Striking performance
Move over Jean-Claude, there’s a new VanDam in town
Kevin VanDam is not related to action film hero Jean-Claude Van Damme, but he still knows how to kick some butt. In just his first full season on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Kevin VanDam claimed the sport’s highest honor, winning the Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year title.
He is, without a doubt, the best-known fisherman in the VanDam family of Kalamazoo, Mich. At 33, he is also the most consistent tournament bass pro in the country, and he is well on his way to becoming the most successful angler of all time.
While he has plenty to brag about, the soft-spoken angler doesn’t have VanDam family bragging rights for the best trophy bass. That’s an honor held by his older brother, Randy, 40, who two years ago landed a 9-pound, 8 ounce smallmouth on 8-pound spinning tackle in Lake Erie. That fish set the Ohio record.
Kevin and Randy grew up in one of the close families of Dutch ancestry that settled Lake Michigan’s southeastern shoreline and dominate the area culture and politics to this day. They also grew up in the Dutch Reformed Church, which is so influential that a recent bicycle tour through Ottawa County had to have lunch for 800 riders catered because no restaurants were open on Sunday.
Tourism and farming are the dominant economic factors in the area. It’s a culture that admires hard work and common sense, and for a few years many people weren’t sure that Kevin’s determination to become a touring bass pro fit either category.
“When he worked at the store we were always threatening to fire Kevin because he was always asking for time off to go fishing. But I was kidding. We could see the tremendous talent that he had, and we decided to back him and let him go as far as he could,” Randy said.
Kevin’s fascination with the outdoors started as a child when he roamed the fields, woods and waters on land owned by his grandfather and great-grandfather. Both men lived on lakes, and residents of other lakeside homes often awoke in the morning to see a 5-year-old Kevin running from dock to dock casting for bluegills.
“He just lived for the time he spent outdoors. He hunted and fished, and he ran a trap line. It was all he thought of,” Randy said. “He knew everybody on the lakes. Even when he was 8 or 10, he’d be quizzing people about what fish they caught and where they caught them.”
Despite the age difference, Randy and Kevin spent a lot of time together, partly because of a shared love of fishing but mostly because their father usually required that Randy take Kevin with him as the price for using the family bass boat.
“The Bass Pro Shops catalogue was our bible. We could quote you what was on page 113,” Randy said. “When I was about 14, my dad bought our first bass boat. I got to take it out, but he’d always say, `Take your little brother with you.’ We’d go out and fish for whatever swims.”
Don Stevens, a VanDam friend from Kalamazoo and another talented tournament angler, said: “Nothing else but fishing seemed to mean much to him. Sometimes you’ll hear one of us (close friends) call him Ace. He got that nickname when he was about 15 and needed something to knock muskrats over the head when he took them out of the trap.
“Anyone else would have used any old stick. Not Kevin. He wanted something made for the job. His father had just bought a new weed eater, so Kevin got a saw and cut off about 2 feet off the handle. Then he just went off on his trap line and left the saw and the rest of the weed eater lying there. It took his dad about two seconds to figure out what had happened, but all Kevin thought about was that he needed the right tool for trapping.”
Kevin’s mother was touched when her small son bought her a bird feeder. It wasn’t until some time later that she realized he bought her the kind without glass sides so that he could use his air rifle to shoot some of the species that it attracted.
Kevin concentrates on bass these days, but he will fish for anything, anytime, anywhere. Mention the rising interest in European-style carp fishing in this country and Kevin becomes animated and says: “When we were kids, we used to catch huge carp in the Kalamazoo River. I’ve caught a bunch of big ones in the Great Lakes when I’ve been bass fishing. You don’t want one in a tournament, because they take so long to land. But they are incredibly strong game fish.”
Mention catfishing and Kevin reels off not only the best places to catch them in Southwestern Michigan but also the best baits to use. He then reminiscences about his own big whisker fish.
He is also a dedicated deer hunter, which isn’t surprising since he comes from a state where 800,000 deer hunters approach their sport the way most other people approach religion. Kevin always makes time in his schedule each fall to hunt the big deer that make southern Michigan a whitetail Mecca.
Unlike many men his age, who tote around a nascent beer belly, Kevin is a trim, rangy 6-foot, 2-inches despite a diet of road food as he drives 50,000 miles a year to tournaments and sponsor appearances.
Time on the road is the only part of his job that he doesn’t like because, for 250 days a year, it takes him away from the home he shares with his wife, Sherry, and their 4-year-old twin sons, Jackson and Nicholas.
“The twins aren’t in school yet, so my family can come to some tournaments with me, maybe 75 days a year. But they get to see the places we go to, the museums and zoos and interesting stuff. I see a motel and a marina. A lot of my job is being a long-haul truck driver,” Kevin said.
When he isn’t behind the wheel of his truck, Kevin has shown phenomenal talent with a fishing rod. The 2001 Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year title joins three B.A.S.S. angler of the year honors and a B.A.S.S. Masters Classic victory. He has in fact qualified for the Classic 10 times in the 11 years he has been a touring pro.
When it comes to driving a boat, Kim Stricker, another nationally known bass pro from Howell, Mich., said Kevin knows two speeds: “Wide open and trolling motor. He’s not reckless, but he’ll punish himself and the boat if he thinks he has to do it to win a tournament.”
Winning is everything for VanDam. While he has fished for fun since he was old enough to hold a rod, he found out early on that for him, it was even more fun to fish competitively against other people.
Henri Boucher of Grand Rapids, Mich., works for Showspan, a company that puts on outdoor shows across the Midwest where VanDam is a regular seminar speaker. A couple of decades ago, Boucher was a manufacturer’s representative for several fishing tackle companies, and the VanDam family’s D&R Sports was one of his accounts.
“Kevin was a phenomenal fisherman even then,” Boucher says. “People were already talking about this kid who was just uncanny in his ability to catch fish. And it wasn’t just bass. It was literally any species.
“He was pretty cocky back then, but when you’re 12, 13 years old and beating adults in tournaments, that’s understandable. He used to hang around the store and offer to go out and fish one-on-one against people for money. He just loved to compete. He’d offer to fish against someone for a quarter.”
Lake St. Clair is the incredible smallmouth factory on the edge of Detroit where VanDam got some of his first tournament experience.
“He was a phenom when he was still a little kid. By the time he was 16, I think every tournament fisherman in the state knew who he was,” Stricker said. “What always fascinates me is his ability to see fish. Most of us who grew up sight fishing in Michigan are a lot better at that than most anglers, but Kevin will just amaze you by spotting bass you didn’t know were there.”
As he walked off the stage after being awarded Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year in suburban Detroit during the Forrest Wood Open on Lake St. Clair, VanDam was happy. But something still nagged at him. A month earlier it looked as if he might win angler of the year honors in both the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and B.A.S.S. circuits, something that has never been done, and he was openly disappointed when Tim Horton beat him out in the other tour.
“Kevin’s amazing. And he’s one of the most competitive guys on the water, which probably explains a lot about his success,” said Dave Reault, a talented angler from Livonia, Mich., who has won tournaments on Lake St. Clair and finished fourth on Lake St. Clair in the 1999 Forrest Wood Open (when Kevin finished second).
“Once you’ve won an event, when you know you have the ability to do it, the disappointment of losing gets a lot more intense,” Reault said. “People who have never won a tournament can say, `Well, I’m pleased that I finished fifth, or 10th, or whatever.’ But after you’ve won, you don’t think that way anymore. You’re disappointed you didn’t finish first, and Kevin has won more than most.”
Kevin enrolled in Western Michigan University, the same school Randy graduated from. But where the business-oriented Randy opened D&R Sports while he was still in college (with the help of his father, Dick), Kevin dropped out after two years to become a D&R salesman after Randy put in a line of boats.
“Kevin was like a duck out of water in college,” Randy said. “There was no lack of intelligence. He’s a very bright guy. It was a matter of focus. He just wasn’t interested in what they wanted him to do on that campus, and he couldn’t make himself get interested, although he tried.
“His entire focus has always been hunting and fishing. The only time I saw that focus waver was when Sherry came along. Then he suddenly found something that was even more important to him than fishing.”
Kevin said he might do it a little differently if he had the chance to do things over. When hero-worshipping teenagers approach him for autographs, he tells them “to get a degree in marketing before they even try it.” Having the degree makes them a lot more attractive to companies that are potential sponsors, Kevin explains, and if the fishing doesn’t work out, they always have a degree they can fall back on.
“Most kids who talk to me about becoming a bass pro are worried about the fishing side of it,” Kevin said. “But being a bass pro any more is all about marketing. I tell them that if they can catch bass, the fishing part of it will take care of itself.
“The way to be a success on the pro tour today is finding sponsors, and sponsors want someone who is articulate, skilled and, most importantly, knows how to get their products into the public eye.”
Kevin has all of those qualifications. Well spoken and well informed, he can talk bass fishing in the most technical detail with amateur tournament anglers at sports shows. But he can also charm and inform soccer moms and dads who know nothing about the sport and just happen across him at a shopping center appearance.
It’s those qualities as much as his fishing skills that have earned him a list of major sponsors that includes Chevrolet trucks, Mercury outboards, Strike King lures, and Quantum rods and reels.
One retailer sells a line of Kevin VanDam signature rods and reels, a perk normally acquired by pros 20 years his senior. It helps that Kevin is a constant tinkerer with a hands-on approach to developing new gear. He routinely pulls out a toolbox on the water to make modifications to tackle that later show up in stores.
It’s the same reason that some of his baits look like a kindergarten class has decorated them. Kevin regularly paints lures in new color combinations, often dreamed up for specific waters, and he’s more concerned with speed than neatness.
He sometimes calls Strike King and asks that the company paint some lures to his specifications. Those that work well and have a widespread application may find their way to tackle store shelves. Others will only be found in his tackle box, such as a pale perch pattern that VanDam said matches the naturals in Lake St. Clair better than widely marketed models with more vivid greens and oranges.
“I can see myself getting into the business end of fishing someday, maybe into tackle manufacturing, but not for a long time,” Kevin said. “I love fishing, and I love the competition. And I get to spend my time at places like (Lake St. Clair). I figure I have to be one of the luckiest guys in the world.”