Daily Limit: Stracner’s remarkable run to ROY

Before the season began, Josh Stracner told a number of people that the Bassmaster Elite Series Rookie of the Year would “come down to the last day of the last tournament that two of us are fishing.”

Stracner nailed that, however, he had no idea it would be him, especially during an up-and-down season that had him questioning his Elite future.

Going into the ninth and final Elite at the St. Lawrence River, the 37-year-old from Vandiver, Ala., was fifth in the ROY standings. Focused solely on qualifying for the Classic, Stracner didn’t even have the rookie title on his radar, but somehow, some way, he ended up with the hardware.

“I’m not really sure how,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting it. I was just worried about making the Classic. That was my No. 1 goal for sure. That’s all I had on my mind.

“I knew just one bad day at either one of those last two tournaments would have cost me. I didn’t have a good Champlain tournament. I finished 54th. That kind of aggravated me because I actually was catching enough fish to do well. That really got me fired up about getting after it at St. Lawrence and make that Classic happen. That Rookie of the Year was just a bonus for me.”

Stracner had to have a lot of unlikely things happen to make up his 55-point deficit and climb over four others. They did. All of them.

ROY leader KJ Queen and third-place Matt Robertson were in the 90s after Day 1 at the St. Lawrence, allowing Bryan New (35th) to regain the ROY lead. Stracner and Hamner stood 19th and 20th in the event, respectively, putting Hamner three points behind New and Stracner 15 back.

Still, ROY was a stretch for Stracner.

“I didn’t keep up with it,” he said. “I don’t like getting my mind messed up on something like that. I just went out trying to catch everything I could catch.”

On Day 2, New fell to 67th, losing 32 points and his hopes, and Hamner dropped to 31st. After climbing to 16th with his second bag topping 19 pounds, Stracner held a two-point lead heading into Day 3, and he was now aware of the great twist of fate.

With Hamner having more room to improve, Stracner thought he’d blown it as he weighed his smallest bag on Semifinal Saturday, 17-13, to finish 21st. Hamner, who wasn’t on BassTrakk, was last to weigh in.

“Nobody knew what he had,” Stracner said. “I thought I kind of left the door open for him just a little bit. I thought I had 17 pounds even. I just knew he’d probably try to make a run at the lake, catch 18, 19, 20 pounds and beat me. I think he actually stayed kind of close and largemouth fished and it didn’t work out for him.”

With only four fish weighing 7-13, Hamner finished 45th, losing 14 points to Stracner’s fall of five points. It left Stracner with 547, 11 points up.

“I had a decent tournament,” Stracner said. “I didn’t set the woods on fire or anything. Just getting inside that top 20 after the second day, and those guys behind me just not having a good tournament, that’s really all it was.”

Of the nine rookies on the Elites in 2021, six were tightly bunched among the top 39 who are awarded automatic Classic berths. These results are after dropping their worst finish due to a COVID stipulation, which only counted toward Classic qualification. Stracner was 29th with 527 points, Queen 31st, New 33rd, Hamner 36th, Marc Frazier 37th and Robertson 39th. 

“I had so many people come up to me congratulating me on such a great season,” Stracner said. “I look at some of them, and I feel like I didn’t do really well this year. I’m just real fortunate that I did a hair better than the rookies that were behind me. I don’t think any of us had a spectacular season by any means.

“Of course, I’m grateful for making the Classic and getting the rookie title — I guess that’s good for the first year — but having two or three or four tournaments below 50th place, I don’t like being down that far. And I know the other guys don’t either.”

Stracner had bad events chasing good in 2021. After a 16th at St. Johns, he took 58th on the Tennessee River. A 23rd at Pickwick was followed by a 57th at the Sabine. Lake Fork’s 16th was dampened by his worst, an 81st at Neely Henry. That was somewhat of a gut punch, a bad finish on a lake 45 miles from his home.

“I kind of had a brain lapse on the second day, let my mind get in the way,” said Stracner, who added that the event really got to him. “I was really ready to quit. I told myself I just want to finish my season out and get the heck out of here.

“I felt like I was getting burned out for a couple tournaments. Then I had that real bad one close to home. Everybody was watching, so it got me down.”

The demons didn’t dance in his brain long. After a horrible practice at Lake Guntersville, another nearby fishery, he made more than just a rebound in the standings. With 12-15, he stood 57th but made a move on Day 2 that got him in the cut before climbing to 33rd.

“After 9 a.m., I couldn’t get a bite doing what I was doing,” Stracner said. “I just pulled behind this bridge in a slough, somewhere I’d never been — didn’t even know what it looked like back there. I started catching them on a frog. Caught them good enough to make the third day.

“It was a big turnaround for my mind — ‘I guess I can shake some of that stuff and just go fishing and catch them like I used to.’ Catch them ‘on the run’ is what I call it.”

Throwing out his plan and making the adjustments on the water was a moment of pride for Stracner. A quick decision was also required to join the Elites after qualifying last fall through the Basspro.com Eastern Opens points.

“I got to go right now if I’m going to try it,” he thought. “I’m not one of the young guns for sure. I’ve got some wrinkles on my face.”

Local sponsor Reaction Innovations helped him out some and wrapped his boat, but otherwise Stracner said he “was about 95% Josh Stracner funded this year.” Although he earned five $10,000 checks on the Elites, he realized gaining sponsors is critical.

“Just relying on tournament winnings is a pretty volatile game,” he said. “One big thing I learned, if you’re going to fish the Elites, and I’ve always heard it, you’re going to need some help.”

The ROY should provide a boost. A day after securing the title, Stracner traveled to ICAST working on that end of his game. He got some nibbles but not the big bite, yet.

“Between now and the start of next season, I’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “I got to put my foot in some doors, make relationships. I’ve got to get something going. I want to keep doing this for sure. I don’t want to be a one- or two-year guy. I want to be here for a while.”

Adding his name to an impressive list of ROY winners is a great start, and Stracner knows at least one thing will be different in 2022.

“I got a title now that (emcee Dave) Mercer can announce instead of just my name,” he said with a laugh.