LAY LAKE — As is usually the case, Kevin VanDam had a plan.

In practice for the 40th Bassmaster Classic on Lay Lake, the leading money winner in professional bass fishing history had found his honey spot at the end of Beeswax Creek, not far from where boats were launched each day.

That spot, covered with coontails, loaded with food and cover and warming up as the Classic went on, was VanDam’s home for all three days of fishing. And his 19 lb., 7 oz. five-fish catch on the last day was the best stringer of the week, and helped vault him from fourth place to first to give “KVD” his third all-time world championship.

VanDam beat out a large contingent of local anglers, including Gerald Swindle of Warrior. Swindle, fishing in his first Classic in three years, had a good day Friday and started out in 13th place, but came up with a light catch Saturday and simply couldn;t catch up. He finished 20th overall.

Trussville’s Matt Herren was the best metro Birmingham finisher in seventh place. Aaron Martens of Leeds was 11th, and Kotaro Kiriyama of Moody placed 16th. Randy Howell of Springville missed the cut after two days, and placed 33rd out of 51 contestants.

Prattville’s Russ Lane was the top Alabamian, finishing fourth.

VanDam was not alone in his favorite spot. Most of the top six finishers spent all or part of three days on Beeswax, though VanDam staked out the end of the creek as his own. Only Lane, for whom Lay Lake is home territory, went elsewhere.

Lane instead opted for Spring Creek, a similar feeder that produced  good results on the final day, but not enough to catch VanDam.

As for Swindle, he went against the current — literally.

While others stayed fairly close to the Beeswax launch site, Swindle opted to go upriver, to Kelly Creek near Logan Martin Dam.

“My fishing style is up that river,” Swindle said. “On Day One I had it all to myself. But on Day Two someone else beat me to it, and I had to go scramble just to catch my five.”

Swindle caught 10.5 pounds the first day, putting him at 13th on the leaderboard. But while his scrambling on Saturday did yield a five-fish limit, there wasn’t much weight to them. Seven pouns and one ounce dropped him back into the middle of the pack, but high enough to make the cut.

‘On Day 3 I committed that I wasn’t going into Beeswax, but I was going back upriver. I branched out into some areas I don’t normally go,” Swindle said.

But his 8-11 Sunday stringer wasn’t enough to make a significant move.

Swindle, whose best Classic finish was a third place at Pittsburgh, Pa., in 2005, said he wasn’t happy with his result, but “having all the fans here in Birmingham, that part was a total success.”

Runner-up Jeff Kriet stayed within shouting distance of VanDam’s boat almost the whole tournament, enough to hear the shouts of spectator boats when one of his rivals landed a bass.

Kriet ended up using a lipless crank bait to catch most of his fish, just as VanDam had done all three days. But Kriet spent some fruitless time trying out a small swimbait, similar to one he had seen Mike Iaconelli use on Saturday night’s ESPN replay of that day’s fishing. He got one bite, but that was all and he soon returned to the cranker.

On Monday and Tuesday, after the pros had packed up and gone, many fans stuck around to see if they could duplicate VanDam’s effort on Beeswax.

Many used the same chome half-ounce Red Eye Shad. Most came up empty.

Todd Faircloth finished third, in between Kriet and Lane. Brent Chapman was fifth, and Iaconelli was sixth.

The Classic win puts VanDam just behind Rick Clunn, the only four-time winner of the event.