So far, so good, but Jack Dice knows he could crap out at any time.
Last year, one disastrous day prevented Dice from attaining Elite status, and in his second attempt, he expects another stressful three-event sprint this fall.
“Growing up watching The Bassmasters, I loved watching the end of the year races, getting in guys’ heads,” the 26-year-old from Lynchburg, Va., said. “You have some very vocal about it – ‘Points, man, points. It’s all about points.’ Then there are guys who are like, ‘No, I don’t think about it.’
“For me, it’s got to be a little bit of both. You have this light at the end of the tunnel, this goal in the distance, but then to actually get there, you have to take one step at a time. If you’re not focused on each individual step, you’re going to stumble and fall.”
In the first Nitro Boats Bassmaster Elite Qualifier at Norfork Lake presented by Bass Pro Shops, Dice rose to the top. He started the stingy fishery 26th among the 134 competitors in a non-forward-facing sonar event but climbed inside the Top 10 with Day 2’s second-best weight of 15 pounds, 6 ounces en route to finishing third.
“About two places short of the best start you can ask for, so I certainly can’t complain,” Dice said. “It kind of played to the strength I’ve built, which is just grimy, tough fishing. You kind of just have to pick up the scraps and junk fish.”
Stop No. 2 takes the field to Toledo Bend Reservoir, Oct. 21-23, and the finale is on Lake Guntersville, Nov. 11-13, where the Top 10 in points advance to the 2027 Elites.
The EQ field receives only six guaranteed days of fishing, so even one poor day can ruin an otherwise great season. Dice well knows that. Last year, he went into the Lake Okeechobee finale sitting 10th in points. An 18th-place start kept him inside the cut, but only 7-5 on Day 2 knocked him down to 35th. He finished 14th in points, just 12 shy of making the Elites.
“That stung. In some ways it feels like it was yesterday,” he said. “When it’s only a three-event shootout, there’s so much swing that can happen. It’s so volatile. You can’t build up any kind of safety net, not that I had any kind of safety net.
“To have another crack at it, I’m just super thankful. As far as like looking back, I just don’t want to.”
But he did. He said his Day 2 downfall started with an “weird mechanical snafu” that sent him back to the ramp, losing more than an hour of fishing time. Trying to make some up by running across the lake instead of through the canals cost more time, he said, as his “trolling motor broke loose and started breaking rods on my front deck.”
Finally in the canal, he received good word from Ryan Lachniet, who went on to catch the biggest bag of the event at 27-1.
“He’s like, ‘Dude, they’re here. I just caught two big ones,’” Dice said. “I saw a couple of them swimming around, and I just couldn’t get them to bite.
“I think if I had been just in a little bit better headspace, just been able to take a few deep breaths, I think I could have. I should have been able to do my job. I should have been able to catch one, but I didn’t.”
Just one 2-pound cull would have put Dice in the Elites this year. That close miss left him researching what competitors in other sports do for a winning mindset.
“I’ve just been very intentional about trying to learn,” he said. “It’s different for everybody. I think some people, they need to get fired up, and some people, they need to calm down. And for me, it’s about just finding a balance.
“Some of the best fishermen always talk about letting it happen. You need set yourself up with a good game plan, a good framework, and then let go in the moment, be willing to have an open enough mind to see what the fish are actually doing.”
Dice hopes that’s the case for the forward-facing event on Toledo Bend, where he fished his first college tournament in 2020. He posted a 34th-place finish, then had the same result in a return visit in the 2023 Open. He’s hoping 34 remains a theme.
“If I’m going to be associated with 34 somehow, I’d take 34 pounds a day,” he said. “It’ll be completely night and day different from Norfork.
“We’ll see if we can do a little bit better this time, but you might need about 34 pounds a day there to do well.”
Last year, Fisher Anaya averaged ninth-place finishes to win the EQ Angler of the Year, while last-man in Brock Reinkemeyer averaged 23rd through the three tournaments. While Dice is ahead of the curve, he knows he has to finish.
“I want to win Toledo Bend, and I want to have a chance to win Guntersville, but that only comes by just taking each day at a time in practice, each bite at a time,” he said. “You just have to balance knowing where you’re going, but you can’t have your eyes so far ahead that you don’t look where you’re stepping.
“I just want to fish the best that I can every chance I get. So, to have another crack at it is great, but I’m just trying to do as good as I possibly can every event, one at a time.”
