Kevin VanDam
Collected wisdom

Interviewed BY ED GODFREY, Comments 0
Published: November 8, 2009

Kevin VanDam has been a professional bass fisherman for more than 20 years. Some think he is the best ever. His resume includes two Bassmaster Classic championships, five BASS "Angler of the Year” crowns and 16 tournament wins. He has finished in the top three in BASS tournaments 43 times and has career winnings of more than $3.6 million on the Bassmaster tour.

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I grew up in Kalamazoo. Still live there. It’s a pretty neat town because it’s big enough where you pretty much got what you need but small enough to where we don’t have traffic issues and some of the problems of big cities and things like that.

As a kid, I never wanted to be inside. I loved to fish and hunt, and with the Great Lakes so close and all the different species there, there’s always something in season, always something going on. It’s a true sportsman’s paradise.

My dad took me fishing the very first time when I was 3. We actually went ice fishing. I didn’t do a lot of fishing. I basically ran around out there and kicked ice in the holes and checked out all of the guys that were out fishing to see what they were catching.

My older brother was in a bass club. That was how I was introduced to (tournament fishing). He started to fish those club tournaments. He took me along a few times when he went to practice for a club tournament. I was pretty intrigued by that at a young age.

I fished my first tournament with him when I was 14. Just a little Saturday morning, six-hour tournament. We did pretty well. We finished second. I just thought that was way cool, to go out there and catch bass and have a chance to win some money doing it.”

I talk to a lot of these guys that come up now and it was their life dream to fish for a living. It wasn’t that way for me. When I went to fish my first Bassmaster tournament, my goal was to go out there and see the guys that I have seen on TV and just to see if I could compete with them. I never really thought that would by my career. I just got pulled in.

Bowhunting for whitetails is probably my favorite thing (other than fishing). One thing I really enjoy is watching the sunrise. That’s a great thing about the job that I have. I get to see a lot of sunrises.

There is something special about being out there at first light — the fog on the water, the loons calling, all the bald eagles that you see. I just really enjoy that time in the morning. I love it. It’s very peaceful to sit there in my tree stand and watch the woods wake up.

I don’t get to fish as much as most people think. Most of the fishing that I do is just basically tournaments anymore. I fish the tournaments. I film TV shows. I have sponsor commitments. I get very little time just to go for fun. When I do get a day, I like to go with friends or family.

Ten years ago, you would tell people you were a tournament bass fisherman and they would have no idea what you are talking about. Now, even if they don’t fish, at least they are aware of what it is. They may not watch it, but it’s on the radar screen. That growth is something I feel is going to continue. We got a pretty big fan base to draw from and it seems like it is building every year.

The challenge for our sport is it’s not a true spectator sport in the sense it’s not held in a stadium or an arena. For us to bring it to the fans, it’s got to be televised and it’s got to be televised properly.

Professional bass fisherman

Age: 42

Hometown: Kalamazoo, Mich.