12/8/2011
Analyzing my Fishing

It’s no secret that for the past few months I’ve been diagnosing my fishing game, top to bottom. I’ve been writing about it and talking about it during interviews.

I’m trying to get to the bottom of why I had such a lousy year in 2011. The way I see it, it’s time to re-evaluate your game when you go from five straight Classic appearances, including one victory and a second Super Six finish, to standing on the outside looking in. It’s a bad feeling.

The good news is that when you start looking at yourself with a sharp, critical eye, you’re bound to find some things out about yourself.

Well, I’ve learned a couple of things so far. The first thing is that I’m spending way too much time on business and not enough time taking care of what should be my primary business: competitive bass fishing. But, to be honest, that one was obvious. Between making sure Southern Tank Leasing (my tank-trailer leasing operation) and Duckett Fishing are running smoothly, time gets eaten up. But I knew before I started this self-evaluation process. I’ve been fighting that battle for years. It had to be something else.

Well, I recently found a second problem. When I’m on the water, I’ve been rushing everything. I actually didn’t even realize that I had been speeding up just about every technical thing I do while fishing. My bait has been winding up too high, and I’m just generally not on target. That’s the short version.

Well, I had a great opportunity to test the “rushing myself” theory a few weeks ago. I was involved in two events. The first was the Fish and Chips tournament in Oklahoma. The second was an event I’ve been looking forward to for a long, long time: Major League Fishing’s first tournament.

The good news is that at both events I slowed down my motion, forced myself to focus on the task hand and started catching fish again.

One reason I tell you this is that I’d like to encourage you to watch what I did at the Major League Fishing Challenge Cup. Even more important, you’ll get to see what 23 other great anglers did, too. You can see this during the first Major League Fishing web-based pay-per-view broadcast.

I haven’t been this excited about a broadcast event in a long, long time – maybe ever. I’m going to watch this as a fan. I was there competing, but I didn’t see what we’re going to see on the pay-per-view. I want to watch how the great anglers that competed in the event went about their business. And that’s what you and I will be able to see.

You’ll be able to get inside Kevin VanDam’s head, and that’s no easy task. You’ll get to see Aaron Martens and his sometimes unorthodox methods of finding fish. You’ll get to see how Shaw Grigsby, a self-proclaimed underdog on Lake Amistad, handles a body of water that’s been out of his element in the past. You’ll get to see the competitive juices get going when Ike and Skeet have just one day to figure out one section of a lake.

The pay-per-view is going to cost $2.99 an episode. What you’ll be buying for $2.99 is something that’s never been offered on any video or how-to program. You’ll watch the pros FIND fish. Most people can catch them. The game is all about finding them. And that’s what the pros do that almost no one else can: find them in a hurry. If you’ve ever fished a tournament, you know that’s probably worth more like $299 instead of $2.99.

I promise you, absolutely promise you, it will be worth both the time and a couple of bucks.

As I said, I was actually there. And I still can’t wait to see it.

******

11/08/2011
Pay per View Learning

I mentioned on this blog a couple of weeks ago a few of the format and rules aspects that we’re going to use when we kick off MAJOR LEAGUE FISHING. After I wrote that piece, I got to thinking that there is one part of MLF that we, and by we I mean the anglers, haven’t been talking about. And we need to start doing it.

That part is the web-based pay-per-view that’s going to be offered. We’ve determined that we’ll offer MLF for $2.99 per broadcast. I think that’s a bargain, and here’s why. You’re going to get a lot of user-friendly information when you watch a Major League Fishing broadcast.

Before I go further, I should say that we still don’t have the dates set for the pay-per-view. But we’ll announce those soon. I just want to make sure it’s on your radar, because it’s on mine. Even though I’ll be participating in the tournament, I will absolutely be watching the PPV.

What MLF is trying to do is give you a look at what it’s like when some of the best anglers in world get dumped on a body of water with no practice, and they have to go find fish – a lot of fish. I’ll be watching because I want to see what Skeet and Ike and Aaron Martens and a bunch of other anglers are going to do in that situation. I want to see how their minds work. And you’ll be looking at the same thing I’ll be seeing.

I don’t want to sound like a carnival barker, but are you kidding me? It will be a $2.99 seminar. This a great deal. I keep thinking about Aaron. I won’t say much about this, but I will tell you that Aaron has an unconventional way of finding fish. Since I’m usually competing against him and don’t really get to watch him operate, I’m going to enjoy seeing him zero in on where the fish are. I think you will, too.

I’ve been telling people that I can’t wait to see Dean Rojas working with his frog when there shouldn’t be a frog bite out there. And I’m going to get to watch Denny go to the banks and start flipping. I know Denny sometimes sees things I don’t see. I might not be able to do exactly what they’re doing, but I promise you I’m going to learn some good stuff.

I’ve told the other anglers to be on notice. I’m going to steal from them. And I’ll be better in the second MLF event than the first one because of what I learn.

One other thing that I think you’re going to see is how the great ones fish under serious pressure. We did a test run a few weeks ago. Mike McClelland, Jeff Kriet and I went out and fished a few periods under the MLF format. And I can assure you that you have never seen tournament pressure the way you’ll see it when you know you have to stop fishing at the end of a period. We’ll have three periods every day, and every period is a tournament unto itself.

I can’t wait. And I can’t wait to watch it.
www.majorleaguefishing.com

*******

10/13/2011
Boyd Duckett - MLF Format Details

The first MAJOR LEAGUE FISHING event is going to take place soon. And it would be putting it mildly to say that the anglers are excited about what’s going to take place. Major League Fishing, which is a partnership venture between Outdoor Channel and 24 of the world’s best bass anglers, has been an evolving process. The evolution started the first day we discussed the idea and the format and rules are still being tweaked.

The basics are in place. The initial event will be the Challenge Cup - six outstanding days of competition, all carrying an elimination element. We have 24 anglers total, and the 24 will be divided into groups of eight. Days 1, 2 and 3 will involve eight anglers (each day) competing on an area of water that will be disclosed to them the day before the event. It will be different areas each day. Each day, four of the eight anglers will advance.

That leaves 12 anglers still in the competition. On Day 4, six of the 12 anglers will compete, with two advancing. Same deal on Day 5 – the other six anglers will compete and two will advance. In an interesting twist, MLF will introduce a cutline for Days 4 and 5. The first two anglers to reach the cutline win the day.

At this point, you have a four anglers still in the game, and those anglers will compete for the championship on Day 6.

There will be leader boards available at all times to the competing anglers. If I’m fishing, I’ll know where I stand. There will be boat judges riding with every angler. Penalties will be enforced by making anglers sit out the action for the amount of time allotted for his penalty.

And all bass caught (so long they are what MLF calls “score-able” size) will be recorded. There’s no five-fish limit here. When a bass is caught, the boat judge will determine the weight, record it into the electronic system, and the angler will release the bass back into the water. We’ve done a test. This process can happen in 30 seconds.

Those are the basics. But the fine tuning is not done – and it shouldn’t be. Since this is a new venture, we want to make sure we’re not stubborn about how we implement our rules and penalties. And this week we decided to change direction on one of them.

We initially said that MLF was not only waving encroachment rules, we were going a step further by telling anglers it’s just fine if they want to ease up on another angler and fish beside him. This invoked elements of NASCAR. Our logic was that this is a made-for-television project, and we want to make this interesting for viewers. What could be more entertaining that “rubbing rails” on the water. And at first, our anglers loved the idea.

But last week we did a final check with the anglers. We asked this question: Is there anything about our format that makes you uncomfortable? And overwhelmingly, we decided that even though it would be awfully entertaining to see the world’s top anglers fishing right on top of each other, that element of our game simply wouldn’t promote good sportsmanship. So we’re changing direction.

Here’s how we believe we will address it. An angler in competition will have the right to drop a buoy and claim a spot. As long as his buoy is in place, the angler must stay with 50 yards of the buoy – and no other angler will be allowed to enter the space. Other anglers will be allowed to cast inside the 50-yard radius, but they cannot drive their boats into the area. If they does, they will be penalized.

If the angler dropping the buoy chooses to leave the area, the buoy goes with him. It’s only his territory temporarily.

I mention this for two reasons. One, I wanted you to understand that we’re trying to offer an innovative product when we produce a Major League Fishing event. But on the other hand, we we don’t want to this to be gimmicky. We want sportsmanship to be part of this deal, because it is the real deal.
And it’s coming soon.

*****

Well, as you might guess, I’m frustrated with what was my worst season in years - No, wait … I’d say it was my worst season ever. In one respect, I’m kind of looking forward to taking a short break. I’d like to get my mind wrapped around what went wrong, so it won’t ever happen again.

At the same time, I’m ready to start fishing again. Sometimes you just have to work you way through tough stretches. I know a lot of people that read these blog entries have told me that they fish tournaments. So I would guess a lot of you know what I’m feeling right now. You just don’t want to sit around too long.

So here’s my plan.

I’ve decided I’m going to take one more shot at the Bassmaster Classic. I can do that by fishing the BASS Northern Open series. One of those tournaments is on Lake Erie at Sandusky, Ohio. Another is at Oneida. I’ve done well at both of those locations in the past. … If I could get a first place in one of the Open events, I could get back to the Classic for the sixth straight year. Otherwise, I’ll be at the Classic, but you’ll find me on the exhibition floor.

So here’s Part 2 of my plan.  Even though I had a lousy season, with the exception of the Bassmaster Classic, I’d like to keep fishing. … So I’d like to ask for your help. The final two events will take four anglers from fans’ votes. If you feel inclined to do so, I’d appreciate it if you would vote for me to take part in the last two events. You can go to the Bassmaster.com site and look for the Toyota ad. You get to vote for one angler from each region. I’m in the Region 3 group.

Thanks for your interest in this page and thanks for thinking about voting for me.

We’re at Lake Murray this week, after a frustrating last two days fishing of our Elite Series tournament at West Point Lake. I started out in great shape, got on some fish the first day, but then it dried up.

I started out those last two days looking to catch big fish early, because if you didn’t catch them at West Point by 11 a.m., you just weren’t going to get them. So on Day 2, my go-to spots weren’t producing and I had to go fishing. Then when I did run on a keeper I lost him - not once, not twice, but three times. It happens. One snagged in branches, another broke off the line, and to be honest I can’t completely remember what happened to the third one.

Then on the last day I had no option except to go hunt for big fish. Well, I’ll tell you how well that worked out. I caught three spots for a total of four pounds. In the end I dropped all the way to 49th. Not what I needed.

So now it’s on to Lake Murray, which I haven’t been to in several years. I’m not sure what to expect.

I’ve been away from the blog for awhile, because I was doing most of my blogging through Bassmaster.com. I’m going to get back to this page, and see if we can build the readership back up.

This is a good time to start. As many of you know, I’ve had the worst start to a season that I’ve had in five years. But I haven’t given up on making the Bassmaster Classic. i want to make it six straight to the Classic, but I’ve got a long way to go. After two terrible tournaments in Florida to start the season, I found myself in 90th place in the angler-of-the-year standings, and that won’t get it done.

Since then, I’ve been climbing up - but not enough. I started this tournament in 67th place.

But I had a good tournament at Toledo Bend in Louisiana, and today was the best day yet. We started out Elite Series tournament at West Point Lake, and I finished the day in sixth place with 18 pounds, 10 ounces.

I found two bedders today, and I probably won’t find them again tomorrow. I’ll have to start over, but that’s ok. I fished new water all day today. I caught some cranking, some flipping. You’ve got to think here, there’s no one way to fish this lake.

It was a good day. I caught them throughout the day. I’ll try to do it again tomorrow.

I figure I need about four straight top 20 finishes to get back in the Classic. We’ll give it a shot.

New Orleans was sweet today. I got on big fish and had one of the best days I’ve ever had on the water. But it was too late.

I guess I should be happy with a sixth-place finish, because the big day got me into the excitement of being onstage and part of the Super Six at the end of the day. Another reason I should be happy is that I started in 19th place coming into the day, so it was fun to have made things interesting for awhile. I caught an 8 pound, nine ounce fish early  and got a five-pounder right behind it. All of a sudden I went from just another angler to the hot guy, with a bunch of spectators and television cameras moving into my area.

But as I mentioned yesterday, I had a long, long way to go. I figured I needed a 35-pound bag to even have a chance, because I figured Kevin VanDam would have another typical Kevin day - and that means he was going to catch more than 20 pounds. So I never really had the feeling today that I was challenging for the lead, but I got about as close as I could. I had almost 29 pounds, including what might have been the biggest fish of the day.

Every angler has a story of the one that got away. Well, I’ve sure got one today. I had another fish that was at least as big, and probably bigger than the 8-9 fish I caught. I lost that one. I tried to bring it in a little too fast, and it slipped away. That would have made things a little more interesting, but even that wouldn’t have been enough.

Overall, it was just a good day in a terrific environment. I have enjoyed the hell out of my time in Louisiana, from the first days I spent in the bayou with friends to the last cast I made today on Lake Cataouatche. This is a great environment, and I hope we all protect this place as much as we possibly can. We don’t want to lose these wetlands.

One other thing. As much as I enjoy talking about how good my day was, I can’t help but think about how amazing Kevin’s day was. He just wins and wins and he does it with class. Aaron Martens had a fantastic tournament and once again almost won, but Kevin was just a little bit better than all of the rest of us.

I had moved off the stage and was back in the media room when they were weighing Kevin’s fish. About 20 media guys in the room were watching the tv monitors when Kevin was declared the champion. I yelled, “Hey look, guys, VanDam wins the Classic! What a huge surprise!”

They just laughed, and so did I. Kevin is amazing. What a great angler.

NEW ORLEANS, La. - I had a choice today. Going into the second day of the Bassmaster Classic, I could go to Venice, get a respectable bag of fish - and I was completely confident that I could do that - and get into the top 10, maybe even the top 5.

But I knew that a top 10 finish wasn’t going to be good enough to give me a chance to win, and the Classic is all about winning. It’s essentially a winner-take-all event. Second place wouldn’t mean a great deal to me. First place would have, so I chose to take a risk and try to have a big day. It was a swing for the fences.

To have a shot at winning, I needed more pounds today than I would have been able to catch at Venice … so I chose to fish  closer to the launch site in Lake Cataouatche, where big fish live. The problem was, even though there are big fish in the lake, there not many of them were biting. But I had to try to catch them. I spent all day hoping that conditions would change enough to get the bite started, but it never did.

I had 10 pounds, 9 ounces, and that means I’m going to be fishing on the final day. They’re still weighing anglers’ fish now, but it looks as though I’ve definitely qualified for the final day. In reality, though, there would need to be a monumental, almost impossible comeback for me to win the tournament. I’ll be 16 pounds out of first place before today’s weigh-in is finished.

One of the problems all the anglers from fifth place on down will face tomorrow is who’s at the top. There are great anglers at the top of the leader board, and one of them is Kevin VanDam. You’d think he’d be tired of winning the Classic. This will be four of them for him, if he wins.

Seeing KVD at the top of the leader board is what it was like two years ago with pro golfers, when they looked at the leader boards at their tournaments and saw Tiger Woods leading after two rounds. Tiger didn’t lose many tournaments on the final day. It’s the same with KVD.

Good luck to all of us trying to chase him tomorrow.

NEW ORLEANS, La. - I knew I was in for a long boat ride today, which meant I was going to have a shorter than usual time fishing on the first day of the Bassmaster Classic. And the day got even shorter when fog rolled in this morning. We didn’t leave the starting line until more than an hour after the scheduled starting time.

I chose to fish in the Venice area, which is as far south in Louisiana as you can get. It’s where the Mississippi River meets the Gulf. But in those areas between the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexica are huge amounts of marsh land that produces good fishing. The trip took about an hour and 20 minutes, not including a fuel stop that all of us who took that trip had to make.

It was a long, fast bouncy ride.  But even though it was a long trip, in some ways going to Venice was a safe move. I felt confident that I would be able to catch five quality fish, and I did. I caught 13 pounds, 12 ounces, good for 17th place. I’m at least in the hunt, and that’s what I felt I should accomplish on the first day. All of the anglers say this: You can’t win the Classic on the first day, but you can lose it. By going to Venice, I didn’t lose the Classic.

But now things have to change. Since this is the Classic, I’m not trying to finish in the top 5 or the top 10. This is winner-take-all, so tomorrow my strategy is going to have to change. I’m going to have to go to an area that can potentially offer big fish, because I need to do anything possible to move from 17th place into true striking distance. I might end up with a zero trying to make that happen, but it’s time to go for it all.

I kept myself in the game on the first day. Now it’s time to take a big risk. No Venice tomorrow.

January 31, 2011

Classic success means eliminating distractions

I saw a story this morning about Tiger Woods in the USA Today. The story, in a nutshell, quoted Tiger as admitting that life in 2010 was tough because his head wasn’t in it. He didn’t have the focus he needed to have to be competitive, much less to dominate the way he has in the past.

I thought about that, because the Elite Series anglers are about to get into our competitive mind games. The Bassmaster Classic is now a few weeks – not months – away, and then the series gets going.

Time to get your head in the game, in other words.

The Tiger Woods story brought up an interesting point. Distractions can be the biggest obstacles an athlete at any level faces. It doesn’t matter if you’re Tiger Woods on the golf course, Brett Favre on the football field, Alex Rodriquez at the plate or any of 100 Elite Series pro anglers – distractions take you off your game. And when you’re off your game, you’re not going to win.

Those of you who know me know that I stay on the go with several businesses, and I have to fight to carve out enough time to be competitive on the Elite Series circuit. On many occasions during the past several years, I’ve lost my edge because I’ve been distracted, so at the end of the year I’ve had to scramble to make the Classic field. In one respect there’s nothing wrong qualifying for the Classic, that’s a nice accomplishment. But it wasn’t my primary goal. My first goal was to finish in the Top 12 and have a shot at angler-of-the-year.

Gary Klein, Aaron Martens, Timmy Horton and I were talking about that just yesterday. We were on a project together, and the four of us had an hour or so where we got to talking about what we’re doing now to get ready for the season.

We all talked about how it’s time to get our heads in the game. But it’s funny how we all said basically the same thing. While our minds are starting to get focused on competing, but we don’t really have time to think too hard. We’ve got too much to do.

Right now we’re all doing the stuff that’s not glamorous. We’re worrying about whether our boats will get wrapped. We’re choosing final looks for our jerseys. We’re checking to see if we’ve got any tackle that still works.

You’d be amazed how long we talked about tackle. You have to protect tackle to make sure it stays dry when you’re not using it. I went through everything on my boat the other day and threw away 80 percent of what I had left. I don’t want to lose an event because I’m using a product that’s gotten discolored or distorted in any way.

We have to plan travel schedules and promotional appearances.

And we have to keep studying every couple of days what the water is doing in the Mississippi River basin.

There’s a lot to do.

———————————–

January 16, 2011

Getting away and seeing something different

It’s been a busy, busy year. In addition to doing everything I’ve got to do to get ready for 2011 as an angler, the businesses I’m involved in are doing much better. My tank-leasing operation is busy, and so it Duckett Fishing. The growth has been faster than anything we would have anticipated. It’s obvious that from an industrial standpoint, our economy is turning around.

As a result, I took a little time off last week. I took a vacation to get my mind and body ready for another busy year. A group of couples, and I was in this group, took a trip out of the county. We went to Jamaica.

And before I get started, let me go ahead and get this out of the way. To Bassmaster: Go ahead and get your disclaimer ready, the one that says, “The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author, not Bassmaster.” You know, that disclaimer.

Before I mention what happened in Jamaica, I wanted to tell you a strangle that happened on the trip itself.

We traveled out of the country without any problems. We even went through the “make-you-naked” scanner at the airport, and it wasn’t a problem.

But when we came back, we experienced some frustration getting into the country.

When we got back to Atlanta, instead of going to pick up our bags and getting on the road home, we had to re-enter the airport through security (again) to pick up our bags. What’s that all about? Just getting our bags took more than two hours.

People who know me know that find stuff like that pretty aggravating. How expensive do you think that is? It costs a lot of people and money to go through that exercise. The bags had already been checked, and so had we.

Oh, well. Anyway, here’s what I experienced on the trip.

In Jamaica, we took a boat ride on a Catamaran, we went snorkeling, and we went rock climbing up a rocky rapids waterfall. It was great, and I’m not sure you can do much of that in the U.S. anymore because of the liability issues involved in that kind of thing.

There were 12 of us on the rock-climbing trip, and there were places where all 12 of use had to lock arms for our protection. That way, in case somebody fell, the group would be able to hold that person up from tumbling down a rock face. It was great, but it was risky.

It reminded me of some of the things I did when I was a kid. My father used to take our family on trips during the summer. He would take about a month off in the summer and load us in the car, and we would tour America.

We went to alligator farms, we hiked, we went to the Grand Canyon. We did all kind of things like that. I remember leaning over a rickety wooden fence to look out into the Grand Canyon.

You can’t really do much of that in the U.S. anymore. Now, you can still go to the Grand Canyon, but there is much liability coverage now that you can’t experience America the way you used to be able to.

I thought, you know, it’s hard for me to be able to take my kids out anymore and find a place to teach them how to shoot a gun.

I live in rural Alabama, but even there it’s hard to find a place to shoot a gun. You can’t shoot on anybody’s property, and I guess that makes sense. But even the gun ranges in my town are close. Liability issues.

I could go on and on talking about this. But I won’t.

I’ll just say it felt good to go to Jamaica and live a little bit, get close to nature.

———————

December 22, 2011

Living in the Louisiana Delta: I did for a few days

I went to South Louisiana last week to get ready for the Classic, and in a lot of ways I didn’t know what to expect beyond what I could see on a map.

And looking at a map is intimidating. It seems to be a hundred square miles of bayous and creeks and bays in inlets and canals – whatever. Man it’s a lot of territory.

To make things even more challenging, my primary reference point for the region – other than maps and Internet study – came from watching Swamp People.

So off I went to meet a guy named Todd Schaubhut, a friend of a friend who has a cabin in the swamp not far from Lac Des Allemands. Todd and his father and grandfather basically grew up in the bayous. He knows everybody. He showed me the house where his grandfather grew up. Todd’s place is about five or six miles inland, but he’s still out there.

What I found during my time with Todd and his family and friends is that there is a closeness in their community that was truly amazing. The people that live in or spend a lot of time in the marshland are accommodating. Great hospitality. They take care each other.

He told me to just bring what I needed, and that we would all take care of the groceries. When we put the boat in, Todd put about a 10-pound bag of rice in the boat and some spices, and I don’t think he had much more than that.

While I was out in the boat practicing for the Classic, every day we accumulated enough to eat. We might catch some redfish, and Todd, who knows all the shrimpers, would pick up four armloads of shrimp from one the fishermen. That’s about as fresh as you can get. Some of them fish in the inland waters and some of them were deep-sea guys. But Todd knew all of them.

When we would come in at night, you wouldn’t believe the feast. Because I’m an inlander and I’m ignorant about some of the terminology, I can’t remember the particular name they had for the stew we ate one night. It was a fish stew with Cajun spices that we served over rice, and I promise you – I absolutely promise you – that the best restaurants in Birmingham and Memphis and Atlanta could only hope to put something that good that on the menu.

Another night we had fresh duck and redfish, and occasionally they’ll mix a little alligator tail in with it. They also like to shoot coots, which can be awfully good, especially when you mix them in with other meats. You could feel half the bayou with the food we had in that cabin.

Another surprise was the cabin itself. It was probably 1,000 square feet or so, and it was as nice as any lodge I’ve stayed at.

Our source of water was a basin that catches rainwater off the tin roof. A lot of the folks will take chlorine tablets and drop in the water to help with purification, but we drank and bathed in captured water.

As you might expect, most of the stilt houses had generators, but I noticed that some of the houses had electricity. The source of the electricity would be lines that oil companies had put in to run out to their projects. Some of the folks had been allowed to tap into those lines to get electricity to their cabins.

The other amazing thing is that it seemed that all of that vast marshland is owned by oil companies. Even if you didn’t know that, you would learn from signs that are posted telling you, for example, that you’re now entering property owned by Shell or Exxon.

Todd is a local angler, and he fishes tournaments occasionally, but I didn’t spend time with him to learn where the fish are. I spent time with him to get a feel for the land, to learn how the canals work, and to find out what areas were really hurt by Katrina – those kinds of things. And I definitely learned a ton.

But what I came away with, more than anything else, was an appreciation for a group of people and their lifestyle. It’s a lifestyle that I hope still exists a hundred years from now.

**

December 9, 2010
Kevin Short’s got a point on the “no help” rule

I saw where Kevin Short responded to a blog I wrote several weeks ago, back when I had not yet talked with anyone “local” about what it’s like now fishing below New Orleans — the water we’re going to fish in the Classic.

The purpose of that blog, and I hope this was apparent, was to give readers an inside look at what really goes on with big-time tournaments. So, I wrote openly and honestly about the fact that I was late getting local help for the Classic and was having trouble finding a knowledgeable person to help answer questions that I couldn’t answer through traditional research. To prove how willing I was to accept advice, I even offered my Web site’s e-mail address. And I stand behind what I wrote.

Kevin took a little bit of issue with the fact that I said “we all” get help. He said he doesn’t get help anymore, and I should not have said “we.” Well, OK, sorry about that. I’ll refrain from using “we” in the future. However, I will say that “almost everybody” gets help.

But let me address another thing that Kevin said, because he made a great point. He said he would be happy if we, the pro anglers, could receive no information at any time about the bodies of water we’re going to fish. No help from locals, in other words.

I agree with that 100 percent.

I think a “no help rule” would be outstanding — a great thing for our sport. In fact, I said something similar to that this past season when we had our Elite Series tournament at Fort Gibson Lake. You might recall that in June we were scheduled to compete on the Arkansas River, but flooding made the river unmanageable. So, BASS moved the event at the last minute to Fort Gibson Lake, where practically none of us (except Tommy Biffle and a few others familiar with the lake) had practiced or gotten local information. We had, essentially, one full day to get ready.

Here’s what I said in that blog:

“&We’ll be fishing on a body of water we haven’t prepared for. Tommy Biffle and a few others from around here know this water, but for the most part, all the pre-practice everybody had done on the Arkansas River is down the drain. There is no local help; there are no waypoints to rely on. It’s just old-fashioned fishing. I like it. I’m confident. Great anglers can catch them when they have to&”

And great anglers did catch them. The Top 12 at Fort Gibson was an impressive bunch, including Skeet Reese, Kevin VanDam, Gary Klein, Mike McClelland, Davy Hite — a lot of familiar names, in other words. I finished 12th. It’s also important to note that Tommy Biffle won the event.

So I’m with Kevin Short on the “no help” suggestion. As difficult as such rules would be to enforce, I think it would be great if local help was off-limits, and I’d be willing to bet that most pro anglers feel the same way.

Unfortunately, those are not the rules. And since the rules allow us to get help, it makes sense to me that I should gather as much information as I can. As all pro anglers know, a great deal of that information doesn’t help in the long run. Some of it, however, is good.

I look at it this way: If a football coach happened to believe in his heart that the game would better and fairer if you only had three downs to make a first down, instead of four, I doubt seriously that the coach would punt on third down just as a matter of principle. He’s going to use every tool in his box.

BASS allows us to get help preparing for tournaments. Most everybody gets help. I’ll keep doing it, even though I think our sport would be more fair and interesting if local help were off-limits.

December 2, 2010
What goes around comes around

I’m heading to the Louisiana Delta tomorrow to fish. It’s going to be my first look at the water for the Classic. I’m going to take a look at where I’m going to fish, and I don’t mind saying that right now it looks like that’s going to be in the Venice area.

Getting to Venice will be a challenge because it’s probably 110 miles or so of water travel to get there from where we launch below New Orleans. It’ll be quite a trip, and a good part of the battle — if that’s where I wind up fishing — will be getting there.

But that’s another story. As I’m rustling around trying to get my act together so I can leave, I’m thinking how odd the past few weeks have been getting ready for the Classic.

Some of you might remember that I wrote a blog a few months ago about how much trouble I was having getting local information, the kind of information you don’t get from Internet study and history. I mentioned that I needed help, and I got a lot of offers.

Well, I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I was for the response I got from that blog. People from all over volunteered to give me advice. I got e-mails and phone calls. Some people offered direct help; others said they knew someone who could talk with me. I appreciate every offer, and I hope I have the opportunity to get back to everybody that got in touch.

In the end, here’s what happened — and what happened is an example of another thing I’ve written about in the past, which is how close-knit a community our sport is. The guy that hooked me up with some local help is Tom Hamlin, an angler I met in 2002.

I met Tom in the worst way an angler can meet someone. He beat me out of a spot in the Classic. It was the first year I had fished the Opens, and I pretty much had a Classic spot locked in going into the last event of the season. I had won one tournament, and I finished strong in another one. All I had to do was finish in the top 20 or so in the last tournament, and I would have a Classic berth.

Tom Hamlin came out of nowhere on the last day. We were fishing on Lake Martin, a lake I know like the back of my hand. Going into the last day Tom was something like 25th. I wasn’t even looking at him. I fished conservatively, and I thought I did what I had to do to secure the Classic spot. I finished 11th or 12th. But on that last day Tom came out of nowhere with a giant bag. And he shot right up to the top. When it was over, he beat me out of a Classic spot by two points. That probably didn’t amount to more than an ounce or two. A whole season was over, and I lost by two points to Tom Hamlin.

Funny thing is that the Classic Tom qualified for was in New Orleans. It was the Classic that Iaconelli won (2003). It would have been my first one. Instead, it was Tom Hamlin that fished.

Since then, Tom and I have become friends. And now — this year, when I needed help — Tom Hamlin is the guy that stepped up. He introduced me to a fellow who’s going to give me some south Louisiana advice. I’m meeting him tomorrow.

It’s interesting how things come back around.

November 18, 2010

I’ve been at Pickwick Lake fishing in the Ultimate Match Fishing competition. As you might suspect, I can’t say a word about how that worked out for me. In fact, I can’t even say whether I’d like to disclose what happened.

All I can say is that I was there with a great field of anglers for a show that will air sometime in the first half of 2011.

I can say that the fishing at Pickwick was good. The weather was nice — highs in the 60s most days and even warmer for a day or two. There were a lot of 2- and 3-pounders, but not much in the way of big fish.

It was competition with high stakes, but in a sense, it was a kind of relaxing time. Pickwick was busy on the weekend with a couple of local tournaments, but it was not crowded during the week.

We had to deal with an interesting water change while we were there. In a matter of two to three days, the water level dropped a couple of feet, and it changed the dynamic. Several good flats and grassbeds became muddy fields. We had to re-find them.

One other thing I can say about the UMF event is that, in one sense, it was like the Elite Series when we fish a tournament on a busy lake. We not only dealt with changing water, but those of us who fished on the weekend also dealt with a lot of boat traffic. And that’s a double-edged sword.

We’re always happy to see a lot of anglers on the water because it means our sport is popular. At the same time, it offers a specific challenge when you work hard to find fish — and you’re successful — then when you go to compete, you find a local angler is sitting right on your spot. We try to be polite, but it’s not always the easiest thing to do when we’re involved in a competition with high stakes. It’s a delicate situation.

One angler in this Ultimate Match round was particularly frustrated because of this phenomenon. As he pointed out to me, it’s even more glaring in Ultimate Match, because you only have about two hours where you really control your destiny. This angler (I’ll try to remember to come back to this story after UMF airs) had a spot he knew could win the match for him. The fish were there, but a local angler was parked on the spot during the morning and afternoon rounds.

What do you do? Well, you usually leave the spot alone for a while. If the local angler won’t move, you often try diplomacy on the second and third passes.

We all have stories.

This same angler had an interesting situation a few years ago. He was in the Classic, and he found a sweet spot. He went straight to the spot on the first morning and a local angler greeted him by holding up two 5-pounders, one in each hand.

“You’re going to like it right here,” he said. “They’re really biting good.”

November 11, 2010

After a really cool week at the Fish and Chips tournament in Oklahoma (where my partner Sean Schuyler and I finished sixth), I’m headed for another of the novelty tournaments that we have in our sport: Ultimate Match Fishing.

UMF is a product of Joe Thomas and the Outdoor Channel. If you’ve never seen it, it is match-play fishing. Two guys are in the same boat; one controls the boat for two quarters, the other guy controls for the other two. There is a line drawn through the middle of the boat outward to infinity, and if you cast in front of that line, you incur penalty points.

One of the objects, obviously, is to position the boat where you can catch fish while the other guy has nothing to work with. Making things even tougher for the guy in the back is the fact that there is a camera boat and a referee’s boat lurking behind, so the back guy really doesn’t have much room to fish.

I’ve been a competitor on UMF twice. I won in 2007, and I made the semifinals in 2008, so I guess my record is 6-1 in these head-to-head matches.

I like fishing UMF. In some ways, it’s the most pressure you can face on the water because one quarter is only an hour and a half long — and that includes driving time. I’ll be in control for only two quarters, so that means that, including the time it takes to get to my spots, I’ll have about two hours to catch enough fish to win. Fishing the Classic is incredible pressure, but at least you’re not condensing your time on the water to three hours.

I wish I could tell you who’s fishing and where we’re going to be, but contractually we just can’t do that because these shows are not going to air for several months.

I probably can say two things, though. First, it’s the strongest UMF field I’ve ever seen. Twelve superior anglers are in this group. The second thing I can say is that my first-round opponent is one of my Duckett Fishing pro staff members, and he’s a good one. I’m obviously excited that there will be white Duckett fishing rods in that first round and that one of us is going to advance.