Bass fishing pros face mundane tasks during the offseason – getting a new boat ready, working with sponsors, lining up lodging and housing for the next year – but there is a fun side to it as well.
And man, has this been a fun fall for me.
Normally I enjoy a break from traveling and competing on the Bassmaster Elite Series, but since I missed the last two events due to an eye injury, I’m spending more time on the water than normal and loving it.
Of course, it helps that the fishing in the lakes around me has been great this year. I’ve caught ‘em good every day I’ve fished this fall.
That bodes well for the preparation and confidence building that is a big part of my offseason. Without the pressures of a tournament, I can fine-tune my tackle selection and formulate a plan of what I will carry next year. It’s a chance to try some of the new stuff out to see how it performs and decide if it’s going to work for me.
It’s all part of the confidence building that a pro angler needs going into a new season.
When I won the Bassmaster Angler of Year title in 2020, we had a long break during midseason due to the pandemic. The world shut down so I was able to spend time on the water just fishing. I used that time to fine-tune some things and caught a lot of fish. I believe it helped me finish strong when the season resumed.
The offseason is a bit different but can serve the same purpose. There is so much new tackle these days that requires testing and assessing to determine if and when it can work for you. It’s a process – a big and critical process.
The fall is a great time to do it.
For example, we hear a lot about the big West Coast swimbaits that some guys pick up and fish all the time. There’s no question they catch fish, but they take a lot of time and you don’t get a lot of bites. That requires a lot of time to develop confidence.
So, a big part of my fall has been determining whether something fits my style. If it’s not something I can fish with confidence when money is on the line, I probably won’t carry it. That eliminates clutter.
It doesn’t have to be a new bait either. It could be an old bait that fell out of favor with anglers but not with the fish. Restoring confidence in an old lure can offer something that the fish haven’t seen and get a few more bites when fishing pressured waters.
Over time, one can build a tackle selection that he knows catches fish and eliminate those the options he won’t use. Lures you simply don’t like or that don’t fit your style should be removed from the boat.
It’s a process that takes time and thought, and it isn’t easy when fishing is bad.
But when the fish are aggressive like they have been around home, the opportunities have helped me build more confidence and be more selective with tackle. Both will be big assets heading into a new Bassmaster Elite Series season.
