Christie: A roller coaster Elite season

My 2015 Bassmaster Elite Series season has already been a rollercoaster of emotions, but I’m thankful that I’ve had a double dose of upward momentum – most recently with my ninth-place finish at this past weekend’s event on the California Delta.

Backing up a few steps, I was thrilled with the announcement that next year’s Bassmaster Classic will return to Grand Lake in my home state of Oklahoma. But that emotion took a sharp downturn when I finished 81st and saw my chances of qualifying for the Classic take a serious hit.

Thankfully, I got back on track with a seventh-place finish at Lake Guntersville; and now, a second consecutive Top 12 finish has really helped move me in the right direction. Now, I feel like I’m back in the race for Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year, as well as my spot in the Classic.

Now, I have to say that I’m disappointed that I didn’t make a run for the trophy at the Delta, but sometimes a ninth place, a 40th place – those are good finishes when you’re fishing a place for the first time.

I had never been to the California Delta and tidal fisheries in general have always been pretty tough for me. So, to come out of there with a strong finish is good on a couple of important levels.

First, it’s an overall confidence builder. The Delta is a big fishery and you just can’t cover it all in a tournament, so I feel pretty good about finding an area with the right cover and a good number of fish.

Also, we’re fishing Lake Havasu this week, and this is another great fishery that’s new to me. With back-to-back events on western fisheries that I’m seeing for the first time, it was important for me to do well in that first leg.

Of course, I also want to do well at Havasu. But I think going into this one on a high note, rather than carrying the discouragement of a poor Delta finish, will make a big difference in my mental game.

In a way, I was pretty fortunate to do well on the Delta. On the first day of practice, I had a good mat flipping bite going in an area where I could get away from the crowd.

But on day two of practice, I realized that bite was going away, and the area I was fishing was a really long run from takeoff. I got lucky on day three and found a little canal where I could fish mats, flip tules and hydrilla and even bed fish.

Sight fishing was the best thing for me, but I only had two to three hours a day to catch them. The last hour of incoming tide, the 30-45 minutes of slack and then the first hour of outgoing was when I could get into the right areas and see the beds.

Because the tide schedule advances about an hour every day, that time period got later and later as the tournament progressed. The last day, I only got the first 45 minutes of that optimal tide stage because I had to leave to make a long run back to the weigh-ins.

And that’s an important point: My marshall and I calculated our travel time and found that, of the 36 hours of tournament time, I spent 12 hours running to and from my spot.

That’s a third of my tournament just driving. That’s why it was so important for me to find one spot I could fish the entire day and then to maximize my time while I was there.

The fish bit good during that short window, and I even got the big fish for Day 4 – a 6-14 – when the tide got right. I also had a shot at a 5-pounder at the end of my day, but those Delta bass aren’t one-flip fish, for the most part. You pretty much have to bank on 30 minutes for a big one.

I had a whole array of rods on my deck, and I just alternated between them based on the scenario. On Day 4, that big fish ate a YUM Bad Mama on a Dropshot with 25-pound Sunline Shooter. I also had a heavy flipping/punching outfit with a Bad Mama and a 1 1/2-ounce weight, a YUM Christie Critter with a 1/2-ounce weight, another flipping rod with a YUM Christie Craw and a lighter dropshot with a YUM Warning Shot.

I also kept a Booyah Pad Crasher frog handy. I didn’t weigh any frog fish, but I had several fish show themselves and give away their positions when they followed the frog.

I weighed two to three big fish each day, but I just didn’t have enough time to catch five big ones.

That’s pretty much how it turned out with that 5-pounder. The wind was blowing and it was harder to see so we didn’t have optimum sight-fishing conditions.

On top of that, I knew I had an hour-and-a-half run back to the weigh-ins. I always allowed another 10 minutes to account for any problems, like having to change a prop, but I really cut it close on that last day because of that 5-pounder.

She was right on the verge of biting, but I ran out of time and I had to go. There comes a point when you have to make yourself leave at a certain time. That’s the tough part – balancing that competitive spirit with the discipline of knowing when to leave.

One thing I’ve learned about making these long runs – you don’t want to be last in the line of boats running back. If anything happens, you’re by yourself. If you’re in the middle of a group of boats and something happens, you can wave down another boat. But if you’re last in line and you have a problem, you’re going to be sitting on the bank.

Me – I’d rather be standing on the weigh-in stage with a good bag of fish. Thankfully, that’s how it turned out on the California Delta.

Next stop: Lake Havasu.