2020 Bassmaster Angler of the Year
It is hard to put in to words how it feels to have the greatest accomplishment of my career occur in the context of the most chaotic year of my life, and I imagine many of yours too – 2020. But in the midst of all the chaos, my job, while disrupted for a few months, resumed after a few months thanks to the efforts made by B.A.S.S to provide a full season for us. I am so appreciative to them and my fellow anglers for pulling together to make this happen. And I am beyond blessed to have been able to hoist the Angler of the Year trophy at the season’s close. What a privilege and honor. It was a year full of lots of highs and lows and lulls and flurries. God has been with me and Patti through all of it. And He is always good – during the highs and during the lows. We are certain and steadfast in that belief.
We started the season at the St. John’s River in Florida, where I had a good tournament, finishing up in 16th place. Starting the year off in Florida is always a bonus in my book. There is just nothing quite like big Florida largemouth to set the tone for they rest of the year. The Chickamauga tournament was supposed to be held the following week but was postponed due to flooding. Then, COVID hit, and like everything else, bass fishing came to a halt. B.A.S.S. responsibly followed local and state guidelines and had to postpone and reschedule several events.
But the season started back up at Lake Eufaula, Alabama. The few times I had fished Eufaula in the past I got killed by the guys fishing out deep. So this year I decided, if I couldn’t beat them, I’d join them. I committed to fishing deep and it paid off. I was really in contention to win after three days of fishing but just couldn’t get big bites on the last day and ended up in 8th.
After a few weeks break, we headed back out for the Northern swing. Cayuga Lake, NY was canceled, and B.A.S.S. replaced it with a Fall tournament at Guntersville, AL. The first of the New York tournaments was at the St. Lawrence River, and thanks to COVID, the tournament site was moved further west, making Lake Ontario fishable water. My very first professional bass fishing tournament was a Bassmaster Invitational on Lake Ontario, and ever since that tournament it has been a very special place to me. I fished the big water all four days, and the weather could not have been better for the first three days. The last day was rough, but I made the run, and it was, indeed rough! Fishing was tougher that last day too, and I finished the event in 8th place again, but it was enough to take over the Angler of the Year lead.
From there, we moved East to Lake Champlain, which traditionally has been one of my favorite places to fish. The way the lake was setting up, I thought largemouth might play, but in hindsight, I should have stuck to smallmouth throughout. It was disappointing not to do better at Champlain, but I got out of there with a decent finish (46th ) and some valuable AOY points. Patti and I stayed up North during the 2 weeks before the next tournament at Lake St. Clair in Michigan, and had a great time fishing Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. At St. Clair I was also in contention to win all the way up to the end, and really had a great shot at it. I lost the winning fish several times the last day, which hurt, but that’s just fishing. I finished fourth there, and went into the next break leading AOY
Following the Northern Swing, we had a three week break before Guntersville, Santee Cooper and Chickamauga. It was just enough time to stop to pre fish a few places, regroup, film some and pack back up for three back to backs – Guntersville, Santee Cooper and Lake Chickamauga. I finished 17th at Guntersville thanks to a tip from my buddy Frank Talley. Then finished 21st at Santee Cooper. I really was not on much at either of those tournaments, so I was pleased to come out of them in good shape – still leading AOY. The next stop was Lake Chickamauga. That’s when the wheels fell off. At Chickamauga I caught one keeper bass in 2 days. Thankfully, it was a 3-14. That one bass was probably the single most important fish of my year. It landed me in 81st place, giving me a few precious AOY points. I left that tournament (as fast as I could) 23 points behind in the AOY standings.
The final tournament of the year was held at Lake Fork, and the only positive thing about having lost so much ground in the AOY game was that the pressure was off just a little bit. There was still pressure, but the pressure had shifted more to David Mullins and Austin Felix who were the two ahead of me. After day one and two I was in 19th place, enough to land me in the top 40 cut. That final day might have been the most stressful of my career. I knew I needed to finish 31st or better and 13 places ahead of Jake Whitaker to win. It was a brutal day. I lost a 3.5 pounder early and couldn’t catch anything in the creek that had provided most of my day one and day two catch. I stayed there until about noon and realized I needed to punt and just go fishing. Even though I had a cameraman and a judge in my boat, that 15 mile run up the lake, knowing what I had to do, was the loneliest run of my life. I targeted some docks, and it was slow. Excruciatingly slow. But I ended up scraping together 7 pounds, which was enough to land me in 28th place, just three points ahead of Mullins (who had a phenomenal year).
I am thrilled to have won the Angler of the Year race. It is the feat that I most want to accomplish at the beginning of every tournament season. I would love to win a tournament, but to come out in the end as the most consistent angler is what I strive for every year. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to fish B.A.S.S. again, grateful for a full 2020 season (and that 2020 is almost over!), grateful to my wife for traveling with me and basically keeping everything else together and running, grateful to our children who give us a reason for everything we do, grateful to my sponsors for making this career possible, and mostly grateful to God for being loving and good and constant all the time, and for giving me a passion for this and the ability to pursue this dream. It is one I do not take for granted, and one I am profoundly grateful for.
Effective Flipping
Missing or losing fish is just part of the fishing, but I never want to lose one because I don’t have the right equipment! And flipping is a one of the most fun ways to catch bass. Feeling that tap never gets old. Probably the most important part of any flipping set up is the hook you choose to use. Personally, I like a straight shank hook. I think it gives me the best hook up ratio. It’s easy to rig, and the bait stays very straight. The hook I have recently started using is an Owner Jungle Hook (with zo-wire). This hook is extremely strong. Four times stronger than other hooks with the same size wire diameter. Having smaller wire, it penetrates the fishes mouth very easily. And I have found my hook up ratio increasing dramatically since using it. It has a great keeper, keeping the head of the bait up and is by far the best hook I have seen – period.
Summertime Ledge Fishing
In the hot dog days of summer deep water ledge fishing can be one of the most productive ways to fish. Here’s how I approach ledge fishing. First, let me say, I’m not crazy about ledge fishing in tournaments because you often have to bunch up to get to the best places, but if it’s a tournament where I can have a place pretty much to myself, I’ll give it a go. Otherwise, I look for something else where I can avoid the crowd. But if I’m not in a tournament and filming or fishing for fun, I love ledge fishing. The first thing I do is make sure I have quite a few rods rigged up (six or seven) – football jigs, a few deep diving crankbaits, Carolina rig, and a flutter spoon (something I can jerk up off the bottom and it will flutter down slowly). I generally will rig it with Sunline Sniper fluorocarbon, which is a dense line that cuts through the water well, and gets the bait down into the strike zone. Then I need to know how deep to get, which, in Texas is generally about 15-25 feet. Then I use my electronics to look for structure and schools. The Garmin Panoptix is an amazing tool for this type of fishing in that you can actually SEE schools of fish when you get close to them. So rig up a lot of rods on fluorocarbon line, determine the depth, use your electronics to find schools if possible, and get out there and have fun catching.
Finding Fish on a New Lake
Learning how to find fish on a new lake is really an art that can be learned. The best way to do it is simply to go to unfamiliar lakes at different times of year and try to figure out what the fish are doing. Every lake is a little different. Some of them will have shared tendencies, but they are all still a little different. I love going to a lake I haven’t fished much, finding an area that looks like something I’ve fished successfully elsewhere, and putting the trolling motor down to figure it out. Usually, when you fish a lake you haven’t fished in a while, it takes time to figure out what the fish are doing, and your day might not be as productive as a day on your home lake, or one you know exactly how to catch them on. So as you practice the art of finding fish on less familiar waters, you may be giving up a great catch on your home lake for a tougher day of problem solving, but if you want to get good at finding fish, in my opinion, this is the best way. In anything, the way to get better is to stretch yourself. Best of luck out there!
Information – A Crutch?
In tournament bass fishing, there is one thing that is widely disputed. How much does information really help in tournament bass fishing? Obviously, it can be a huge help. You’re heading into a tournament and you don’t know that much about the lake, somebody tells you about a great spot or area or a certain pattern, and it can mean a great finish in that event. But overall, how much does it really help – in the long run? I contend that help (information) can be a crutch that hurts long term results. It might get you by for a tournament here and there, but overall, relying on it is truly detrimental to your fishing. The reason I say this, and what I really like to tell young anglers is that the more you can find on your own, developing your own techniques, figuring out how to catch fish on your own, the more confidence you will have. You see, tournament fishing is truly all about confidence. Everybody in a Tour level tournament can cast, set the hook, figure out what baits are the best etc…, but the guy that can make the best decisions during the event with no one to help him while he’s out there is the one who will come out on top in the long run – those are the guys with longevity. It’s a skill that needs to be developed, and the only way to do it is to get out there in a tournament and figure things out on your own. This is not to say that you shouldn’t do your homework about a lake. You absolutely need to understand the history of and the type of lake you’re fishing and what’s been going on recently on a lake, but once you understand the basics, going out and figuring it out on your own will build momentum and confidence that will carry you through tournament day after tournament day and give you longevity in this sport. PC: FLW Outdoors
Swimbaits
A swimbait is a pretty easy bait to fish – you make long casts with it and just wind. Swimbait bites are one of those bites you have to be real patient with. You will feel them tap it. It’s almost like a worm bite. You’re just reeling that thing along, and you’ll feel it. Then when one bites it, until he loads up on your rod, you just can’t jerk. You’ll feel him pop it, but a lot of times, they’ll just pop it and then hit it again and get it. Swimbaits require a lot of patience and attention, but they are a great bait for catching big fish. Good luck out there!
It’s the Time of Year for Jerkbaits!
One of my very favorite ways to fish in the pre-spawn in lakes that have clear water is with a jerkbait. Either over grass or on rocky shorelines, a suspending jerkbait, when fished properly can yield some great catches. First, it’s a slow technique. Usually, you make a long cast and your cadence is the key. Normally, I will go with twitch, twitch, pause – twitch, twitch, pause, with the pause being longer the colder the water is. With the water temperature in the low 50s or high 40s sometimes the best cadence is very, very slow. My favorite bait right now is a Strike King KVD J-300 Deep. This bait will get to about ten feet when fished on ten pound fluoro, which is right in the area where a lot of bass suspend this time of year. Bass like to suspend on vertical rocky banks, channel springs, around trees, docks or over grass. Sometimes the pause may be for up to 20 or 30 seconds, which is very slow, but you just have to let the bass tell you what they want. For a rod, I like a Cabela’s XML Bass Jerkbait/Topwater Rod. I’ve come to love this rod for throwing either a jerkbait or a topwater. It is light and will not wear out your forearm, elbow and wrist. If you get to a lake this time of year with clear, cold water, think about throwing a jerkbait.
Where to Start When its Cold?
When the weather starts getting colder and water temperatures drop, the first thing I do when I put my boat in the water is look at my Garmin 7612 to find where the bait is and what the topography looks like. A lot of times in this cold weather, fish will come out of the creeks onto the main body of water and suspend, so you will want to concentrate on fishing stuff that is vertical, fishing baits that work vertically, like a jig and spoon, something that will work up and down, or fishing a jig very slowly. Or if your depth finder tells you the bait is suspended, often the bass will be suspended, and you can catch them on a jerkbait or maybe a tight wobbling crankbait or a swim bait that doesn’t have a lot of action. It will be a little trial and error, but understanding what bait and bass do when the water is cold is key.
Cranking in the Winter
Throwing a crankbait in the winter months can catch a lot of big fish. The key is you want a crankbait that does not have a lot of wobble to it, something that runs really tight. I like to throw a Strike King Lucky Shad this time of year. It can go anywhere from four to ten feet, depending on the line set up you have and it has a nice steady retrieve. This isn’t a bait you crank real wildly, just make a nice steady retrieve. When fishing like this, you’re looking for stretches where fish can suspend, sometimes bluffs, sometimes rocky. And I like to use a light crankbait rod because these baits can sometimes be pretty heavy to throw. Enjoy these cold fishing days and catch a lot of bass. The dog days of summer will be here before we know it!
Flipping Mats
One of the best ways to fish during the winter months is to flip mats or matted vegetation. Often and on many lakes, instead of heading out deep when the water gets cold, bass will snug up under the canopy of matted vegetation. I flip this type of cover with an ounce and a quarter Strike King Tour Grade Tungsten. heavy weight to be able to punch through the vegetation. My favorite bait to use is a Strike King Rage Bug in Green Pumpkin. It’s a small compact bait that you can rig totally straight, and I really like the Owner Jungle 4 oz. hook for this set up with a bobber stopper on top and a heavy weight line. The key to fishing this bait this way is to make repetitive pitches into the mats. Pitch it on all sides of the mat, cover it fully and then jiggle it so it can get through and free fall all the way through. It’s a total reaction bite, so you want to be sure to let it get all the way through the canopy and to the bottom. Then when you get it in there, yo yo it up and down, fishing it slowly. This is a great way to catch some giant fish this way in the dead of winter. Good luck!
