GARNETT, Kan. – Everything was perfect.
As Brent Chapman eased down with his back against a cottonwood tree, he couldn’t help but remark about how well everything was coming together for an early-morning turkey hunt. After two days of driving through the storms that plagued the Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett, he was on his home turf and it was finally calm.
It was a crisp 50 degrees with no wind after a day of nasty Kansas-style storms: A tailor-made morning to call up a turkey. But all the perfection in the world wasn’t enough to make a gobbler sound off from his roost on Chapman’s farm near Garnett, Kan.
Sitting with his back to a tree overlooking the perfect scenario and nothing happening was a similar scenario to the past five years in bass fishing for Chapman. Ironically, the hunt would play out much like his fishing career of late.
On a slow, quiet morning in the turkey woods, the question on the current state of Brent Chapman and bass fishing had to be asked: “What’s happened to you in the past five years?”
“I don’t know what’s happened, honestly,’’ Chapman whispered quietly, fearing he would make too much noise and hoping a turkey would gobble in the distance. “I think I got too consumed by the business. I think we can only do so much stuff. And the reality of it is, we have too much stuff on our plate, and it became too much like work.
“And then a lost fish here or there; then a bad tournament can really lead you down the wrong path. I think that’s what’s happened. My head kind of got out of the game.
“But I feel like we’ve turned a corner. In fact, I’ve got my head back on straight, and we’ve simplified some things.
“I’m hoping the old Brent Chapman is back.”
If you paid any attention to the Ross Barnett event, it might be obvious that he is at least on his way to that corner. Chapman finished 12th in that event after a dismal start to the season. He’s followed two missed cuts with a 35th at Toledo Bend and the final-day cut at Ross Barnett.
“We are always working on different parts of our game, whether it’s learning a new technique, a new bait, some hot new lure,’’ Chapman continued, whispering, “but at the end of the day, our sport at this level is a mental game.
“I went to Cherokee, didn’t quite have the tournament I was hoping to have. Went to Okeechobee with really high hopes of having a good tournament: If nothing else, getting a check and turning the season around. I went to Okeechobee, had a great first day, was in the top 30, thought I pretty much had a check wrapped up.
“I mean, I thought how hard could it be to go catch 10 pounds the next day and be fishing on Saturday? I went out and I caught 9 1/2-pounds and missed the money cut. At that point, I realized I had to do something different. The final punch in the gut for me was Okeechobee.”
That punch left Chapman reeling. It came after a string of eight events with no checks. It came after leading the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year race following the first two events in 2016 and then failing to even make the Bassmaster Classic. “Who does that?” Chapman would ask.
All of it came after winning the Angler of the Year in 2012, having a decent 2013 season, but since struggling to regain his balance.
How does an Elite angler recover from all that?
“This is where I’ll tell you I found someone to chat with,” Chapman said in a louder voice, following it up with a laugh, all pretenses of fooling a turkey now gone. “I had to get my head on straight. So we’ve taken fishing to a whole other level.”
If the perfect quiet morning wasn’t quiet enough, even the wildlife seemed to be listening.
The obvious question, “Is this a mentor, or is this more of a spiritual thing?”
“No,’’ he replied, “a sports psychologist type of person.”
“It was Gerald Swindle’s recommendation. Gerald and I were both sitting at Okeechobee on Saturday pouting, kind of how we do on Saturdays when we don’t make the cut. Gerald can always make you laugh. Make you feel better.”
“We are both sitting there and shooting the breeze. He said, ‘You need to talk to this buddy of mine.’”
That buddy is someone Swindle refers to as a “mind coach.” Much has been said and written about Swindle in the last year and his positive mental attitude, especially after he won the AOY race last season. Swindle’s “PMA” seminars are a hit all over the country. He’s not bashful about why a coach would be so beneficial.
“This is a mental game 100 percent of the time,’’ Swindle said, as he drove from the beach to home after several days of just ‘pulling away’ from the game to regroup. “We all have the best equipment money can buy. We have the best depth finders and know how to read them, the best of everything. The only difference between any of us when we get in the boat is our mindset. That’s the only thing we can’t buy, the only thing we can’t get sponsored.”
Swindle said he’s often jealous of the younger guns on the Elite Series because they are so unencumbered by sponsor responsibilities and other parts of life. He noted several anglers who have had life-changing events that basically have their fishing career paths in a funk; everything from kids to tragedy to politics on the water.
“Just having the ability to think of nothing but fishing is something I long for,’’ he said. “But it can’t be that way. You have to deal with those other things every day as well. You just have to keep them in order. Because the fishing industry will eat you up. If you let those things get in your head then you dig a hole and you can’t get out. You let the industry control you and it just gobbles you up.
“It was obvious that Brent needed some help out of a hole and he was willing to take it.”
Chapman backs that up with the revelation that it was no more than a day or two before he was on the phone talking to his mind coach.
“I’ve got to say, he’s really turned things around. He’s analyzed 2012. He’s talked to me about that. Why was 2012 so good? What’s happened since then? Here’s what we need to do to change things and turn things around. Since I’ve been working with him, two events in a row, I feel like we’ve turned a corner, and I’m on the right track again.”
In a world of secret lures, secret techniques and secret locations, the openness of the revelations were borderline stunning. That’s how Chapman has always been – to the chagrin of some sponsors – honest to a fault.
He will be the first to admit, not everything has gone perfectly. At Ross Barnett he went into the final day in sixth place, but only managed two keepers for 3 pounds, 12 ounces to drop to 12th place. It would be easy to assume after three days of stellar fishing, interrupted by a storm, followed by a picture perfect morning (all eerily similar to the turkey hunt) when nothing would bite for him, that Chapman might start slipping into that dark place once again.
“Even if I didn’t catch a fish that last day, I was going to be content because I knew I was going to finish 12th or higher,” Chapman said.
“It’s different in those first couple days. Like at Okeechobee, I’m in 30th place or 25th place after the first day, and then you fall. That’s where it’s a real kick to the gut. Even if I finished last, I was still OK with that. I knew I was going to get good points, get a good paycheck, it’s been a good turning point for me to get my points back around to be where I want them to be going in to the rest of the season.
“I mean, with the rest of the season, there’s nothing that says I couldn’t win Angler of the Year at this point.”
That last statement is a far cry from the mental attitude, probably more aptly described as anguish, Chapman had at the end of last season and the start of this one. After his stellar finish at Ross Barnett, he’s currently in 33rd in the AOY race, up from 75th following Okeechobee.
Where the last few seasons it seemed as if the bad snowballed on him, this season’s new approach has him thinking about things differently and, crazily enough, things are working out, even on a turkey hunt.
“I still had to keep my faith and realize that it’s all about the man upstairs and what he really wants us to do, and he’s in control,” Chapman said. “So I didn’t want to completely change things, you know what I mean? You got to have faith.
“And you have to have good friends. Gerald (Swindle) was kind enough to try and help me. I owe him a big thanks.”
Chapman finished up those lines with a question.
“This is some phenomenal turkey hunting, isn’t it? It’s a beautiful day, but it would be nice if one would pop out down here and start gobbling.”
In true form to how things are changing for Chapman. Less than 30 minutes after making that statement there were five gobblers standing 20 yards in front of him, seemingly more intent on hearing the rest of the conversation than answering any calls.
At least one of those five won’t read this story.