As a bubble boy, Darold Gleason is doing all he can to make sure it doesn’t burst.
The third-year Elite from Many, La., and wife, Randi, have set up camp in upstate New York to prepare for the final two back-to-back events before the 28-day off-limits period. When contacted Monday, Gleason was scouting on Lake Champlain with the next mission on the St. Lawrence River. He won’t head home until the season ends in late August.
“Today is my first day,” he said. “I just want to catch some smallmouth, be a man, become one with the smallmouth.”
That’s the trick for southern anglers as the Elites again finish off with a Northern Swing that’s do-or-die for many, Gleason included. He is 38th in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings, just inside the 40 cut to earn an automatic berth to the 2024 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic on Grand Lake out of Tulsa.
The 41-year-old won the 2019 Open on Toledo Bend, where he guides, to reach his first Classic, and he’s hungry for seconds.
“I’m excited to be the bubble boy,” Gleason said. “I’m excited to have a chance with a couple left. This would mean more to me than winning the Open.”
In his first two seasons, Gleason finished 75th and 77th in the point standings, making only several cuts while suffering some low finishes. In 2023, he’s made two cuts in six events, and more importantly, he’s avoided finishes 80th or below.
“It’s no secret I haven’t had great success my first two years,” he said. “My whole mantra this year is to flip the script on my career. I’m really trying to do what I set out to do and not just be the guy who’s out here a few years and goes away.
“I’m honestly proud I’ve shown improvement. This year I’ve given myself an opportunity. As long as I keep knocking on the door, good things will happen.”
Gleason began fishing Opens in 2010, but his first foray into northern waters came seven years later. In Gleason’s 75 Bassmaster tournament entries, only a handful can be considered solely smallmouth fisheries.
With learning the ways of the smallmouth in mind, Gleason gladly put behind 100-plus degree heat indexes for quality time up north. His mission is to improve on smallmouth techniques and determine areas and structure where the fish should be in a month.
“I understand I’m behind on all this up here,” he said. “The only way to learn and build some confidence is to come up. The more I can catch, the better I’ll feel.”
After almost two months since the Sabine event, the series resumes July 27-30 with the AFTCO Bassmaster Elite at Lake St. Clair. Due to competing in the Opens, Gleason wasn’t able to pre-fish there. Even though he’s never laid eyes on St. Clair, he has high hopes his penchant for offshore fishing and utilizing electronics should play there, as well as the last two.
“What bothers me is not that I haven’t been there, but that most all of the other anglers have been before,” he said. “It’s not what I don’t know, it’s what they do know. … I’m trying to figure out where to get my first bite, and they’re checking all their areas where they’ve caught giants.”
While Gleason said he can’t worry about others, there are plenty of others to worry about. At 38th, Gleason has accumulated 355 points, just one more than Chris Johnston and Clark Wendlandt. Smallmouth hammers outside looking in include Austin Felix (350 points), Cooper Gallant (343) and Classic champ Jeff Gustafson (342).
There are also a number of big names lurking, like former Classic champs Hank Cherry (341) and Jason Christie (336), as well as smallmouth expert Cory Johnston, down in 59th with 298 points.
“Where I’m at, I’m not very far from moving up a bunch,” Gleason said, “but I’m also not very far from moving down a bunch. There will be some guys ahead of me who drop out, and some guys behind me who go.”
It’s cliché, Gleason said, that he can only control what he does. Yet his competitive fire is burning, and he’d love to light up those attempting to knock him out.
“I don’t care how great Gussy is at smallmouth, I’m going to try to kick his butt,” he said. “I don’t think any of us get scared about it, or we wouldn’t be out here. I’m trying to fish the way I can feel good about it no matter what happens.”
With this year’s best result of 14th at Santee Cooper Lakes, Gleason has averaged nearly 60 points each tournament, which equates to around 45th place. Making two-day cuts in the final three events should do the trick, but he’s shooting for better to guarantee a spot. He’d enjoy making headway quickly.
“From what I noticed on the points, it seems like we’re all on a better pace than the past few years, and it’s so tight,” he said. “I would like at St. Clair to make a top 20, make my job easier coming to the home stretch. I want to be in position in the last one to have a chance, but I’d also love to have it sewed up.”
While the points don’t count extra this late in the year, the pressure increases. There is more point calculating, more leaderboard watching and more sweating. It is crunch time.
“It’s going to be a barnburner,” Gleason said. “There are so many things that are fixing to happen that can change everything in a guy’s career, beyond who’s going to win AOY and who’s going to win the Dakota Lithium Bassmaster Rookie of the Year. There are guys toward the bottom racing for their careers.
“There’s guys like me. I’m trying to flip the script. I don’t want to be the guy that’s cute, smiles a lot and everybody likes. I want to be the guy that catches them. I want everybody to know I can catch them.”
Part of his problem last year was having to gamble in the latter events, Gleason said. He’s also run out of fish, like at Champlain in 2021 when a poor second day saw him tumble from 26th to 57th.
“The biggest thing I’m working on now is piecing together two good days,” he said. “I’ve had issues where I’ve had a pretty strong Day 1 and I’m running out of stuff and not having great Day 2s.”
At St. Lawrence, Gleason finished 26th in 2021 but suffered an 85th last year “because I was one of the dummies who didn’t go to the lake and took a whooping.”
Work on his smallmouth game will continue through the summer. After St. Clair, Gleason plans to stay there and get in more reps, then it’s back to New York for some sponsor outings. He hopes to stay immersed in smallmouth at places like Oneida and Cayuga before he and Randi spend some relaxing days with other Elite RV couples.
“We’ll probably still fish that week, but it won’t be like I’m doing this week, daylight-to-dark, 13-, 14-hour days,” he said. “Do some fun stuff. Grillin’ and chillin’ at the campground. Do that to recharge the brain before the final back-to backs.”
Gleason said he hasn’t tried harder this year, but something has been clicking. The best he can figure is he’s just spent more time on the water and has fished with confidence.
“I’ve been blessed this year to have big bites and not get away from me — in the past I have,” he said. “The plan is to keep all that going.”
With close weights, Gleason said the key up north is to locate and land those 4-plus pounders to put himself in the mix.
“It’s hard to differentiate yourself,” he said. “You can catch 17 pounds, and that’s usually just cute. It’s not going to be enough to get the job done. You have to figure out how to catch those fish that weigh a half pound more.
“You might need to take some risks to go for larger fish, a long run or deeper water. Simply, I just want to get around as many as I can. There’s just a whole lot of fishing going on in these last three. There’s a lot that can change. These are big bodies of water, and a lot of factors go into success up here.”
So, Gleason is putting in the work to fine tune his smallmouth tactics, all in hope of attaining his coveted prize of a second Classic.
“I don’t care if I’m the last guy in,” he said. “To make it via points, to me, is a big goal.”
