Daily Limit: In God he trusts

Paul Mueller is not shy about sharing his faith in God. He believes it has fueled his success in bass fishing, including winning the last Elite event on Lake Lanier, let alone his life.  

When he set the one-day weight record for a Bassmaster Classic, the 34-year-old from Naugatuck, Conn., told the world about it: “The secret to my success is my faith,” he said in 2014. “I believe that Jesus died for our sins, and when you believe, you’re safe. I just love telling people about it. That’s why God put me on this platform.”

A re-commitment to his faith in his early 20s put Mueller on the right path, and he’s been gaining experience and ground ever since. His climb reached a pinnacle when a “perfect storm” occurred in the Toyota Bassmaster Elite on Lake Lanier, allowing him to claim his first blue trophy.

One major inspiration was the proverb that popped up on his Bible app on the morning of Day 3. Psalm 35:7 reads:

Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass.

On Day 4, he wrote most of it down on his hand with a Sharpie – then he lived it.

“I just felt like it was something that God was sending to me,” Mueller said. “Basically, what it felt like God was telling me was to just keep your focus on Him this week, no matter how tough the day may get. No matter what kind of obstacles, even if things don’t go your way.”

After starting seventh on Day 1, Mueller’s deep-water tactics played out with a big bag of spotted bass weighing 18 pounds, 4 ounces, which put him second. Day 3 was tougher, and with only had 15-9, Mueller fell to third, 1-1 behind leader Chris Zaldain.

“As tournament anglers, we have a tendency to build up momentum, positive and negative,” Muller said. “If you’re having a bad day, a lot of times you kind of get negative, even though you know you shouldn’t. It’s natural. It happens to everybody.

“It was an up-and-down deal, a lot of changes. Every day was different. I didn’t execute on the third day, and I was very frustrated. I didn’t want to carry that into the fourth day. So that’s why that Bible verse was even more important. God was telling me to just focus on Him, trust that he’s got it under control, and he shall bring it to pass.

“For me, it was going to bring the tournament to pass. I felt like I had that confidence that I could win the tournament when I saw that on Day 3.”

On Day 4 in nasty conditions, Mueller landed a 5-4 in building the day’s biggest bag of 18-8 for a 69-0 total. It gave him 14-ounce margin over Zaldain, and a long-awaited title had finally come to pass.

“When you look at the schedule and get a couple tournaments a year that fit your style, you have to take advantage,” he said. “Going into Lanier, I knew it was going to fit my style. There was an urgency to win at this stage, because I don’t want to be one of those guys who fishes 10, 15 years, and never won. The way the industry looks at you is that you’re not a winner. I hate to say it, but that’s just the truth of it.

“I know that I can win. A lot of it has to do with the perfect scenario where you can get somewhere where you’re fishing the way you’re comfortable, and you can apply what you’ve found in practice to the tournament. That’s the perfect storm of a tournament where you have a shot to win … but you still have to win. There’s no given on that. I won by 14 ounces. So it’s tight. One fish one way or the other I don’t win. That’s the Elite Series for you.”

One more fish weighing 1-1 in the 2014 Classic on Lake Guntersville would have propelled Mueller to the mountaintop of bass fishing. After missing fish and only bringing in three bass on Day 1, he was mired in 47th. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and on Day 2 Mueller was provided a bounty that let him spread the word to multitudes.

With the water in his area clearing, he switched from a lipless crankbait to a Chatterbait. It wasn’t a lure he usually threw, but he said God put the thought in his mind that it might work. It did to the tune of 27 pounds by mid-morning. Then he landed the biggest fish of his life, an 8-2, and followed with two 6-pounders to finalize a bag of 32-3, which still stands as the largest ever brought to a Classic stage.

His goal of fishing Sunday was realized as he catapulted to fifth. Mueller’s Day 3 was solid with 24-11, but he fell exactly one pound shy of Randy Howell’s total of 66-8.

“To put that in a complete perfect perspective, I lost fish the first day where I could have won,” Muller said. “You would think that would be something that would haunt me, the fact that I had the fish on to win the Classic. Everybody who watched the Classic knew Randy Howell did a 180. He was running up the lake and God told him where to go in that tournament.

“You’re never going to argue with God’s plan, and it was god’s plan for Randy to win that tournament. I’m at peace with everything. You don’t argue with the man upstairs when he has a plan – You go by it.”

His second-place finish was the best by a B.A.S.S. Nation angler since Dalton Bobo lost to Dion Hibdon in 1997 by one ounce. Bryan Kerchal, who lived around a half hour away from Mueller in Connecticut, remains the only angler from the Nation to win a Classic.

Mueller said his was probably the most effective runner-up finish in the Classic as his guide service took off to another level.

“I can’t describe how busy I got after that. It put me on the map, not just in the northeast, but throughout the country,” he said. “I had people traveling all over the place to fish with me.”

It’s certainly explainable that people would clamor to fish with the Classic weight record holder, and his faith was another draw. Mueller, who said he’s a non-denominational Christian, grew up going to church but strayed in his teen years. Coming back under His wing helped him fly.

“It was my own personal journey to find the Lord,” he said. “Once I really started to commit to God, that’s when my career took off, even at an amateur level.

“I always believed in God, but there’s a difference between believing in him and following him. Part of it too is lifestyle change. We’re all sinners. There were certain things that I had to eliminate. A lot of it was just following God. Once I starting going back to church, reading my bible, praying, everything just happened.”

First was meeting his wife, Kimber, at church in 2010. The following year, he won the Forrest Wood Cup as a co-angler. To qualify for his first Classic, he won the 2013 B.A.S.S. Nation Eastern Divisional. He followed that up by winning the Nation’s National Championship in 2014 to qualify for his second Classic and the Elite Series.

“Everything in a short period of time took off and I can attribute that to being on track with God,” he said.

At frigid Lake Hartwell, Mueller posted an impressive 12th-place finish, but inconsistency on the Elite Series has prevented him from attaining his goal of making Classics since. Despite six Top 10 finishes, Mueller has cashed in exactly half (22 of 44) of his B.A.S.S. tournaments.

“The reality of fishing day in and day out on waters that you don’t know, it’s a little bit harder than you think,” he said. “It was a wakeup call, and I knew the deal with the Elite Series was going to be a learning curve — it still is, by the way. The way I look at it is, if I can survive it — which I had because I made enough checks each year but I definitely didn’t meet my goals — the reality is I knew that I had to win one eventually.”

Getting a victory has been important to Mueller, and the one close miss that he said burns him to this day is an eighth on Cherokee Lake in 2017.

“I had a horrible first day and dug myself a huge hole,” he said. “That’s a tournament I know I was on a winning pattern. I was on a winning area.

“Even David Mullins and some of the guys who live there asked, ‘How’d you figure that out? I told him I found it on my own. Nobody showed me that. That’s my wheelhouse. I caught them the same way I did on Lanier, the same two baits because I do a lot of it back home.”

In Connecticut when contacted, Mueller was on Lake Lillinonah guiding a group fishing hard water for crappie. Ice fishing for multiple species is his main winter activity, and his guide fees, and faith, have helped keep him on the Elites.

“At the end of the day, he’s going to provide. And he has. What people have to realize is, I made it to my fifth year on the Elites. That was very hard to do in a sense because I don’t have the sponsor money that some of these guys do,” he said. “I have to work hard. I have to guide. He’s made a way for me to get to this point, to survive this four-year learning curve. Deep down inside, that’s what motivates you that you belong here.”

Learning the ins and outs of his Garmin Panoptix LiveScope has been fruitful for Mueller. This winter, he posted a video off his LiveScope showing what looked like a fish but it was his lure. As clear as day, a fish came off the bottom and grabbed it. Mueller is then shown pulling his transponder out of an ice hole and pulling up a 12-inch crappie.

His newfound knowledge has him confident he can read the deep water and make noise in other events this year, namely Lake Fork, Guntersville and Cayuga. But the win was much needed and appreciated, with glory going to his Savior.

“It’s nice to get it early, because it takes a little of the pressure off,” Mueller said. “At the same time, as a competitor you can’t let up from here on out because there’s still a big goal of making the Classic. And honestly, I’d like to win another one. I think there’s some on the schedule where that’s possible.”