Though things weren’t exactly going his way in 2022, Keith Combs kept plugging away and, in his last chance, earned a spot in the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic.
Combs missed the past two Classics and three of the past four after he had qualified for five in a row. Two of those misses were by just one spot, but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Combs did lament not making the championship, as well as being first-man out.
“The two seasons I missed it by one spot, that really stunk,” Combs said. “I’ve thought about it a lot. You always want to fish well. That’s your job. Any time you make the Classic, it’s a good season. If you miss, no matter what happened, it’s a bad season, in a lot of people’s eyes.”
“But it’s not really anything I can point my finger at. I don’t think it was decision making. I put myself around fish in a lot of good areas. That’s just how it goes sometimes. That’s fishing.”
It’s not fishing Combs has become accustomed to. Early in his career at B.A.S.S., Combs contended for Bassmaster Angler of the Year titles, posting four top 10 finishes in the season-long points race. He breezed into Classics, posting a best of ninth place on Grand Lake in 2016.
In 2018, he missed as the first-man out — he lost a tiebreaker to Gerald Swindle after both finished with 581 points. Combs had another close call in 2020, just one point behind final qualifier Shane LeHew. That would make most anyone feel snakebit and want a grenade.
“If you look at those two seasons where I missed it by one place, either of those were just one fish — one fish through nine tournaments!” he said. “I lost a lot of fish that were real critical. Any fish that I lost would have coasted me in.”
It looked like three consecutive misses this year until his miraculous run. Combs was deep in the Elite Series Angler of the Year standings with little hope of being among the top 39 who receive automatic Classic berths. The final Elite event offered a Classic bid to the winner, and Combs was in contention for that win-and-in on the Mississippi River.
“I hit a rough funk in the middle part of this season,” he said. “Everything I tried just wasn’t working. So it was great to come back strong. I had a really good finish at the Mississippi. I had a really good feeling I was going to win that thing, but I just didn’t get it done.”
Combs, the only angler among the Top 10 needing the win for a Classic spot, went into Day 4 at La Crosse, Wis., less than 2 pounds from the lead. He finished a disappointing third to Bryan Schmitt, just 1 pound, 6 ounces from winning.
But Combs had two more chances in the St. Croix Bassmaster Central Opens, with one at his home lake of Sam Rayburn, where he’s always a favorite. In that late October derby, Combs rallied from seventh place, more than 7 pounds back, with the biggest bag of Day 3, 16-11 in totaling 46-5. The win-and-in gave Combs his ninth Classic qualification.
“I knew I had a really good shot at Rayburn. Everything just has to work out perfectly to win (a tournament),” Combs said. “When it did, it was such a relief. It would have been a long offseason, just thinking about the mistakes you made during the year that cost you the Classic. Just winning that one tournament, everything is back to good.”
Combs admitted things even looked bleak at Sam Rayburn after Day 2. Louisiana’s Logan Latuso caught two bass nearing 10 pounds and weighed in 31-4, the third-largest bag in Opens history. However, Latuso, who only had three fish on the first day, left the door open with four for 7-7 on Day 3 to total 44-8.
“Latuso caught that huge bag, and he didn’t have to catch much to beat me,” Combs said. “I thought going in it didn’t matter what I did, because I had been finishing second a lot. I thought it was going to happen again. It kind of caught me by surprise. I didn’t think I had nearly enough weight to get it done.”
“That’s some of the stuff that I’ve been up against lately. You can go out and do everything right on the Elites and catch them every single day, then somebody catches every break and beats you.”
Combs said he knows anglers have to make their own breaks, and the best way as far as he knows is to just keep fishing. In 131 B.A.S.S. entries, he’s done that for the most part, accumulating almost $1.4 million in earnings while winning three tournaments. He’s twice been runner-up and has 32 Top 10 appearances, although he acknowledged the past few years have not been up to snuff.
There’s not been too many recent events where Combs can fish deep for largemouth, his preferred style. Also, weather in several events threw him for a loop, like the big switches from practice to competition days at Santee Cooper, Pickwick and Neely Henry.
“I practiced wrong for some of those events, for sure,” he said. “I actually had really good practices for Pickwick and Neely Henry, and I totally lost the fish. At Pickwick, I was in my comfort zone but lost my whole practice and basically got no points. That’s just bad fortune. It’s little things like that.”
“But I think you just keep fishing and fish more tournaments. If you don’t get down on yourself, I think eventually things are going to start looking up.”
Combs said he doesn’t hold great belief in momentum, because then he’d have to admit it could work negatively. While he’s routinely followed Top 10 finishes with a bomb, or vice versa, he said you can’t dwell on either. He’s also learned he can’t always go for broke, which often backfires.
“Man, I do want to win so bad. I don’t regret those decisions but sometimes trying a little too hard to win can bite you,” he said. “But when you get it right, it pays off.”
“I try to fish and then forget about it. It does help to have a real high finish every now and then. It lets you know you’re making the right decisions.”
Fishing instinctively can be enhanced through more knowledge of the fishery, including what’s found in pre-practice. Situations, including COVID, have not allowed Combs to scout Elite venues the past several years, but he said he’s going to check out ever-changing fisheries in Lake Okeechobee, the season opener, and the second event on Lake Seminole.
“For me, I need to get back into a pre-practice routine, just go and look around and not wonder what the lay of the land is going to be like,” he said. “I do know that helps me. My preparation has always helped me. I had to kind of get away from that a little bit, but this year I’ll go.”
And he’ll keep plugging away.
