If I had to grade myself on my 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series season, I’d give myself a B.
That may sound surprising after making seven of the nine cuts and finishing sixth in Bassmaster Angler of the Year points, but I feel like I should have done a lot better.
I only had one tournament where I felt like I was in contention for anything and that was the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, where I finished third. I wasn’t disappointed with a Top 10, but that was a good example of a challenge I faced the entire season.
I just didn’t get dialed in at hardly any tournaments this year. It took me ’til Day 2 of the tournaments to actually figure anything out. In many events, I’d have a really tough Day 1 and then I’d rally back on Day 2 and Day 3.
In my rookie year, I finished eighth in AOY, but I won an Elite event and I was in contention for a few tournaments. This year, I didn’t ever find myself in contention.
I had a great year, but I was disappointed. I thought I could have a year like my rookie season if I got closer to winning a couple more tournaments. Instead, I was just above average most of the year. I was making cuts; I wasn’t pushing for a win.
I wish I knew what caused this, but I don’t. I can say that I didn’t practice efficiently this year. On Day 1 of the tournament, I would fish hard all day and then I’d learn enough to have a good second day.
If I practiced as hard as I fished on those first tournament days, I could have had really good events. I guess the upside is I was able to turn terrible practices and terrible first days into decent events.
Thankfully, the year started off strong with a top 30 at Lake Guntersville and a top 20 at Lake Martin. In both of those events, I had a bad Day 1, but on Day 2 at Guntersville I did completely different stuff and caught nearly a 23-pound bag that shot me up from 73rd to 27th.
It was a similar scenario at Lake Martin. I had 9-10 on Day 1 and placed 64th, but then I scrapped everything I was doing and tried to fish with a clean mind. That allowed me to make the cut and finish 13th.
Those two tournaments kinda set the tone for me for the year. It was about taking what I learned on Day 1 of the tournament and turning that around. I did that all year long.
Overall, my biggest lesson this year came down to recognizing that practice does not necessarily have to completely dictate how I fish in a tournament. In all of the tournaments I’ve done well in, I’ve found something good in practice. When I have a good practice, I tend to have a really good event, but this year was the complete opposite.
A lot of times on Day 1 of a tournament, I was trying to force what I found in practice too much, but I found that fishing free and treating the tournament as a new practice was better.
I abandoned what I was on and just listened to my gut decisions. That allowed me to take a year that could have been bad and turn it into a pretty good year.
