Wow Kevin is done! (Allegedly. 🤔) And what a way to go out – dang what a competitor that dude is.

Lotta things I could say about Kevin – most of them good 😁 – but seriously, obviously nothing I say could add to what he has accomplished. I don't think you can name me one dude who has had more tournament success AND done more in the rest of the bassin' biz than Kevin. He is the man.

One quick random Kevin story: At the Pittsburgh, PA Classic he won, the Super 6 (or whatever it was back then) got their boats trailered into the arena for the final weigh-in, and a bunch of us were standing there talking by the boats before the show got going. ESPN called the Super 6 guys away and Kevin looked at me and yelled, "Watch my fish!" Then walked off. The rest of us stood there a little stunned like, Wow we never thought of that. I looked at 'em all, including Zona, and said, "You heard him!" and beat feet! No way I was gonna be responsible for that! 😆

Back to the present: In my 2c Kevin has set a very high bar in bassin' even beyond the competing and winning. He is someone who has done everything (even the smallest things) extremely well – which given his tourney success probably does not surprise you. I can say it this way too: He's also the best at stuff most people don't ever see.

I could ask him a lotta Qs but these are the ones that popped up right now:

1. How did it feel to know that so many of your competitors actually wanted you to win this one?

> "It was really humbling all the way around. I just have always respected the guys there and it meant a lot to me that they respect me that much too."

2. Were you able to "get mad at 'em" on the last day? [The fish!]

> "You know I really didn't. Mother nature dealt me that hand, and once I fished for 30-40 minutes and didn't get any of those big smallmouth to bite, I knew that I had to make an adjustment, switch to largemouth and just hope to catch enough to hang on – and it just didn't work out that way.

> "That's one time there were just no adjustments to make...just the nature of the venue, the weather, the timing...sometimes you just can't overcome adversity."

[Check Kevin's intensity on the final day – from 3 shots in 3 different places. Dude is one of the most intense guys on the water ever (duh!), but somehow 180s that when he's talking to fans on land.]

3. At what point did you know that your final regular-season tournament day would be in MI fishing for smallmouths, and did that blow your mind or what?

> "You know when the schedule came out...I thought, What more fitting way to finish than back to back St Clair and Saginaw Bay in my home state. That made it nice.

> "And selfishly, if it was FL or TX or something like that, I wouldn't have been able to have my mom and dad there [and] a lot of my family and friends would not have been able to make the trip. To have so much family and friends to come to the event made it that much more special."

4. If I ask you what the turning point was in your fishing career, what pops into your mind first?

> "Um...gosh. You know I really don't have a great answer for that. I don't really have anything that's hitting me."

5. Who can you pass the torch to that can "fish fast slow" like you do?

> "I think that there's a whole generation of anglers that have...basically watched and learned the style that I have and are applying it today. There's no question.

> "In the beginning stages of my career, very few people fished like me – with the efficiency. Now I think a lot of people have seen the advantages of that. It's time management, right? I see lots of people that fish like me now – to some degree. Everyone has their own little twists on their style...."

[I was going to ask him next if he knew that lots of guys have incorporated his style but he answered that!]

6. Are you still going to be part of the MLF ownership group?

> "Well I have an ownership stake, so until something happens or...I don't plan on doing anything with it right off.

> "It's not like I'm a majority owner or anything like that. I'm not on the board or involved in day to day decisions or anything like that. Basically from starting [MLF] up I have small stake in it. But I don't have an active role, by any means, in decision-making."

7. Has it slowed down for you yet or is this retirement thing not really retirement?

> "It is definitely really not, and it appears it's going to be very feverish for the foreseeable future.

> "There's nothing that comes easy without a lot of hard work, and making a change and transitioning from tournament fishing to influencer, ambassador, promoter is similar, but it's very different. So it creates a whole lot of new challenges."

[Kevin said a few times in our convo that he's definitely not going anywhere and will for sure be a part of the bassin' scene.]

8. Who's going to benefit from Sherry's cookies now?

> "Me. I'll be home more to be able to enjoy them."

9. What's the first thing you're looking forward to in retirement – long naps, shuffleboard or bingo? 😁

> "Uh none of the above. I don't really like shuffleboard, I'm definitely not a bingo person and I don't have time for naps."

10. Now that you're allegedly done competing, will you call Ike and tell him that okay he is part of the community?

> "[Laughs] I'm not calling him to tell him that no, but I do have Redcrest and Heavy Hitters for next year and honestly I'm really glad to be fishing these last few events to trickle out of the competitive side of it.

> "I'm pretty excited for what I'm going to be doing – a lot of filming, creating a lot of content. To me it does fuel that competitive void to do that. You go out there with a lot on the line, a lot people are counting on you, a lot of money invested in production...it's similar in a lot of ways [to tourney fishing]. It's very gratifying. I always try to over-deliver...."

Even though measuring sticks between bassin' eras is tough, in my 2c Kevin is the best ever tournament bass fisherman – by far and so far. So I hope and expect him to be honored at the Classic because he's of course a B.A.S.S. legend (legend...exemption? 👀) and he did a ton for B.A.S.S. just by being the winning machine that he is, like Tiger Woods did for the PGA, Brady for the NFL, etc.

Going forward I expect to see Kevin around just as much as in every other year, but if I don't I'm gonna go up to MI and drag him off the couch – or Zona's couch! Love 'n hugs from this one bass-head. It's been fun and amazing to have had a ring-side seat for all those years of Kevin VanDam.

Assumin' you all know that Zona and Kevin are best buds. Z is also one of the most insightful guys I know when it comes to the pros and pro bassin' history. So who better to ask – here we go:

1. What made Kevin different?

> "His style. His style of fishing. His style of fishing is not something you see bred in the state of MI. You just don't see that.

> "And the other thing about it, his father said this to me one day – 'You know Kevin was so hyper as a kid and sort of spastic in the boat, I would look at him and tell him he would never catch a thing as fast as he was fishing. Then all of a sudden he would have the biggest and most at the end of the day.' That went on the rest of his entire career.

> "Now you see proteges that carry that same characteristic, but you didn't really see that [before Kevin]. The closest one like that that really made it work was Clunn, as far as being very aggressive, attacking the water. And if they had to catch one [they would]....

> "That's on the water. Off the water Kevin didn't look like the other dudes. I don't want that to sound the wrong way – Kevin looked, acted...he made it like he was a professional athlete, on and off the water. Back then that really wasn't the norm. And to me, he legitimized the entire game instantly."

2. Is there one other guy whose fishing style has been so influential?

> "The only parallel I could put out there would be Aaron and finesse fishing."

3. Why or how did he win so much?

> "This is my opinion okay? The majority of your BassBlaster readers, myself included, you have a bad day fishing, taping a show or in a tournament, on that drive home or as we're going to bed we're 'Dangit here's where I screwed up.' Kevin – and I've seen him do this – Kevin always knew when he was not on the gig.

> "Kevin was always able to – with computer-like speed – know this is not the right deal right now. Instead of processing it later, after the failure, he was able to pull the plug and re-rack faster than any angler I've covered or fished with.

> "I was very envious of this: He did well on bodies of water over and over and over [with techniques] you just don't learn in the state of MI. That's a God-given gift.

> "That dude has caught 15 million bass on a Strike King 6XD, and there have not been a thousand bass caught on a 6XD in the history of MI. You see what I'm saying?"

4. What's one thing every serious tournament fisherman should learn from him?

> "We hear these statements...'I was very happy with my 30th place finish,' 'I was very happy to get out of this with points,' 'I'm going to try to catch a limit and try to upgrade.' KVD has said none of those things – ever – at a tournament. He was there to take 1 place, and – I'll go to Saginaw Bay – from the beginning of his career to the end of his career, 2nd place was never acceptable.

> "2nd place in a professional tournament, a lot of people are happy. 'I'll go on to the next one,' 'It keeps the momentum going.' He would leave that as if it was an epic failure.

> "What they should learn from Kevin is you show up to win. Period. End of story.

> "His wife [Sherry also] is a very competitive human being. She does not get the credit she deserves for the fire...I'm talking she wanted him winning. I really believe her competitive fire pushed him throughout his entire career...she deserves a lot of the credit.

> "After seeing it for 25 years...Sherry is a force. She is a force and just like Kevin, they do this to win. And they did it a heck of a lot of times."

5. What's one thing about Kevin you see but a lotta peeps overlook?

> "...I could go many different directions. A lot of people see Kevin, they see the Terminator that they've watched on TV for 33 years. But what I see – and I respect the heck out of this – is the dude absolutely still is like a kid when him and I go fishing.

> "He's caught every bass that swims in every single lake man...he's coming to my house tomorrow and we're going pontooning. It was cool covering Kevin [but] that's not the Kevin that I know and hang out with. He's like every other knucklehead that's addicted to the next bite he gets.

> "Also he like myself is addicted to fireworks to the point where his wife and my wife have absolutely shut us down hanging out on the 4th of July due to the amount of money we would spend on personal entertainment in fireworks. That's a true story."

Interesting deal using the not new but new to most bass-heads Great Lakes Finesse stuff. First from here:

> When the winds fell off and things got slick...that's when the magic happened with some of his largest fish. ...Palmer switched to a Great Lakes Finesse 2.75" Drop Minnow rigged on a GLF 3/16-oz Stealth Ball Head Jig Head, which he cast past the fish he was targeting and then swam steadily above the fish.

> "It had to stay 3-5' above them and they would come up and get it. If it dropped down to their level, they didn't want it."

> ...ideally he wanted to be casting to fish that were 50-60' away. If they were within about 30' they seemed to sense the boat and were far less likely to eat.

What GLF posted about it on IG:

> We nicknamed it the "Cindy rig" years ago...like a Damiki or hanging a minnow rig but instead of dropping the bait below the boat and shaking it over their heads, you spot fish on your forward-facing sonar, cast past the fish and simply reel it back over their heads with a steady retrieve. You don't impart any action [to] the bait whatsoever.

> You can also fan cast with this bait in areas you think fish are hanging out without any electronics or even fishing from shore. On most days we find it out-fishes a hair jig.

> This technique will work in shallow water using a 1/16-oz Stealth Ball Head or if you're fishing deeper than 10' you can go with the 1/8- or 3/16-oz head.

> The ribs in 2.75" Drop Minnow displace water and the soft tail will wiggle subtly triggering those big pressured smallmouth to bite. It really is a bait trying to hide in plain sight, but can't because smallmouth are incredible sight-feeders.

> This explains why on day 3 Luke was able to catch multiple 5+ lbers in short order when the sun came out and those fish could see this bait from far away.

Luke talks about it a bit in this IG vid.