Tournament News Powered By Lake Drive Marine
Friday, October 10, 2025
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By Al McGuckin
VanDam’s 3 Top Lures for Early Spring
If you live in Texas, Florida, Southern California, Arizona or Cancun you may decide to scroll ahead.
But if you live within 300 miles of Charlotte, St. Louis, Nashville, Syracuse, Minneapolis, Tulsa, Indianapolis, or anywhere else where snow flurries still threaten to fly, the “Kalamazoo Kid” has chosen three lures you might want to make sure you have ready for your first big bass fishing trip of the new season.
“The first fishing trip of the year for most people involves water temps in the 40s or really low 50s. So the three lures I’m choosing here are among my three favorites to cover a variety of conditions when the water is still really cold,” says VanDam.
½-ounce Strike King Red Eye Shad – “It’s hard to beat a lipless crankbait in some shade of red or crawfish in late winter or early spring. It really shines well if there’s aquatic vegetation – but that’s not critical. It wasn’t critical when I won the 2010 Classic on Lay Lake with a Red Eye Shad, and there was actually still a thin layer of ice on some of the backwaters when we started practice that week in Alabama,” remembers the Team Toyota angler.
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As many of the state and federal natural resource managers near retirement age, there will be a need to fill vacant positions with qualified individuals who understand and have a passion for sport fishing. To ensure that a pool of well-trained applicants is available for employers to choose from, Shimano and the B.A.S.S. Nation (BN), are offering $2,000 college scholarships in 2019 for students seeking a bachelor’s or master’s degree in a natural resource field. This award will be made directly to the student and not the student's educational institution, and can be used for tuition, textbooks or living expenses.
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By Louie Stout
Survey Shows That St. Joe Continues to Produce Nice Bass
You don’t have to tell St. Joseph River anglers that the quality of bass fishing on the river is good.
Darn good.
Nor do you have to convince Indiana DNR Biologist Larry Koza, who oversees Indiana’s section of the St. Joe.
“I think the St. Joe continues to be underrated for bass, especially smallmouth,” he said this week. “The locals who fish it know what’s there but I’m not sure a lot of people outside that area appreciate how good it is.”