DURANT, Okla. — Gerald Swindle’s past two days are symbolic of his 2016 Elite Series season. Swindle has transformed himself from the hare into the tortoise, if you remember Aesop’s Fables,
“This sounds so silly, but when I move between spots now, I don’t run wide open anymore,” he said. “When I decide to move, I move at a very controlled speed.”
As a result of that more deliberate style, the 46-year-old Alabama native moved up from 15th place on Day 1 to third place on Day 2 at the GEICO Bassmaster BASSfest presented by Choctaw Casino and Resort at Lake Texoma.
“I’m kind of starting to understand myself,” Swindle said. “If I crank up and run wide open, I shut down, jump up and I’m flailing everything around. That pace continues as I go down the bank.
“My (marshal) with me today said, ‘Dude, you’re just kind of easing around like we’re in a club tournament.’ I said, ‘I’m doing that on purpose to make sure I’m composed because I can’t afford to fish too fast.’”
This is a tournament that, more than most, will be won by the steady over the swift. The bites are few and far between. There are hundreds of thousands of flooded bushes to flip a bait into in Lake Texoma, which is gradually falling, but remains six feet above the normal pool level.
“This is one of those tournaments where you’re going to see the guys who can stay focused during the tough times excel,” Swindle said “You’re going to make a thousand flips. Then on one-thousand-and-one, there’s going to be one on there, and it’s going to be a big one.
“It really starts messing with your mind. You have a tendency to go too fast.”
When Swindle finally caught a bass at 10 a.m. Thursday, it provided some needed feedback.
“That kind of clued me in to what I might be doing wrong, so I started really, really slowing down, just as methodical as I could get,” he said.
You can expand that realization over Swindle’s past two seasons. Last year, when Swindle failed to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic, was the hare season – up and down: 24th at the Sabine River, 26th at Lake Guntersville, 74th at the Sacramento River, 74th at Lake Havasu, 18th at Kentucky Lake, 94th at the St. Lawrence River, 4th at Chesapeake Bay and 94th at Lake St. Clair.
This season, Swindle’s been the tortoise – slow and steady: 40th at the St. Johns River, 7th at Winyah Bay, 30th at Bull Shoals/Norfork, 10th at Wheeler Lake and 34th at Toledo Bend.
As a result, Swindle is in second place in the Toyota Angler of the Year standings, 30 points behind Greg Hackney, based on the Day 2 standings at Lake Texoma.
And if you’ve been listening, Swindle has talked about his new approach all season long. No more burning gas, hop-scotching from place-to-place all day. It’s hunker down and pick-it-apart now, wherever that happens to be. Choose an area based on practice, then stay there and figure it out as the tournament progresses.
That’s exactly what he’s doing at Lake Texoma.
“I’m running a lot of new water, but I haven’t run 20 miles or anything like that,” Swindle said. “I’m in a basic seven- or eight-mile stretch.”
And Swindle is figuring it out, just like he’s done all season.