Now that we’re well past the end of the 2024 Bassmaster Elite Series season, I’m feeling much more relaxed than I was a couple of months ago.
Wrapping up the season was kind of a relief. This year was a struggle for me — to the point that I was glad when it was over.
It seemed like the harder I tried, the worse things became, as far as fishing was concerned. After a frustrating season, I was glad to get home and know I’m not running up and down the road for a few weeks.
I know some guys like to spend a few extra days fishing the St. Lawrence River once that last tournament is over, but I went straight home. My baby boy was about to be born, so I was on a time crunch.
Laken ended up being born a few weeks later — Sept. 15 — but when they’re that close, you never know when they’re going to be here.
Even though it wasn’t as much of a rush as I thought it might be, I’m still happy I went straight home. It’s nice to have that pressure behind me and finally have time to go fun fishing.
Fun fishing revives you; it gets you back to your roots of just taking a deep breath and casting. It gets you away from thinking you have to catch a fish.
I don’t have a really strict schedule of when I go fun fishing, but I try to go when I have the opportunity, or whenever my dad wants to go. I try to go at least once a week, but I won’t go two weeks without fishing somewhere.
I’ll fish Lake Eufaula with my dad, but I also fish a lot of ponds. I like going to ponds with a simple setup — a BOOYAH spinnerbait and a YUM Dinger. I don’t take dozens of tackle trays; I just pick up one rod and go.
It’s relaxing to go at a much slower pace than I do in tournaments. Sometimes, I’ll just sit back and watch deer run around the bank.
Occasionally, I’ll fish from the bank, but I also have a little 19-foot aluminum boat with a trolling motor and a 90-horsepower outboard. On one of my recent trips, I went alone and caught a couple of 8-pounders — one on a spinnerbait and one on a Dinger.
In a tournament, those fish would’ve been worth a lot of money, but there was something rewarding about that day. It brought me back to when it used to be, “Holy cow — it’s a giant!”
It took me back to my childhood and reminded me days on the water were some of the best times of my life.
These days, spending time with dad is pretty special. Instead of going out and preparing for a tournament, we just kick back and relax.
We have our areas that we like to fish, and we’re gonna stay shallow most of the time. We’re gonna throw the baits we want and fish the areas we want to fish.
We don’t feel the dire need to catch fish. We just to go fishing.
