While Bassmaster Elite Series pros strive for excellence throughout each event, the right combination of variables occasionally align to create the opportunity for superlative performance. Success hinges on seizing the moment, rising to the occasion and turning in a truly memorable performance. Here’s an example from Carl Jocumsen.
Event: 2019 Bassmaster Elite at Lake Tenkiller
Scenario: Recent flooding in Eastern Oklahoma forced the event’s relocation from Fort Gibson Lake to Tenkiller. The latter also saw a rise, but that worked in Jocumsen’s favor by luring more anglers shallow.
“Tenkiller didn’t get that much rain, but it was high and the water was in the bushes,” he said. “As the tournament progressed, the water receded. That helped me because I was offshore.”
Expounding on that point, Jocumsen said the venue change did not significantly alter the way he fished the tournament. Sitting just an hour south of Fort Gibson, Tenkiller offered plenty of what he wanted from this Sooner State season finale.
“I sorta cut my teeth on fishing offshore structure with a jig for largemouth bass in Oklahoma,” said Jocumsen, who called the state his home shortly after moving to the U.S. from Queensland, Australia. “It was a confidence thing for me; it’s something I probably would have tried to find on Fort Gibson.”
While Jocumsen had history at the event’s original site, Tenkiller was a blank slate. Lacking experience on waters he described as clearer than most Oklahoma lakes, he was unsure if his preferred tactics would deliver. Fortunately, his daylight-to-dark effort to meticulously break down the lake exceeded his expectations.
“It all started to come together on day three of practice,” Jocumsen said. “On one spot that I found, I hooked a 5-pounder and there were like four or five that came up with it. I knew how tough the fishing was, so I knew it was going to be a super grind, but I found these schools that were biting.
“That was still the only time I ever came in from practice and said to (then fiancé) Kayla (Palaniuk), ‘I think I can win this tournament.’ I’d never said that before, and it’s the only time I ever said it.”
By the end of practice, Jocumsen had established a rotation of 10 spots. In the tournament, he relied on a 3/4-ounce Molix football jig with a green pumpkin Strike King Rage Craw trailer.
As bites were scarce, Jocumsen fished the full tour of his spots and caught limits the first and third days. With daily weights of 13-11, 6-4 and 15-4, he made the final cut in third place and entered the final round with a sudden surge of optimism — compliments of a sunken tree he found jammed into an island tip.
“I found that tree on Day 3 of the tournament,” Jocumsen said. “With one hour to go, I was fishing an island and saw that tree on my Humminbird 360.
“That afternoon, I had four big ones for (approximately) 14 pounds. When I saw that tree, I just threw my jig at it, and on my very first cast, I caught a 3-pounder. When I landed it, I knew I’d be fishing (Day 4), so I just left.”
The decision
On Day 4, Jocumsen had planned to work his rotation and gradually fish his way over to that submerged tree. He actually began his day on plan, but a trust-the-gut decision payed huge dividends.
“On Day 4, I went to the main spot where I had started every morning and caught a good one — a 3 1/2-pound largemouth — like I had every morning,” Jocumsen said. “I was going to continue my rotation, but something told me to go right to that tree.
“It was about 30 minutes after takeoff when I got there, and I caught three good ones. I think it was those low-light conditions that made those fish bite the jig so well.”
Despite a quick flurry, Jocumsen said his tree bite stalled and forced him to give his milk run another shot. When that strategy failed to produce, a late-day return to his island tree delivered the kind of dramatic conclusion that keeps us watching this amazing sport.
“I went three hours without a bite (on that tree) and then I made a full rotation of my other spots and no bites,” Jocumsen recalled. “I went back to that tree and caught a 4 1/2-pound smallmouth. That was my fifth, and that’s when all of the emotion came out.”
Anyone watching Bassmaster LIVE saw this clutch catch alter much more than Jocumsen’s day.
Reflecting on the passion, drive and dreams he had held since childhood, Jocumsen said: “I had been waiting to catch that fish my whole life. I thought I’d won with that smallmouth, but my last fish was a 5-pounder, and I didn’t even know which fish to cull. It was crazy.”
Game changer
Jocumsen, who turned 35 on Championship Sunday and went on to marry Kayla two weeks later, sacked up a final-round total of 19-12 — the event’s heaviest bag. Tallying a four-day total of 54-12, Jocumsen edged Chris Zaldain by a margin of 3-10.
In his view, believing in that submerged tree played a key role in his final-round success. While the bass world saw the surface-level results, he alone experienced one of those gilded moments of angling intuition that helped complete a lifelong dream.
“I actually caught that big smallmouth off a stick to the side of the tree,” Jocumsen said. “I was trying to get near it with the jig and started winding in (the bait) and the jig hit the top of this one little twig.
“When I felt the jig hit it, I instinctively (free spooled) my reel and let the jig fall. That’s when the smallmouth grabbed it.”
Takeaway
Writing his name in the Bassmaster history book as the first Aussie to lift the coveted blue trophy, Jocumsen said his Tenkiller win provided a much-needed morale boost and mental clarity.
“The best part was that all of the setbacks, all of the brick walls in my way, all I had to endure, made sense,” he said. “Before I won, all the giant obstacles (of establishing a U.S. bass fishing career) didn’t make sense. When I won, I understood them all.
“All of those setbacks gave me the strength and mindset to not quit. They made me the person I had to be to win that day.”
Also important was Jocumsen’s commitment to swing big. Finishing in the bottom quarter of Bassmaster Angler of the Year points, he had nothing to lose — and a lot to gain.
“It was the last tournament of the season, and I did not have a chance to make the Classic, so I got the chance to fish risky,” Jocumsen said. “That’s why I only got four or five bites each day, but I landed them.”
