By Lynn Burkhead
OSG Senior Digital Editor
On a warm late summer morning several years ago near Alpena, Mich., the first-round competitors in a Major League Fishing event gathered at the rendezvous point during the day’s first break in filming and angling competition.
Riding in a camera boat operated by local angler and fishing tournament fan Jere Johnson, I grabbed my Nikon camera and readied to take a few shots to support coverage of the day. With an open spot next to Kevin VanDam’s boat as he sat quietly working on tackle, I nodded to Jere and we eased into that spot.
A moment later, one of the day’s other competitors arrived at the break location, idled by and grinned big as he approached KVD, who had already opened up a sizable first-period lead on the rest of the field.
And without warning as this angler slid by KVD’s boat, he humorously yelled out for all to hear, “Kevin, dadgum it man, why don’t you leave some for the rest of us?”
The place broke up in laughter with everyone grinning, including KVD, and the morning’s tension faded away. As was so often the case in VanDam’s 34-year professional angling career, everyone assembled knew they were about to watch a virtuoso performance as VanDam eventually lapped the field with Michigan smallmouths, winning the MLF event going away and creating another chapter in professional angling’s most storied career.
Now retired from professional competition, VanDam is set to write another chapter in his ongoing story, unveiling the work that the Michigan resident and his production team have been putting together for the past several months – The VanDam Experience, set to debut on Outdoor Channel on Sunday (Jan. 5) at 8 a.m. ET.
This time, however, instead of TV cameras showing KVD racing the clock and/or the field to the finish line, VanDam will now take viewers on an immersive journey into the heart of bass fishing. Along the way, look for him to showcase his bass fishing expertise, his love of the sport, and a passion for a well-lived life with his wife Sherry, twin sons Jackson and Nicholas, a host of good friends, and of course, the great outdoors.
During the various episodes of The VanDam Experience, fans will see KVD exploring some of the premier fishing spots across North America, from the best of the best largemouth bass waters down south to the top-shelf smallmouth fisheries up north. Along the way, VanDam will teach viewers advanced angling skills, peel the cover back on some of his career’s trademark secrets and showcase some of the bass fishing water on the planet.
“Part of what we’re going to showcase is some of the marquee fisheries where I’ve been before and had a lot of success at,” said VanDam, who has been filming and producing the show over much of the past year. “But just because I won a Classic or a tournament there 10, 20 or 30 years ago, lots may have changed. There will definitely be some nostalgia with some of this, and some bass fishing tournament history, but also a look at how things have changed, how everything is going now, and what you have to do to catch them (in the present).”
He plans to stay true to his roots early on – including the teaching side of fishing that he is so good at – as well as welcoming a few guests like new Bass Fishing Hall of Famer Mark Zona and country music superstar Luke Bryan, an avid angler and fishing fan.
While the show will eventually expand into other topics – KVD is a passionate whitetail and turkey hunter, along with having a penchant for saltwater angling from time to time – that’s in the future and for now he’ll stay close to his bass fishing DNA.
“The beauty of bass fishing is that there isn’t just one technique, pattern or way to approach a certain body of water,” said VanDam. “My approach has kind of always been the same because I was looking to win tournaments. I wanted a model of efficiency that would help me to be able to break down a lake quickly and effectively, to figure out where the best bass numbers were and what techniques would work there.”
Now, instead of trophies and career defining accolades, VanDam wants to hit a home run in telling bass fishing’s story.
“I think the overall production quality is top notch,” he said. “We’re putting a lot into it with two boats, two cameras, drones, underwater footage and more. It’s definitely being done the way that I think it should be, up to my standards, as far as quality of the end product goes.”
VanDam admits things are a little different now that he is the producer, owns the company, buys the equipment and pays the employees. And he knows that this past year has been something of a transition from one era of his career to the next. But he’s convinced that The VanDam Experience will be well received by casual observers of the sport and those who eat, sleep, and drink fishing 24/7/365.
VanDam said his approach to his new TV show is much the same as it was during his stellar tournament career, with a keen focus on preparation.
That might be a tall order for some, but KVD is used to looking at the summit and figuring out how to climb to the top.
“It’s on me now and the meter is running,” he said with a laiugh. “But the same process and approach that I’ve always had towards fishing, it’s the same here too. At the end of the day, I want people to be entertained, to think it has great photography and a tremendous quality to it. I also want them to learn (from it) so that when they’re out on the water, they succeed too.”
That’s the same process – be as prepared as possible and control the variables that you can control – that helped make VanDam history’s best all-time professional bass angler.
Since his first professional derby, a B.A.S.S. tournament in Clayton, N.Y., where he finished 110th at the New York Invitational, Sept. 23-25, 1987, there isn't much that VanDam hasn't seen or experienced from the front deck of his Nitro bass boat, and many times with a cameraman filming his every move.
With his professional career fully taking flight in 1990, VanDam traveled the country and the world en route to capturing four Bassmaster Classic victories (2001, '05, '10, '11), seven B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year titles (1992, '96, '99, 2008, '09, '10, '11), one FLW Tour AOY title (2001); 29 national tour level wins (including a record 25 B.A.S.S. victories, a Bass Pro Tour victory in 2021, and three Major League Fishing made-for-television events); along with more than $7 million in career earnings.
And he nearly had a storybook ending to it all, nearly capturing the victory in his final regular-season tournament in August 2023 when he finished second at the Saginaw Bay Bass Pro Tour event.
VanDam then competed in his fourth REDCREST this year based upon his qualifying for the event via his 2023 results on the BPT. And in late spring, he finished everything up at the May 2024 MLF Heavy Hitters event, landing a 7-12 chunk that gave him the $100,000 top prize awarded to the angler with the heaviest bass caught in the Championship Round.
After finishing with those career-ending fireworks, the angler once known as "the Kalamazoo Kid" called it all good, and with perhaps a few tears in the corner of his eyes, took one final bow, hugged Sherry, his wife of 32 years, and walked off the weigh-in stage one final time and into the future of The VanDam Experience.
VanDam will continue to be a major presence at trade and consumer shows.
Now 57, VanDam has made it clear that while he's retired from the sport as an official competitor, he's far from finished when it comes to making an impact on the bass fishing world. He’ll continue to be a familiar presence at events like the ICAST fishing trade show each summer, at the consumer shows at the Classic and REDCREST, and via his new TV show.
There will be plenty of social media engagement with fans, as well as work on behalf of his longtime sponsors as VanDam does content filming, seminar appearances and fan interaction for the likes of Strike King, Lew’s, Bass Pro Shops, Nitro Boats, Humminbird, YETI Coolers, T-H Marine, Minn Kota, Toyota, Thermacell, Weber Grills, Mossy Oak, Costa and plenty more.
“Because I’m such a fan of the sport, I’ll watch and keep up with what is happening,” said VanDam. “There’s no doubt that the trends are set by the tournament schedule and I’ll definitely follow that. But one of the things I also want to do is set my own trends going forward, looking at things a little bit differently than what the tour is doing.”
In addition to the usual tournament techniques for scenarios like fishing reservoirs in the fall, going offshore for the post-spawn and hitting grass flats in pre-spawn, he also wants to make some more news.
“I want to be able to put things on the radar that’s different than what others might do,” he said. “I still work with arguably the best companies in the business and there are lots of great ideas coming from them.”
The VanDam experience will eventually expand to chronicle the host's passion for deer and turkey hunting.
There will also be plenty of work for the Kevin VanDam Foundation and its youth fishing and conservation initiatives. And ever the bass fishing history buff, the 2018 inductee into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame and the 2024 inductee into the International Game Fish Association Hall of Fame is more than comfortable moving into a role as one of the sport’s elder statesmen.
“Absolutely, I take it very seriously,” said VanDam. “I think it’s really important for the future and for generations to come. I think it’s important to do, because it matters to me, the history of this sport, where we’ve come from, and the ones who have paved the way for this current generation of competitors.”
But KVD also wants his legacy to be far more than just tournament fishing greatness, being a superb teacher and ambassador for the sport, and a great spokesman for some of the best fishing products in the land.
In the end, he knows that all of that will be for naught if he and others can’t find a way to leave things better than they found them, especially in the terms of habitat health and wildlife and fisheries conservation.
“Going forward, we’ve got to be advocates for the health of our fisheries and for the health and well-being of the sport,” said VanDam. “It’s important for people to have influence and knowledge and experience, and to take those roles like being on the board of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame, for various conservation groups like the National Wild Turkey Federation and Ducks Unlimited, and others. And don’t forget other great causes like many from my good friend, Johnny Morris of Bass Pro Shops, and Folds of Honor.
“If you look around, there are all kinds of organizations that have ties with the outdoors, and have ties to the to the future of everything in the outdoors and that’s not just fishing either. We’ll also be working hard for our foundation, doing things for kids, and promoting habitat conservation every chance we get in the future.”
What goes on in the life of Kevin VanDam and his family and friends is not only content for The VanDam Experience television show, but also the only way for KVD to live, as he aims to leave things better for future generations. And that, as much as anything else, is the VanDam way.
Notable
> The VanDam Experience will air five times weekly on Outdoor Channel (all times Eastern): 8 a.m. Sunday, 1 p.m. Tuesday, 6:30 and 10:30 p.m. Thursday and 12:30 p.m. Friday.
