Looking back over February’s Alabama Swing, the Elite season obviously didn’t start the way I wanted it to. Even so, I was able to take some encouragement from both of these events, and now I’m eager to move forward with the rest of the season.
I had a pretty good event at Lake Guntersville and finished 47th. I was on some good fish, but I just ran out. I was sharing an area with Jamie Hartman, who finished in the Top 10, and he caught ‘em better than I did.
I left there with a check and went to Martin, a lake I’d never seen before. I had a pretty decent practice. I was catching them out really deep and kind of missed the ball on the shallower stuff.
Every day, I’d go down south near the dam and catch whatever I had; about 9 to 9 1/2 pounds of spots by like 9:30. After that, I ran upriver and gave myself the rest of the day to catch one big largemouth, but it just never happened. I finished 83rd.
I gambled on myself and I lost. I usually hit when I gamble on myself, but not this time. It was just a chance I took and it didn’t happen.
Brock Mosley caught them on some of the exact same areas I fished, and he almost won on some of that stuff. It was tough gambling like that and losing, but at the same time, I know I made the right decision. It just didn’t happen.
You’re gonna have one or two tournaments a year where it doesn’t happen the way you envision it. I was disappointed, but I feel like Lake Martin was a tournament where I didn’t have any information or previous knowledge and, even though it didn’t equate to a good finish, I figured it out.
Guntersville was a little more disappointing because I practiced in some of the same stretches as Hank Cherry and Stetson Blaylock, who finished first and second. I feel like I got a taste of it and I could’ve been in the driver’s seat. We’re only two events into this season, and it always makes you hungry when you get your butt kicked.
The good thing is we have two river systems coming up: the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and then the Arkansas River. Both of those are right up my alley. I’m 100% confident and I’ve been fishing good the past few years, so one bad finish is not going to affect my mental state at all.
Besides, we have the Bassmaster Classic right around the corner and, after finishing fifth and third the past two years, I got a little bit of blood in my mouth and that makes you want it worse.
With the practice days and all the meetings and media work, it’s a long, tiring experience, but this is the biggest event in our industry. It’s all business at the Classic, and I’m looking forward to getting after it.
A lot of things are happening with new baits and new technologies and I’m keeping up with all of it. On one hand, forward-facing sonar has advanced our ability to find fish in open water, but on the other hand, that might open up some opportunities on the bank.
That’s kind of a double-edged sword. Do I run with the new stuff or do I stick to my guns and fish shallow? I will be practicing for all of that, so we’ll have to see how it all works out.
I’m there for a trophy. So whatever I have to do to get that done, that’s what I’ll do.
