Kevin VanDam is the greatest bass angler of the past two decades and the all-time leader in B.A.S.S. prize money, but based on the healthy abundance of species swimming in Lake Michigan, even KVD can’t predict what he’s going to catch on any given cast here at the Toyota Angler of the Year tournament out of Sturgeon Bay.
“In the four days I’ve been on the water, I’ve caught king salmon, steelhead, smallmouth bass, northern pike, perch and walleye,” grinned VanDam, a proud Michigan native. “That’s the cool thing about fishing around the Great Lakes, you never know what you’re gonna catch, and there’s a good chance it will be big.
“This steelhead I caught today probably weighed 10 pounds and it came from the same exact rocky shoal where I caught a legitimate 6-pound smallmouth in practice,” added VanDam, showing a photo on his cell phone of the steelhead after day one weigh-in as a storm pushed toward Centerpointe Marina.
Better yet, VanDam says you don’t need a ton of tackle to catch the wide variety of species that swim here.
“All those species came on one lure, with one rod and reel—a Deep Diving Strike King KVD jerkbait, on a 6-foot, 10-inch medium-heavy Quantum TourKVD rod and a Quantum EXO spooled with 12-pound Bass Pro Shops XPS Fluorocarbon.”
VanDam says the lure’s color is called “Crystal Shad”, but that its ability to get around 10 feet deep helps put it in the neighborhood where so many different species swim.
Fisheries biologist Gene Gilliland serves as National Conservation Director for B.A.S.S. and is onsite at Sturgeon Bay. He’s not surprised by VanDam’s multispecies success.
“The Great Lakes have always been abundant with a variety of species, and that variety has been made even greater due to the stocking efforts of state agencies,” says Gilliland. “For example, the steelhead Kevin caught is basically a sea-run rainbow trout and rainbows are native to the Western U.S., so those fish are here directly as a result of being stocked.
“As great as the smallmouth fishing can be around Door County, they actually play second fiddle in popularity to salmon, and even walleye and perch—it’s just a great and diverse fishery.”
As an Amazon Associate, we may earn income when you click on an Amazon link. We also earn affiliate commissions off of other partner links. For a list of our affiliate partners, visit our
retail partners page. Your link clicks help us fund the work we do for the fishing community.
Amid a fishing trip on the bass-starved Ohio River in the summer of 1987, Alan McGuckin’s Dad told a then 16-year-old “Guck” — “I don’t care what you do for a living, just promise me you’ll do something you love.”
Originally from Pittsburgh, McGuckin considers himself a blue-collar kid, who has been richly blessed to live-out the best piece of advice his dad ever gave him for many years now in the Tulsa area.
After earning a degree in ecology at Juniata College in Pennsylvania, where he placed radio transmitters in largemouth bass to track their habitat preferences, he moved his life to Oklahoma in 1992, where he earned a Masters in Zoology and Fisheries under the direction of Gene Gilliland at the University of Oklahoma, before then embarking on what’s now a nearly three decade long career as a marketing and media veteran in the fishing industry.
His career spans 28 years of wisdom-rich marketing experience working to strengthen brands and increase sales for Lowrance, Terminator Lures, Toyota, Yamaha Outboards, Boat U.S., Carhartt, Costa, Quantum, Vexus Boats, and Zebco.
- Member of the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame voting committee, as well as a Board of Directors member for Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful
- Co-piloted the Terminator brand of premium lures from its birth to more than 10 Million pieces sold between 1997-2006.
- Has authored and published more than 800 stories on Bassmaster.com, along with several other popular bass fishing websites.
- He has generated $3 Million dollars’ worth of branded digital media since 2020, as a content creator.
- Serves as emcee for hundreds of guests at the annual Toyota Bonus Bucks Owners event.
- Avid angler, who fishes nearly every weekend when not on the road working.
- 13,000 followers on Instagram @GuckFishing.
“Guck” lives just north of Tulsa, OK at Lake Skiatook with wife Sherrie, an elementary school principal who also loves her job, and has a genuine passion for slinging a Rapala Brat crankbait on shallow points and habitat-laden flats.