It’s hard to give a simple assessment of John Crews’ 2022 Bassmaster Elite Series season.
On one hand, the 20-year pro from Salem, Va., won the season-opener on the St. Johns River in wire-to-wire fashion. It was the 44-year-old’s second Elite title, the first coming 12 years ago on the California Delta.
“It was very fulfilling to win that tournament,” Crews said during a break from guest hosting Bassmaster LIVE for the St. Croix Bassmaster Northern Open on Upper Chesapeake Bay. “That was a huge deal. The Elites are so hard to win. Any Elite (win) is very emotional.”
On the other hand, Crews, saying it was hard to refocus the very next week after his victory, followed with a 76th-place finish at Florida’s Harris Chain. It started a run of eight events where he failed to make a two-day cut, and he missed qualifying for the 2023 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic.
“The fact that I missed the Classic makes it extremely disappointing,” Crews said. “I feel like I didn’t deserve to make the Classic, because I never fished consistently well. I fish consistently decent.”
Crews knows decent doesn’t cut it. To gain a berth, an Elite needs to finish in the top 39 of the 94-man field. With double qualifiers, that mark has moved down to No. 44, where Shane LeHew stands with 492 points — that’s an average finish of 47th. Crews finished 61 points back of that, and he laments that he could have made up the difference by making several cuts.
So it wasn’t an awful season, Crews said, because he was close to making the two-day cut in most of the tournaments — he finished between 48th and 59th six times. Yet with no other cuts and a poor finish at Pickwick Lake (81st), he ended the year 60th in points to miss making his 14th Classic.
“Historically, I’ve had a lot of good Day 3s,” he said. “I feel like I learn a lot, and I’m able to make that work as the days go. I never had another opportunity other than the St. Johns.
“The second day at Pickwick, I could not get anything going. I only had three keepers. It was really frustrating. I don’t think I was doing the wrong things; it was just timing. But the rest of the year, I felt I was consistently decent. I just never quite got the right bites in order to make Day 3.”
With so many finishes just outside the cut, Crews said he can look back at several fish that might have made for a major difference. At Lake Oahe, he lost a big one and finished 48th, just 2 ounces from the cut weight. At Chickamauga, Crews said he lost a 3-pounder at the boat that cost him the cut. He said the margins to success are slim.
“We’re talking a one-bite difference,” he said. “At this top level, and even in the Opens, one bite is just über important. So you have to focus from takeoff to check-in every second of the entire day, stay tuned into what’s going on.
“I typically fish really clean. I don’t lose a ton of fish, but if you fish, you’re going to lose a percentage of them. I’ve said when you lose one that cost you the cut, you weren’t catching them good enough anyway. When you lose one that cost you the tournament, that’s bad luck. It was maybe just not meant to be.”
The big takeaway from his season of mixed results is that Crews said he won’t try to force bites by doing things that aren’t in his wheelhouse. He’s already looking forward to 2023, calculating the schedule and what could possibly be happening at each of the fisheries.
The 2023 Elite season blasts off in February with back-to-back events in Florida on lakes where Crews has had mixed results. He’d like to post solid finishes at Lake Okeechobee and Lake Seminole to start a run to the Classic. If not, he’d certainly take another win like at St. Johns. It did make his season.
“The silver lining is definitely the win. They’re so hard to win,” Crews said. “I’m really, really, really proud of that blue trophy. It means a ton to win, especially a place I’ve done well before. I finally dialed in the key to the scenario there.
“The St. Johns is a special place to me, a special place historically in bass fishing, and now my name is going to always be associated with it and that’s awesome.”