VanDam is a fish locator

Boat driver Don Staczyzyk has given me some added perspective this week on how good Kevin VanDam is at finding fish. On the spot where VanDam is catching fish now, we followed him there on Day 1 of the tournament.

Staczyzyk grew up here, plus he’s spent a lot of time tournament fishing on the Niagara River. When he saw VanDam on this spot, he said, “I never thought in a million years that anybody would find that spot with no more practice time than they had.”

The practice time for this tournament was from daylight until 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

“I look for areas that are going to have patchy grass and patchy rock, and that’s how this sets up,” VanDam said yesterday. “I found it in practice and thought it was the best place I’d found.

“It was really windy and I couldn’t really see good on the first day of the tournament. But I looked at it (Wednesday) and knew it was good.”

This is the spot VanDam tried to save “clean and green” for today, until Koby Kreiger put a scare in him yesterday and he had to go there. It’s where he caught the fish to tie Kreiger, and VanDam won in the tiebreaker formula.

“I know what to look for on this type of fishery, or at least I think I do,” VanDam said.

VanDam knows what to look for on every type of fishery. Several years ago, when the Elite Series went to Arkansas’ Bull Shoals Lake, VanDam provided another example. I have a friend who lives on that lake and puts out quite a few brushpiles. He had one special brushpile, which he never told anyone about.

“The first day of the tournament, VanDam was on it,” my buddy said. “I was impressed.”