie. No size to anything the smallmouth was about 2 lbs and the biggest sheephead was around 5 lbs. Finally went into a channel leading back to some condos and a small marina and hooked 7 largemouth in about an hour pitching rodents and beavers to the walls. The biggest largemouth went 5 lbs. Should have moved in earlier. My father in-law caught 2 sheephead, 2 whitebass and 2 largemouth he hooked the 5 lber.

my monday morning…

2013-05-24T14:34:44Z

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lycoRjPW-U&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Crankbait selection: Action vs color

2013-03-22T01:28:07Z

Assuming depth as a constant what do you guys believe is the #1 deciding factor in determining which crank to throw?

Do you believe action is the most determining factor or color? Are you of the school of thought that “if they’ll eat a crank they’ll eat my Bandit and color is what I select” or “if they’ll eat only a DT then most any color of DT of appropriate intensity is what I throw”?

Substitute DT and Bandit for any crank name brand. They are there for illustration.

I’m a believe in action myself and color coming in second place.

Lure modifications of the pros

2013-03-23T03:17:31Z

I’ve always heard that the pros do not simply open a lure package and fish it stock out of the box. I hear they make “mods” to it prior to fishing so as to give them an edge over the other 100 guys fishing the same lure. I recently purchased a lure allegedly modified by a pro outside of bull shoals.

I bought a beat up old Bagley Balsa B2 in black/gold that had sharpie coloring in where the black back paint had failed, a red belly hook and the line tie had been forcefully bent down to the point of cracking the epoxy clear coat. It’s nearly impossible to keep the beat up old thing running true but, man, is that thing a fish catcher.

I’ve heard of pros bending down the line tie on nose-tied square bills so as to achieve a “harder” action. All of this seem to confirm the story that it was an ex tournament lure.

This has got me thinking, what mods have you heard or seen the tournament or pro anglers do to their lures to get an edge?

I’ve heard of changing the sound profile of a bait to make it silent by drilling a hole into the ballast chamber and inserting epoxy to quiet the knocker rattle.

Rattle canning lures to get a custom paint pattern on the water.

Adding weight to a lure to make it suspend or rise slower.

In the pre creature bait days I remember hearing about guys making creature baits with a lighter and a fist full of soft plastic parts. Heck, I made my own creature baits as a kid but never caught anything.

Also, general lure modification thread.

Camo Wraps for Boats - Camo4u Fishouflage

2012-03-19T14:45:46Z

Has anyone wrapped their boat or truck with Fishouflage like this:

http://www.camo4u.com

I like their bass camo and their crappie camo….

XPS square bill cranks

2013-05-24T02:21:39Z

I just a had a phenomenal couple of days fishing these things so I gotta spill the beans on them. These cranks have the finest action I’ve seen in shallow crank and I have a lot of them. The action is wider, faster and has more roll than any of my other square bills in my arsenal. I had a greater than 10:1 per hour catch ratio over any of my other cranks including the KVD square bills. The action is insane. The only things close to it are the Fred Young Big Os and those wobble too wide and have too much roll IMO. These things are red hot for me.

The bad: They’re made from crummy plastic. I work with thermo forming and handle plastics every day and the plastic these baits are made out of what appears a to be low density brittle material, something that is consistent with our cheapest plastic. I’ve broken the corner off the bill on one of the baits already. The clear coat is thin and hook rash quickly gets into the paint. Due to the light weight of the lure, it is not as easy to cast and especially pitch, as some other square bills. Hooks are of a lighter wire than ideal.

The action is hot, the colors are good and the price is reasonable. Strongly recommended if you’re willing to put up with a lot of crap on the user end of things and value a great action. Think of these as the Senko of square bills. I do believe the low density, brittle plastic and the paper thin clear coat is what “lightens” up the lure and allows it to have that killer action. There is no free lunch in crankbait design.