I’ve been playing this game – making my living as a professional angler since for almost 20 years now. I started competing on the FLW Tour in 2003, and I qualified for the Bassmaster Elite Series in 2009. I guess you can say I’ve seen a lot in my career.
I’ve been fortunate to be pretty consistent on the tour levels, cashed checks and made championships and Bassmaster Classics more than I haven’t, so I don’t have anything to complain about. But I really want to know why we as anglers get on these streaks – the highs and lows I call ‘em.
I’ve felt really confident in a couple of events this year that I had found something that was going to put me in position to win an event. I had a strong practice for the Bassmaster Classic and for the Chickamauga Lake event and felt like I had found something different, but that ended up only being half right.
The first day of the Classic at Lake Hartwell didn’t go well, I didn’t have a limit on Day 1 and weighed 9 pounds, but I had almost 20 on Day 2 – I missed the cut by ounces. At Chickamauga I was in sixth place after day one with more than 20 pounds and then weighed three fish on Day 2.
I’ve lost fish that would have helped along the way, but 2022 has been one of the weirdest years I think I’ve encountered in my career. There are lots of variables that go into it, from my own performance to the delayed spring and all of the cold fronts. It’s been a real challenge to stay on top of the variables and the fish.
To look at how results can vary, look at perhaps the hottest fisherman in the world right now, Jason Christie. He won the Classic, finished near the bottom at Santee Cooper and then wins the next event at Chickamauga. It just goes to show how this sport can have those highs and lows.
I know that I have gotten too locked in to some things that kept me from having an open mind to condition changes at times this year. I’ve had practices that gave me confidence about the event, then go through the off days that we’ve started having this year, and by the time I get back to my areas, the fish have changed. I haven’t adjusted the way I needed to.
I look back at some of my strongest events, and they have come when I’ve kept an open mind, stayed flexible and did what the fish were telling me to do. When I won the FLW Series event on Lake Dardanelle in 2007, and when I won the 2015 Toyota Texas Bass Classic in 2015, those fish were moving because the water was falling. I just went with my gut and that’s when it all came together.
Fishing is a lot like what the old Kenny Rogers song, “The Gambler” said, to win and be consistent, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em.” This is something I’ve struggled with at times throughout my career, and to maintain consistency requires that. I want so bad to win every time I hit the water, and sometimes that causes me to hold on to that hand a little too long.
I’m not saying this to gain sympathy from anyone, and I’m certainly not going to make excuses for my results. What I’m actually trying to do is encourage all of you that love to compete to keep a good attitude and keep fishing hard because it is not easy to stay on top of the fish. Sometimes those of us who do it every day for a living have the same problem.
This is a reminder to me, and an encouragement to y’all. Keep an open mind, read the conditions and follow the fish. Aim for consistency and the great things will come in their time. When it’s our time, everything will work out.