Title Winner VanDam 'Surprised' And 'Overwhelmed'

Kevin VanDam clinched his sixth Angler of the Year title (fifth with BASS) yesterday at the Alabama River (for BassFan's final-day reporting on the event, click here.

Only one angler has won more AOY titles – Roland Martin, who claimed nine across his career.

VanDam also became only the third angler to win back-to-back titles – Martin and Guido Hibdon preceded him – and the $200,000 prize pushed his career earnings past the $4 million mark.

VanDam addressed the media shortly after the award ceremony in Montgomery, Ala. Those questions (some paraphrased), and his responses, appear in the Q&A that follows.

How do you feel right now?

VanDam I'm overwhelmed. I really didn't expect this. I'm really excited, but I also feel for Skeet. I didn't think I had a chance. I opened the door last week. (Skeet's) a great fisherman – a great competitor. Things usually don't work out for me like that.

You seem surprised that you were able to overtake him.

I was extremely surprised. Yesterday I had a good day, and I felt confident I could go out and do it again. I've never been in the position where I have to count on other guys to catch them for you to win. This was nail-biting. It's a really intense format, without a doubt.

You join Roland and Guido as the only ones to win back-to-back titles. Does that make this title more special? What does it mean to you?

You can do a lot of things in this sport, but the AOY title, to fishermen, is the toughest, most prestigious one to win. I've had a lot of people ask me what this one would mean, and I'll tell you that with every one – I appreciate it more and more.

"It's what you work for all year long. Just to have the opportunity to be in contention at the end of the year is really saying something. To be able to win it back to back – I've had some ups and downs, but it's amazing.

Did you think you were out of it after your first day at Lake Jordan?

I could not believe the day I had. To be totally honest, to battle through it to get the 10 pounds I caught – it felt like it was Herculean. It was just unreal how bad a start I had. It seemed like every fish that bit, I lost. It was incredible. I had a chance for a really good day. So to be able to bounce back and catch 10-something pounds, to make it at least an average day – it's great to have one of those days in a 2-day event and be able to bounce back.

In a 4-day tournament, you can overcome one off-day. But lots of times, in a 2-day tournament, it's tough to do. I knew I needed a really big day the next day, but so did everybody else.

One of these things about these lakes here is the weights are so close, just like Skeet (Reese) said – it can be easy to find quality fish here, but the winning fish, it can be tough.

You beat a lot of great anglers to win the title this year.

The hard thing is, all these guys here, I know them really well. We spend all this time on the road together. They're like second families. It's always a tough time toward the end of the year when guys are trying to qualify for the (Bassmaster) Classic – this guy's in, this guy's out. And you're friends. You want to see everybody do well. Unfortunately it's a competition. Everybody can't win. Everybody can't qualify. It's tough. It's hard to deal with.

What are your thoughts on the Jordan and Alabama River fisheries?

I've fished all over Alabama – all up and down this river system here. Coosa River spots are the best spots in the world. They'd drown a Table Rock spot. They're just mean. They're so much more aggressive. And it's a type of fishery – stained water – that really suits my style of running and gunning. Alabama has been fantastic to me over the years.

Can you tell us how you developed the pattern that won this event?

The pattern I was fishing was basically all main-river oriented – current-type (areas), where these spotted bass can set up and feed on shad. The primary forage this time of year is shad. And they ran a lot of current.

I was fishing basically different sandbars – some on the main river, some right off the side, either real shallow or real deep. It was one of those things where I was looking for something irregular like a turn, a corner in the shallowest spot.

One of my very best places was a super-shallow hard spot. That's where I caught them yesterday. I threw a Strike King Series 1 SX (crankbait) and Strike King Caffeine Shad (soft jerkbait). Today I fished the midriver with a Strike King Series 6 in sexy shad, and caught a couple on a Strike King 3 1/2-inch Shadilicious (swimbait) on a jighead.

With the current today, I was just running and looking for schools of better quality fish. I found in practice a couple areas that had better quality fish, and I was hitting them several times a day. I'd let them rest, then run (back) into them.

Would you catch a few fish at a time, or was it one here, one there?

Usually I'd catch multiple fish – two or three at a time. Then you might have to let the spot cool off, then come back. These fish get smart really fast, especially as aggressive as they are. They're following baits. Often I'd have two on at a time. So you'd pull the school off a spot, then have to wait for them to reposition.

Was anyone else fishing the midriver bar you fished today?

I didn't see anybody else. I saw Alton Jones there in practice. It was a spot I found a few years back in an Elite 50. I caught a good stringer then, so I knew it to be a good spot. I made one cast there in practice and caught a 4-pounder. I thought it would be the spot to win the tournament on. Yesterday I got no bites there. The river was dirty. I started there (the morning of day 2) and it was gametime.

What was your other best spot like?

It was really shallow – a foot to a foot and a half. There was some scattered shoregrass, some stumps and some hyacinth. I spent a lot of time in practice looking for little pieces of wood or trash (to) memorize (in case the water came up). The fish would sit right up by a little piece of cover. I give a lot of credit to my Oakley sunglasses for seeing (that stuff) in the dirty water.