JVD Wins B.A.S.S. Northern Open on Erie

[Dan]

Don't look now, but there is another VanDam on the rise.

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/opens/news/story?id=4507104

[djkimmel]

Wow!! I bet Dad Randy is real proud right now. Jonathan seems like a really good kid.

Here's Jonathan talking about pro bass fishing on the hawg tank in Lansing Michigan not too long ago:

[gr@ssmonkey]

i got to do a little hanging out with JVD at the chesapeak bay northern open and he's the real deal,this kid has a firerey drive and a will to fish anyway it take's to win....all though his style is shaped after kevins,he feels comfortable dragging a jig in 20 f.o.w or drop shotting!!!! This is a tremendous victory for anyone but for a person his age it's probably a life shaping experiance....Anglers that are watching and wondering how to become pro....sit back..relax...and watch the coming show in the next decade as JVD IS ABOUT TO DEMONSTRATE!!!!
                  CONGRATS JONATHON ON A WELL EARNED VICTORY!!!!!

[gr@ssmonkey]

  wow aewsome job josh617....maybe i missed the post but lets hear the story dog .....and on a side note what did it pay$$$$$ 

[josh617]

way to go bondo, no one would have known if you didnt post anything.  I guess i m not special anymore. But anyways Sandusky went about as well as it could of except for losing the winning fish 3 or 4 times the last day. Day one, I was paired with a michigander by the name of Chris Noffsinger. It was his first time on that part of Erie and had spent 5 days practicing during which he located rockpiles on the south shore of erie near vermillion.
   I was a little nervous when he told me that because fishing down that way your fishing for five bites but the bites you get are going to be good ones plus we were first flight due in at 3. Day one i ended up with 4 bites and landed all 4 including one that weighed 5lbs 9oz the photo is in the day one photo gallery on bassmaster. My 4 fish had me in 10th place with 16-10. the first fish came on a dark melon/gold tube and the rest came drop shotting a gulp goby. My boater ended up with 3 that went 14-3.
   Day two i was paired with Jason Root, boat 99 and not due in til 5:15, we ran out to pelee and fished shallow, where we had caught and lost some the first day, only to find it trashed from the blow the day before. we fished some of his secondary stuff to no avail. So we run out a little deeper still dirty in like 20ft of water, but we fish it for a little while anyway. then we run out a little farther fishing a deeper shoal and the water was much cleaner. we take a few drifts during which we never marked anything on top of the shoal but when we would come off of it you would start seeing arches on the graph, but we would go run up and start the drift again. finaly like the 4th drift we took it a little bit farther and when my drop shot started falling off the the back side i felt a fish load on it had it on for like 5 cranks and the fish came off. I reel my bait in and see the hook went back into the goby never got a hook in the fish and about the same time i realized this my boaters rod loads with a 3 plus fish. I m not saying it was the same fish but we never caught another bass in like 4 more drifts. I did catch a 7lb drum on top of the reef. So at like noon we run back to the clean side of pelee and just fish random spots during which I caught like a 4-5lb catfish. By that time i was about ready to go catch a limit of largemouth and cut my losses for the day.
   But my boater wanted to hit a spot or two on the islands, I was pretty much up for anything. So we run over and start fishing deep in like 20ft of water and after like 5mins we notice some birds flocking up near the bank so he like "we should prolly check that out" and I m like "let's do it." So we run in and start fishing he s tossing a spinnerbait and im tossing a trap. I fire out and have one buckle the thing and not hook up so i keep it coming and my rod loads up its a 4lbs blacky get it in the net and toss it in the livewell. while im getting the hooks out of the net my boater hooks one on the blade and loses it just as fast. Finally get the bait out make a cast and on boils behind the boat, I reeel in and make a cast to the boil and horribly missed it. disgusted i burn the bait in only to see a 3lber following it to the boat. so I cast back to the intial boil and hook and land a 3lber. while i m digging the bait out of the net my boater jumps one off on the spinnerbait and breaks another one off. Not really sure why he was using 12lb test on the spinnerbait. Your reeling an all chartruese steel thing, i dont thing they care about the line diameter--this is just something bugs me sorry. anyways we ended up stumbling upon a school of feeding 3-5lb smallies that made things interesting on and off for 2 hrs. It was the kind of thing that you dream about. the only thing was when you would hook one the thing went straight to the surface and stayed there no matter what you did. Anyways a school came up boiling the water, boater fires the redeye in there and lands a 5lb 15oz fish. After i net it i run to the back pick up my rod and fire in there and have on crush the trap i have the fish on and halfway to the boat it clears the water and i see that its a solid 5 thing hits water and pulls off when i lost that one i figured that was the win right there with that would have been my limit fish. I did end up filling out the my limit with a 3plus fish, ended up coming up 11 oz short of first with a 17lb 3oz bag.     
     Third place ended paying like $2300, I had mixed feelings about the day but at least i got a nice plaque; its tough though when you hook the fish and they dont end up in the boat.

[gr@ssmonkey]

nice job josh617......way to fish in real time(in the moment) and get the job done
  i fished the chesapeak bay tournament(1st open 4 me) and had to have a talk with myself before i went about if i was to end up blowing a win with poor execution that i wouldn't kill myself
   i didn't lose any of the 2 fish i caught so i didn't have to go there,but i know what your saying it's hard to stomach a loss at that level knowing u were so close
nice to finish the series out with a nice check though
  will u be fishing the opens next year?