Entries Tagged 'Bassmaster Tour' ↓

I’ve started a lot of these blogs this season telling you that I had a frustrating day. Well, I think frustration went to a new level today here at Old Hickory. I caught 5 pounds, 13 ounces today and I’m a long way from the 50 cut. The worst part was I watched a local angler, probably a 60-year-old guy, catch 17 or 18 pounds of fish, sitting right on the spot I found earlier this week. I hung out for hours thinking he’d leave, but he just kept catching them and he refused to move.

To hear more of this story, click on the audio blog below. 

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It’s been a funny year. I’ve thought sometimes the fishing gods were out to get me. I couldn’t find them in Florida. I found them in Texas, but they weren’t big enough. They got away in Georgia and South Carolina. Another angler got to my hole first in Alabama. And here at Kentucky Lake, I’ve had to share space with another angler and we’ve both suffered for it. It’s a decent area for two anglers, and it would have been a great one for one.

I’m in 36th place going into Saturday. I’ve found and caught enough good fish to get in the Top 50 money, but it’ll be a long shot to get into the Top 12. Gary Klein and I have ’s the other angler. He and I have been fishing the same two ledges for two days, and it looks like the spot’s about to play out. That means I’ll probably have to scramble tomorrow.

More than one angler fishing the same spot happens pretty often. What happens is you’re out there and you practice two-and-a-half days, you find a nice quality school of fish, and then unfortunately, another competitor finds the same school of fish. Your tournament plan is to manage the spot for as many fish as you can get during four days on the spot. But then somebody else is there, and it’s up to the two of you to manage it.

And Saturday will be even more complicated. You’ll have the Elite Series field. You’ll also have a BFL tournament and a 250-boat Strike Team tournament. Add to that all the weekend anglers. … Yes, it’ll be tense tomorrow. A lot of disruptions. It’ll be interesting.

Probably Kevin won’t have to deal with it. When you get to the level he’s at, you get that 40-boat entourage that follows him and people get out of the way. 

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I’m at the boat ramp headed out for the second day. I had a decent, not great first day, and I’ve got to have another good day. I think consistency will be important in this tournament. A few decent days might be worth a 12 cut. Check out this audio blog by clicking on the Mobile Post. 

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I wrote a blog earlier this season that mentioned how disappointed I was with my performance at the Classic. There were a lot of people counting on me to do well. A few people even picked me to win, which made me feel good in a way. But I understood that was based on how strong I finished last season. Anybody in the business knows it’s almost impossible to really predict who’s going to win the Classic, because there are so many variables.

But it was nice in a way that people were confident I was going to do well. And when I didn’t, other people were disappointed, but nobody was more disappointed that I was.

Then, unfortunately, the disappointments kept coming. I’ve had a couple of decent tournaments, but generally it’s been a struggle so far. I was terrible in Florida - as I have been in Florida since 1982. Florida’s my nemisis.

My best finish this season was week before last at Lake Murray, but that was only 19th place. And I was disappointed with that, because I’m not fishing for 19th. I want to be in the Top 12 every week with a chance to win on Sunday - that’s the goal.

So the season’s been disappointing, and it’s making me take a hard look at why. What am I doing that makes it look like the fishing gods are laughing at me. And I keep coming back to one thing. For whatever reason, I’m finding that my intensity level is not as high as it needs to be. And so my confidence is not as high as it was at the end of last year. And those two things go hand-in-hand. You can’t separate confidence and intensity.

I don’t know how much this has to do with coming off a good season with a strong finish, then starting this season with a few bad events. I don’t know whether it’s in the stars or whether I’m psychologically not where I’ve needed to be, but some strange things have been happening. I’m so, so close all the time, but the big bites that were coming to me last year aren’t working out this year.

At Lake Murray, I jumped a 4-pounder on Saturday. If’ I get that fish in the boat, I go from 19th place to at least 5th, and I’m in the game on Sunday with a chance to win. But the fish got off, so I’m back at 19th place. So, what if I come up to the end of the year and I miss the Classic by just a few points? I’ll always think about that one fish that I was on but didn’t catch. But you know, you can take that another way, too. If not for a handful of moments, my career would be different. Last year at the Classic, I was one bite away from a win and I caught a 6-9 bass that changed my entire career. It works both ways.

This tournament fishing business is just a series of critical moments, and whether you can take advantage of those moments has a lot to do with whether you’re a huge success or whether you’re have to keep looking up at a lot of other anglers. So right now, for me, I don’t know if it’s luck or karma or attitude, but the good things just haven’t been happening. I know my confidence will be back where it needs to be soon, so I’m not worried. I just hate it when you have to fight through these things.

I watched my friend, Jason Williamson, who’s a good young angler, catch some monster bags in Texas. He was fishing on Sunday at both Texas tournaments and had a good chance to win at Lake Amistad. Then at Lake Murray, he caught 20 pounds a day in practice. But he didn’t catch 20 a day in the tournament at Murray because he got too conservative. He’s from South Carolina, and he felt like he was sort of on his home water. He didn’t want to swing for the fence. Because when you swing for the home run, it’s possible to come up with nothing. … It’s hard to know what to do.

It’s a psychological game, and you’ve got to take advantage of those critical moments.

Thanks for bearing with  me on this blog, those who did. But please click on the “Mobile post” button to hear a little about what’s going on with this season.

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

Please check out the audio blog by clicking  ”Mobile post.” Thanks.

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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.