It’s Sunday, and I’m back home in Alabama

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.