With the 2022 Bassmaster Elite Series season a few months in the rearview mirror, part of me is still trying to break down and figure out my second Bassmaster Angler of the Year campaign. In some respects it’s different because it puts me in rarer company. Only 12 guys have done it, and I don’t take that lightly, but it’s a factoid that I didn’t know until the end of the year. I go out every season trying to win the title, not trying to win a specific number of titles.
Now I’ve had a little time to assess my performance and what pushed me over the top. Obviously it’s so much more fun to be in that position than the obvious. Rather than thinking back on particular fish I caught or didn’t catch, the older I get the more I work to understand what drives me and what keeps me going. That gives me the reserves to come out on top when things get difficult or stressful.
At the same time, you don’t only learn from your successes – I work hard to identify my weak spots or poor decisions and learn from the times that things don’t work out. In any competitive endeavor – or any aspect of life, really – it’s not healthy to ever be completely satisfied.
With only a couple of tournaments left in the season it appeared that I was coasting to an easy title. Of course, as is my typical practice, I had no idea of the margin over my closest competitors. I did know, however, that I stumbled at Oahe. The 66th-place finish was my first missed cut of 2022, and I assumed that I’d have to catch them at the Mississippi River to get the trophy. It added stress, but I also believe that everything happens for a reason.
That Oahe disaster forced me to dig deep. There were several critical inflection points during the last two tournaments where I could have lost valuable points, but I dug deep and pulled it out. Every decision throughout the year matters, but as you get closer to the end their significance is magnified. I was tested, and when you get tested and come out victorious it’s much more rewarding than if you coast to an easy win.
Nothing much has changed about my general approach to winning since I started my career. I remember craving that first Elite Series victory, a Classic and an AOY title. I’ve achieved some of those, and others continue to elude me. I believe in the process, though, and that involves focusing on catching as much as I can every single day and letting the cards fall where they may. If I make the right decisions and execute properly, then it works out for the best a reasonable amount of the time.
What I’ve learned is that trying to win the AOY on your first cast of the year is a ridiculous idea, and by your last cast it’s too late to change the past. If you take things in bite-sized chunks, all of those micro-decisions add up to your best possible performance. Then, when you get to Day 3, or Day 4, or the last tournament of the year, and you know that with two more bites you can push yourself to the next level, what seemed like a mountain is reduced to a single step. Those are the moments that I live for.
As I try to compare my two AOY efforts, I’m thrilled to realize that I have nearly every fish catch from both of them on camera. The big difference is that when my daughter, Kora, gets older she will be able to see that she was a big part of the 2022 title. She’ll be able to see how the year progressed, with the pregnancy and certain life decisions that we had to make. She’ll see how everything transpired, and at some point all of that will be much more meaningful than a really cool trophy.
What I hope she takes away from the experience is that it’s not about the wins, but rather recognizing the sacrifices that it takes to get there. Commitment is what allows you to be successful. Winning is never given to you. No matter what path she pursues, I want her to have that fighter’s spirit.