the high school stuff. I was very proud! It’s great to live on Lake Guntersville where my boys can start learning early and have lots of opportunities to compete.
St. Lawrence River | Waddington, New York
I went into the St. Lawrence River event really hoping for a high finish. Especially since B.A.S.S. had cancelled the Chesapeake event and decided they were not going to reschedule it; so, we only had this one last tournament.
I needed a top-20 or top-25 to move up in the Angler of the Year (AOY) standings to qualify for the Classic.
I had a good practice at St. Lawrence. I really like the place and caught a lot of fish when I was there in the past.
In prior visits, you really had to have a 3 ½-pound average to be competitive on the river. So, in practice when I was catching 17 1/2-pounds, I felt ok. I knew if I could get a big bite each day with those good average fish, I’d be in the hunt.
The first day, even though I had 17-pounds, I was in 82nd place. I was pretty disappointed and knew I had undershot my goal to do well.
By Day Two, I was playing catch up – needing a 22- to 24-pound bag. I believed it was doable since there were so many bigger ones caught; so, I scratched everything that I had done and ran way down the river towards the lake in hopes of finding bigger ones.
I ended up with another 15-poiunds and just couldn’t find the right size fish. It was my worst tournament of the year and I finished 88th. I missed the Classic. I couldn’t really tell, even by the end of the event, what I should’ve done to find those bigger fish.
It was the first time in eight-years that I wasn’t going to be in the Classic. That part really got to me… especially knowing it was my last season on the Elites.
With all the disappointment and the burnout feeling that I had during the season, I’m glad to be able to turn my attention to the excitement of the new season with Major League Fishing and the New Bass Pro Tour!
The Bass Pro Tour was something that I knew about and had been in talks about for a long time (since May or so of this year). But, we weren’t able to talk about it publicly.
After this poor season and all the chaos that went on with all of the tour changing announcements, I was kind of glad to be done with all my events for the year.
Now, I can just have a break and fresh start before kicking off the new year with 80 of the best anglers ever
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Winter 2019
page 55