I was pretty tired after fishing the Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series tournament at the Pasquotank River, but it wasn’t just the long days and all the running. I’m tired of my year being mediocre.
A bunch of my tournaments this year, I’ve been right there around the cut. In the past few events, I had a good first day and then I just couldn’t keep it going.
Even when you make the cut, you’re losing a ton of points when you fall in the standings on that third day. That’s what happened to me at the Pasquotank, and it’s frustrating. With the exception of a top 20 at the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, it just hasn’t clicked for me this year where I can get the ball rolling.
The Pasquotank event, as a whole, was a really cool event. That fishery is awesome. It’s huge and it has so many variables.
I had a tough practice. I didn’t figure out a lot, so I decided to keep it simple and just do a few things.
On Day 1, I fished the same bridge that Chris Zaldain fished on the Pasquotank River and had a good limit, but I should have had a giant bag. I lost a 9-pounder and a 6, and that hurt me.
Brandon Lester fished the bridge on Day 1, and on the second day, he was two boats ahead of me. He beat me to where I caught ‘em on Day 1. There wasn’t anything wrong with what he did, but he was on one side of the bridge, Zaldain was on the other and I was just the guy out on the backside — the downcurrent side.
You could still catch some fish back there, but I fished it two or three times then saw Lester catch two giants. Zaldain had three and I had zero at 9 o’clock, so I was like, “I don’t know if I can catch a limit here, unless somebody moves.”
I bailed at 9 o’clock and drove all the way to the Roanoke River because I knew I could catch five bass there. I didn’t know if they were gonna weigh 8 pounds or 18, but I knew I needed about 10 pounds to get in the cut. I caught 10-4 and made the cut.
The third day, I tried to start on the bridge again, but when I arrived, there were three more people there. I just turned around and did the same thing. I drove to the Roanoke and did all kinds of things, but I didn’t have a bass at 11 o’clock.
At that point, I just swam a jig around, caught 8-15 and ended up 45th.
It was tough running 70 miles to the Roanoke the second and third days, but I’m confident it was the right decision because I could have sat on that bridge and bombed. Instead, I saved my points and probably saved my 2027 Bassmaster Classic qualification.
Right now, I’m a few spots out of the Classic cut, but I have two more events left to make up some points. I’ve been waiting all season for things to click, but I like both of the fisheries where our final Elite events will take place. So, I’m gonna do my best to make that happen.
