Golden State Shootout: Day 2 at Clear Lake

The second day was even better than the first. I went from 24-7 to 27-4. I also jumped up to eighth place, so I’ve got nothing to complain about.

I caught all my fish sight fishing. Just enough of the fish moved on the beds today to make it real interesting.

I got into an area today that’s got 8s and 10s, and it’s quite a sight to look out and see a 10-pound bass swimming near your boat. If they lock down on the beds tomorrow, I might be catching some big fish. And I think they’re going to lock down. It will be either tomorrow or Sunday.

Right now my confidence is great. This is my kind of deal. I like fishing this place. So at 6:50 tomorrow morning when we launch, I’ll be ready.

But as good as I feel, Gutierrez is over 66 pounds. He’s 11 pounds ahead of me, and that’s a hell of a lead. He’s way ahead of everybody. But you never know what’s going to happen. Let’s say he catches 25 tomorrow. He would fall back, then you never know what could happen on Sunday. It happened to Ish Monroe today. He had over 32 yesterday and less than 21 today.

The big thing is, though, I’m in eighth place and there aren’t going to be but 12 anglers out there on Sunday. So I’ve got to go out and do it again tomorrow or I won’t be around to see if I can catch him.

It’s a funny thing about fishing. People don’t realize how difficult this. I used to be a 2-handicap golfer. Most people who play golf understand that you’ve got have technique, but all the technique in the world doesn’t help if you’re not on your game mentally.

It’s the same way with fishing. I personally think fishing well is just as hard, or harder, than perfecting your golf game. You’ve just got to be on your game.

In all sports, there’s some luck involved. And there’s some in fishing. But you’ve got to wonder why Kevin VanDam is in the hunt almost every tournament. In golf, why is Tiger Woods in the hunt almost every tournament? It’s because he’s mentally tough and he knows what he’s doing.

But really good golfers and good anglers have bad days. Michael Iaconelli is one of the best anglers on this tour, and he didn’t make the cut. I think that’s two bad tournaments in a row for him.

My good friend, Jeremy Starks, who’s a really good angler, thought he was going to have a good tournament and had an awful one.

This stuff will mess with you if you’re not careful.