Will Kevin VanDam win the FLW Championship and be the first angler ever to win the FLW and BASSMASTER championships in the same year? That's a question on everyone's mind -- except VanDam's.

"I'm just here to try to do as well as I can, just like every tournament," he says. "Sure I'd like to win it, partly because it's $250,000 (laughs)."

But unifying the titles would be pretty cool, right? "It would be cool. It would be great," he says.

No Pressure

Though VanDam felt a mountain of pressure going into the BASS Masters Classic -- partly because he was named the first No. 1 angler in the world just before the tournament started -- he doesn't feel any now.

"There's no extra pressure," he says. "I don't really feel any different. It's just another tournament. I shoot for the top at all of them."

If It Happened

If VanDam won the FLW Championship, would he take the next decade off? After all, earning FLW Angler of the Year, being named the first No. 1 angler in the world, winning the Classic and winning the FLW Championship all in the same year -- plus three prior B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year titles -- what would be left?

"It wouldn't change anything for me," he says. "I'd just keep on going. What drives me is the competition. I'm a competitor. And when a tournament's over, it's kind of in the past. In this sport you're only as good as your last tournament."

Champlain

"I didn't come (to the lake) and spend a bunch of extra time," VanDam says. "I had 3 1/2 days of practice, and I know some guys have been here for 2 weeks."

He says the lake is fishing "pretty good, though it's different than when we've been here before. The water temperature is a lot warmer, and the fish aren't into their fall patterns like they should be. A lot haven't moved up shallow."

Strategy

Asked whether largemouths are part of his game plan, VanDam says "it's part of my thinking. But once you qualify for the Top 10, you go back to zero and it's hard to have a largemouth spot or area where you can catch big bags multiple days in a row.

"So my strategy is that there are a whole lot more 18- to 19-pound bags of smallmouths out there than largemouths."