After a tough 2024 Bassmaster Elite Series season, to have my best finish in a long time at Lake Hartwell was really big for me. In July 2023, I placed second at Lake St. Clair, so finishing third at our most recent Elite event gave me a big shot of confidence.
I’ve done well at Hartwell in the past. Every year I make the cut, and I finished in the Top 10 at the 2022 Bassmaster Classic there. I feel comfortable on Hartwell, so I went into that event knowing what I wanted to do.
You know, the mental game is such a big part of what we do, and this year everything has just been going good for me. Last year, with a new baby, we were trying to get everything figured out. This year, even though Laken still cries a lot, I feel like everything is more stable.
That’s been a nice change, but growing my family last year wasn’t all of it. I just didn’t land my fish last year, and this year I’ve done a lot better.
Every tournament last year, I was around good fish, and I just didn’t put them in the boat. This year, I’ve had opportunities to do really well and things have played into place. I’ve done pretty well so far — except for Lake Okeechobee. That one kinda kicked me in the face.
What’s especially encouraging is the fact that I’m sitting in the best spot in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year points I’ve been in a long time. It’s not out of the question for me to make a run at the AOY title. Everything has to go perfectly for me, but it’s within reach.
I think the biggest change for this year is my overall approach. I’ve gone back to keeping things simple. The only one where I didn’t do that was Okeechobee — I had a bunch of rods on my deck. The rest of the time, keeping it simple has helped me more than anything.
Something else that has helped me a lot is my more relaxing time between tournaments. Before we sold the family hardware store in January 2024, I always felt like I had to race home right after every event so I could work the next day.
Now, I get to spend more time with my family, so that’s been nice. I’m actually spending more of my off time fishing. Getting as much time on the water as I can keeps me sharp, so I believe that has definitely benefited my performance.
I’m hoping this upward trend continues for our back-to-back Texas events at Lake Fork and the Sabine River. For both of these, I’m gonna keep it simple and do me.
I’ve been to both venues multiple times now, so I have an idea of what I’m going to do. I have more of an idea of what I’m going to do at the Sabine than I do at Fork. But both of those places can be extremely great to you, or they can be extremely scary to you.
I have the potential to do really well in both events. It’s gonna be two grinder tournaments, which is normally what I like. We’re just gonna have to put our heads down and the biggest thing will be positive mental attitude — like Swindle says.
