As a McKendree University angler, my partner — Tyler Christy — and I qualified for two Bassmaster College Classic Brackets. Each time, I fell short of winning and punching a ticket to the Bassmaster Classic. I’m not going to lie, the Classic felt so far away after those two events. I knew after college I wanted to fish the Opens and pursue bass fishing as a career. I just didn’t know how it would all lay out for me.
So, I hopped in the Opens last year, and I had a really shaky start. I had a lot of finishes in the 100s, and my best finish was 80th before heading to Michigan. I stumbled into them at Lake St. Clair and had a good tournament there. I feel like that tournament gave me the confidence. If I stick with it, I can make it if I give it everything I have. I feel confident in my craft and my mindset. It is just about putting myself in position enough times until everything goes right.
With all of that said, I had no idea the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Tombigbee River presented by SEVIIN would be the place where all of those things came together perfectly for me. I kind of figured it might be somewhere like Norfork Lake or a clean water fishery. When I looked at the schedule for the first time, I circled this one as a tournament I needed to survive. I like river fishing and power fishing, but it has been a long time since I’ve done well power fishing shallow.
My best day of practice, I had three keeper bites. I didn’t feel like I found much that I could go back to or expand on in the tournament. So I decided to stay close to takeoff on Day 1 and maximize my fishing time. I felt like I needed as much time as I could get to catch five bass. So I started on the point of grass that was closest to the boat ramp. I hadn’t fished much of the water willow yet, and I missed four bites right off the jump. My second stop of the day, I got one keeper before moving out to another grassy point.
That is where my tournament took a 180.
I was swimming my jig across the point and I didn’t even feel a bite, my line just took off. To tell the truth, I didn’t even think it was a bass. I thought I might have snagged a carp or hooked a Grinnell or a catfish. As I got it closer to the boat, I realized it was a really big bass. I went to boat flip it and it hits the gunnel, takes out all my rods and lands in the bottom of the boat. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was a 6-4, and when I saw it, I was in shock. Then I realized I needed to catch as much weight as I possibly could that day. I was going to be happy if I weighed in 8 pounds a day, so having most of that with one bass, I knew I needed to capitalize on it.
It made me fish well that day, and it took off a lot of pressure. I felt like I didn’t have anything weighing me down.
I went out in second place on Day 2, which is somewhere I have never been before. I didn’t want to change anything, and I wanted to have as much fun as I could. I got to my better stretches from Day 1 and the shad were spawning, and I caught four pretty quickly. I was stuck on four until about noon. Even when I did catch my fifth keeper, I knew I needed one more quality bass to put myself in contention. I ended up rolling into a place I marked in practice, which was a culvert pipe connected to a pond. I caught a 3 1/4-pounder there, which put me in the lead going into the final day.
It was an unexpected and humbling experience.
Day 3 was a big challenge. At 11:30, I only had two bass in the livewell. I started where the shad were spawning on Day 2, and the wind was blowing into the back of that place and the shad were not spawning nearly as well. The wind kept them out of the grass, and I wasted a bunch of time back there. I didn’t expect it to be that difficult at all. Rewatching Bassmaster LIVE, I definitely could have made some better adjustments to buy an extra bite. But I really just tried to keep my swim jig in the water and cover as much productive water as I could.
I honestly still can’t believe I won that tournament. It may not settle in until Dave Mercer calls my name in Knoxville. I was an emotional wreck on stage. I really thought I only had 10 pounds and Stephen Browning was going to win. I want to shout out Russ Lane for being an awesome competitor and guy. We talked a lot in the bag line that day, and when it neared the end, he asked me what I thought I had. I told him I didn’t think I would have enough, and Russ said that I had a shot at the win still. I figured he was just trying to be nice, and we made a gentleman’s bet over it. I look forward to meeting him at the next one and honoring that bet.
Everyone fishing in the Columbus pool was super respectful the entire tournament. A lot of us in the Top 10 were rotating the same stuff, and I don’t remember ever getting upset or doing anything to make anyone else sour or upset. Everything flowed nicely in there, and I wanted to thank everyone for being awesome competitors.
Hopefully, I can continue to fish well the rest of the season and make a run at the Elite Series. I’m currently sitting in ninth in Div. 1 and 29th in Div. 2, well inside the cut for the Elite Qualifiers at the end of the year. Being on the Elite Series is the ultimate goal, and it would be pretty cool to go compete against some of the former college anglers again.
I cried when I watched Easton Fothergill win the Classic. That was really cool. He and Jordan Lee winning the Classic are two motivators for me. Seeing them make a career out of what we all love is amazing.
It is a huge motivation to see guys I grew up competing against make it that far.
