For me, 2024 has been an interesting year. It started out rough at the first couple of events, then I got focused and fished my way to cash five good checks in a row. I had the incident at Lake Champlain with the suspended dock but was able to fish through the pain to finish high enough in the last two Elite events to make the 2025 Bassmaster Classic in Fort Worth.
What most of you don’t know is I spent most of the year dealing with a herniated disk in my neck, and I had to take three different nerve block injections to get through the season. I ended up scheduling surgery on Oct. 28. I also fished another league this year and our season was supposed to be over before then. The last event in Florida was postponed because of Hurricane Helene and eventually rescheduled for Dec. 10 for Lake Murray.
The surgery involved some screws and replacing a bad disk. While I’m still sore in my shoulder and down my back from the surgery, the feeling in my hands has returned. Now I can focus on getting myself ready for the upcoming season.
Based on the way I was feeling after surgery and me wanting to make the championship, I decided to fish at the Lake Murray event to make sure I made it. I took it easy and fished as good as I could and finished in 24th place for the event. I landed 11th in the AOY Points and made the championship.
So much of this year was about being tough physically and mentally, and it made me grateful for my upbringing and my family. I learned that there were times when I had to suck it up and fight through problems and pain. That “Old School” mentality I learned from my parents, grandparents and uncle was the reason.
When you try to do something well, you hope to do something that makes an impact on someone else. A local friend of mine, Brian Shook, has a son who has followed me closely. Brian told me after my accident at Champlain and the effort to get back on the water to fish, they shared the story with his son. Now, whenever the little guy gets hurt or has a tough thing happen, they say, “C’mon man, Logan Up!” It means to be tough and get back to work. That really makes me feel good.
I’ve seen a lot of people my age who seem to find a way to take the easy way out, and it’s just not something I’m going to do. I’ve got a lot of fight in me, and 2024 was one of those years I had to turn up that side of me a lot. I got through it, earned some money and some respect and made a couple of championships including the Classic in Fort Worth. It was all worth it.
Some of you may have seen I made a change for 2025 – I’m going to be running a Falcon F20 Predator going forward. I loved my time with Skeeter and will always be grateful for the opportunity to be there and run their amazing product. I met the people from Falcon at Buck’s Island, my home dealership, and really loved the thought of being a part of a family. The boat is truly an amazing machine that runs really well with my Yamaha 250SHO on it. I can’t wait to fish the season out of it.
I have a little more time to heal, rehab and get myself ready before the 2025 season is upon us. I can’t wait!
