2007 Bassmaster Classic Champion

It’s time to get going now. We’re into the season, and I need some better finishes.

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Well, I’ve now finished two tournaments in Texas. I made the 50 cut at Falcon Lake,but I didn’t make the cut at Lake Amistad. So I had one tournament that was OK and another that I wasn’t pleased with. Overall, I just didn’t get the big bites in Texas that I needed.

It’s interesting because I’m now back home in Demopolis, Alabama, and I’m wondering what’s going to happen with one of my closest friends on the tour, Jason Williamson. I’ve roomed with Jason and Jeremy Starks quite a bit the past two years, so we’ve all talked about a lot of situations. And today, Jason’s got himself in quite a situation. He’s leading the tournament going into the final day.

 It’s a great accomplishment getting to that point. He finished 8th last week at Falcon Lake, and that was his first top 12 finish. And this week he’s got another top 12, with a shot at winning.

I’ve watched Jason bloom as an angler, and he’s certainly coming into his own. There are separating stages on this tour. Everybody on the tour is a good angler, but some stand out a little more than others. At our tournaments at the first cut, the 50 cut, more than half the field is gone. That’s a bunch of good anglers that don’t make it, so when you make that cut you’ve reached a second level . Then out of the 50 that are left, only 12 make it to the final day. That’s another level of success, a high level of success. When you make that 12 cut a time or two, the other anglers look at you in a different way.

Then there’s that final separation when you get a win. But that’s really, really hard to do. There are some awfully good anglers that have never gotten a win. It’s hard to believe that Gerald Swindle, as good as he is, has never had a win. That kind of thing happens because it’s so hard to win one of these.

But Jason’s fishing on Sunday with a chance to win, and there’s a lot of pressure with that. There’s especially a lot of pressure being a leader. Sunday is usually an adjustment day. It’s a day when everything can get away from you if you’re not careful. If you’ve had success the first few days you fall in love with what you’ve got. But the guys that win are the ones that can be open-minded on the final day when, all of sudden, what worked for you up until then doesn’t work any more. The guys that can adjust and go find fish are the ones that win. That’s why Kevin VanDam wins. He knows how to adjust.

Jason’t been throwing a swimbait and he’s catching them. It’s not something he’s done a lot of in the past, but he’s got a good, solid pattern and it’s working. I hope he keeps catching them. But I’ll say this. He’s gonna have to catch them good today, because the guys around him aren’t likely to fall down.

For me, I had a pretty decent deal going in practice, but it didn’t hold out. I tried the swimbait, but it didn’t work for me. So here I am, home on Sunday.

Falcon Lake. It was just what I thought. First day of the Lone Star Shootout, and look at the weights. And this will be the worst of the four days.

Man, it was something else. The reason I say this is going to be the worst of the four days is because of the wind. It was blowing 25 to 40 miles an hour. A lot of guys were blown right off their open-water stuff. But even with backup plans, the weights are heavy.

I’m away from the stage area, but I know Aaron Martens had 42 today and leads it. And I heard the big fish was 13-2. Can you imagine what might happen when the wind dies? The record fish is 13-9, so that one might fall.

I had a pretty good day, and I caught my fish flipping, anywhere I could find with less than four-foot waves. And I was in heavy brush. … I was negotiating saltcedars all day. Saltcedars and mesquite. When I get out of here I’ll be looking for a new wrap on my boat. My E-21 Carrot Stix wrap now says “Carrot Sti.”

But I caught a bunch of fish, probably 75 or so total. I was using this 10-inch Berkley power worm, and I burned a bag of 50 of them.

Tomorrow, I’m going to go out and try some of my off-shore stuff I didn’t get to do today. Too much wind.

Oh, by the way, I had 28 pounds, 12 ounces. That was good for 24th place.

I need to get the boat ready and get some rest.

We’re on Falcon Lake for the Lone Star Shootout, and I don’t know how else to say this. … I’m catching the hell out of some fish. I mean I’m catching a lot of fish, and I’m talking about big, big fish.

But my guess is that just about everybody else is catching them, too. I’ve never seen so many big fish in a lake. I’d say the record for a day, 45 pounds, will be broken. I think the record for a four-day tournament, which is 122 pounds, is toast. In fact, I’d probably bet a paycheck that that one will get broken.

This is going to be a slugfest. All BASS records are in jeopardy. I’ve never even been to this lake, and I’ve caught about 30 pounds a day in practice.

I’ve seen a lot fish on the long, sloping points. I noticed Jason Williamson has been flipping and he’s caught about the same weights I have.

That’s the way the fishing’s going. Other than that, it’s been interesting seeing this dry, desertish area. Lot of scorpions and rattlesnakes. We’ve got scorpions outside our doors at night, so you don’t really want to spend any time outside. And there are snakes all over the dirt roads.

Some of the guys went out and lassoed a few of them last night. They put some rope on the end of a whip stick and lassoed the rattlesnakes. Then they went back to the motel and started knocking on some doors.

Just another day on the Elite Series tour.

This was another one of those times where I had several business and sponsor issues pressing. I swear I wasn’t intentionally avoiding this blog - or I guess I should say I wasn’t trying to avoid talking about what it’s like to NOT catch a big bag of fish in Florida.

Anyway, before I get to my fishing, I need to answer a question. Nick M. asked which of the LTX rods I would recommend for the shaky head. … The one I’d go for is the 6′-7″ medium spinning rod.

 I’m in between tournaments and, as is usually the case, business piled up on me. I was going to just move on, but I’m still thinking a little bit about Florida. And Florida, well, Florida was Florida again. As far as the tournament went at Toho went, I didn’t do as well as I’d like, and that’s the nicest way I know to put it. In fact, after fishing four days in two tournaments,  I never had less than seven pounds, but I never caught as much as 10. Some days I was proud to get what I did.

Before I talk more about Florida, let me tell you that I’m about to spend some time competing in the Ultimate Match Fishing tournament on the Outdoor Channel. I get to do it again because I won it last year. I’d love to tell you about it. I seriously would. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to do that.

Anyway, if you followed the results in Kissimmee, you know I didn’t have a great tournament for the second time in a row. I vowed to change what I was doing when we went to Lake Toho, and I sort of did that. But nothing I tried helped enough.

Florida is just a funny state to fish in sometimes. There are several ways to fish, everybody knows it. The best way is a lot of times is to sight fish. But the thing about it is you’ve got to see the fish first. And that’s not as simple as it sounds.

You have to make a conscious choice during practice on how you’re going to fish the tournament. You have to set up your plan. One of those ways is to look for them. But you could spend all your time looking for fish, and then if you don’t see them what have you accomplished? I looked, but the beds I found were empty. And like I said, if you look for beds and you don’t find anything, you’ve blown a day. And it’s not like you can see everything. There’s 700 miles of shoreline on Toho.  

At Kissimmee, five guys found a spot on about 200 yards of shoreline where they found fish. That was a good spot, but that was about it. At least that was all any of us found. The five that fished in that 200-yard section did good.

KVD, who won the tournament, was not one of those sight fishing. He caught his fish on offshore grass. He was catching 15 to 16 pounds a day, so he fished a good tournament. … I believe I’ve said this before. But he’s one fine angler. No matter what, he’s going to catch them.

But no matter what you do, you’ve got to get a big bite to finish in the money. Forty of the 50 guys that finished in the money in Florida got one big bite in two days. I didn’t, so I didn’t make the cut. That’s what it’s like in Florida.

Well, Texas is next.

Today we finished the Sunshine Classic. Well, I didn’t finish today. I actually finished Friday. I struggled again. 

I came to Florida, knowing I’ve always had trouble. But I came here with a plan, and that plan was to fish these lakes differently than I have in the past. Here, what you have to do to be successful is to sit on an area. You sit and be patient and hope they bite in an eight or nine hours. That’s what I planned to do.

I finished 62nd, and that’s a lot better than 92nd, which I have done. But it’s not what I was looking for. I came in with a plan to be totally patient, but I didn’t have the confidence that I was the right area, so I moved. And, as a result, I didn’t get the fish and, therefore, didn’t fish a good tournament. It’s a guessing game sometimes, and if you’re not in the right spot, you can burn your whole time up and not catch a thing.

My style of fishing is moving around, finding them and then hunkering down - but it just doesn’t work here. And to be honest, luck plays a role sometimes on these Florida lakes. Just look at what happened today. Mike McClelland caught them today. Brian Snowden caught big bags for three days and didn’t catch a thing today. Look at the weights on the final 12. There were some awfully good anglers that didn’t catch many pounds worth of fish.

I’ll be perfectly honest, my goal coming here to this tournament was to get a check, finish in the money. And I didn’t even do that. My goal going into tournaments should be a lot higher than to finish in the top 50 and get a check.

Well, we’re in Florida again this coming week at Kissimmee.I’m going to change the way I approach things this time, I assure you.

Well, the Elite Series starts tomorrow. It’s the Sunshine Showdown on the Harris Chain of Lakes. As you can see in this picture, there are some administrative chores to take care of before we get on the lakes tomorrow.

But that wasn’t my biggest headache of the day. My biggest headache was knowing there are some killer spots on this lake, with big, big fish. And I’m leaving the boat ramp as No. 96. And that’s a bad piece of luck. Somebody might have a 20 pounds before I ever leave the dock.

And really, this is not as if there are all kinds of secret places on these lakes. It seems like there are four or five really good places to fish, where you can flat bring ‘em in. I saw an 8-pounder today and whole bunch of fives. But the thing is, everybody seems to know where the fish are.

It’s kind of a gut-check time for me. I’ve been fishing in these Florida waters since 1982. And I’ll be honest, I’ve never done real well here. In a way, I’m glad we’re here, because I always want another shot at these lakes. But I’ve got a lot of history that’s not good.

So, wish me luck. I’ll need some tomorrow.

As I mentioned, I’ve been doing a thousand things since the Classic - but it hasn’t stopped me from thinking about my performance. I disappointed a lot of people.

As we grow up in the fishing business, it’s a one-on-one sport and it’s a roller coaster. We know. We don’t want the lows, but I think the lows make you appreciate the highs even more. Normally, you only have the pressure of dissapointing yourself and maybe a small group of people around you. But this was different.

After I won the Classic last year I met a lot of people around the country. They said they appreciated seeing me win, and they’d be pulling for me from now. A lot of people said they were in my corner. And it was not just Elite Series fans, it was people within the industry and even in the media. Some of the media guys went out on a limb and picked me to do well. I got a lot of calls from media people after it was over, and they all had the same question: “What the hell happened?”

So here’s what I did on Sunday. I felt like the only thing I could do, not making the cut, was go to the outdoor show and support my sponsors. Show them I’ll be there whether I win or lose. So I spent time with Triton and Mercury and time with E-21. … I felt like it was the right thing to do to go the outdoor show. I talked to fans all day long and signed autographs. But I think people will understand when I say while it was great getting to talk to people that love the sport, it was awful being there instead of fishing in the finals.

People were nice to say, “Man, I hate it for you, but that kind of stuff happens. You’ll get them next time.” … But it was killing me.

I’ll say again that it was a great, great tournament. … I just wish I’d done better.

Again, it’s been a hectic few days, and I haven’t had much time to myself. Let me say right now that I know it’s better to put out a blog on the spot - and not have to do a rehash several days later. I will try to do that during the Elite Series. I will do my best. But these few days have given me time to reflect. I’ve done a lot of thinking since the Classic. I know a lot of people are disappointed, and no one’s more disappointed that I am. It got away on the first day. Here’s what happened.

I had a good practice, caught about 17 to 18 pounds a day in practice, every day. Well, every day except one - and that was the day I found I spot that I thought would let me win the thing.

But anyway, on Wednesday, the official day, I didn’t check my good stuff. I checked other stuff. I checked up the Tugaloo River where I had one pattern. I had a another pattern down by the dam, that was a second spot. I was in good shape. But then I had this third place. That’s the one I was talking about. … I could have won the Classic in that one ditch. I went into that creek and found a school, a bunch of threes and fours. Then I went about 20 yards ahead and caught two more fours and a three. I trolled around some more and they were everywhere. … It’s not the first time I’ve seen fish stack like that, early pre-spawn. I have seen it. But they’re usually smaller. These were the biggest fish in the biggest numbers I think I’ve ever come on.

But the weather took the spot. … All of the great spots I found were dependent on stable weather. And we didn’t get it.

At that point, as Friday unfolded, as the weather changed with 35 degrees and rain, I had to decide whether to find another pattern, or whether I could get five out of my existing spots. … I chose to go after my existing spots. I had six on the first day, but I lost too many of them. Then, on Saturday, I had more than 15 pounds without a big fish. … But I didn’t survive because of Friday. Bad as you hate it, those days come. You just don’t want them in the Classic.

Here’s a funny thing, though. Even though Friday was a tough day with a low weight, I enjoyed the Classic. This year, as a consolation prize, I had a chance to watch the event, to take it in. … Greenville was great, so was Hartwell Lake. Last year I was so focused because I was leading. I had to block everything else out. This year, I was down on the floor. I got to pass the trophy off to Alton Jones. I got to watch the emotion of the other fishermen. I enjoyed that.

I was proud to see Alton Jones win it. He’s 16, 17 years in, he has solid character as an individual, and I’m certain he’ll do the things to support and represent the sport. He’ll be a good champion. It’s an unwritten requirement that the Classic champion will support and honor the sport. And, as I said, he’ll do that.

I was like a lot of people. I pulled hard for Charley Hartley. There’s probably no one that wouldn’t have been happy to see him win. I wasn’t surprised KVD was in there, he always is. And Cliff Pace fished a great classic, came out of nowhere.

One other thing. I was real excited to see Ike in the final six. He had kind of down year last year, and it’s great to see a leader in our sport back on top, where he belongs.