Finishing one fish short from a Classic title doesn’t haunt Paul Mueller, and his weight record in the championship is far from the biggest thing in his life — God is.
In fact, his “Lord and savior” was the topic of discussion when lightning struck at the 2014 Bassmaster Classic on Lake Guntersville. Mueller landed three big fish in a Day 2 flurry on his way to the single-day record of 32 pounds, 3 ounces. The B.A.S.S. Nation qualifier followed up with a stellar Sunday but ended up second, 1 pound behind winner Randy Howell.
“There’s certain days you try your best and nothing goes right,” Mueller said. “The deal with that day, I could do no wrong. It just happened. It was the best day of fishing I’ve ever had.
“The three biggest fish I caught that day came within an 8-minute span. The guy that I was fishing with, his BASSTrakk was messing up. ‘I don’t know what to do.’ I was like, ‘I don’t either. I’m going to fish.’”
Already with a decent limit, Mueller said he was relaxed as he and his Marshal were having a conversation about God.
“He was telling me he was a recovering alcoholic and that had he not turned to God, he would have … he probably would have been dead,” Mueller said. “I was telling him things that God has done in my life, then all of the sudden, 7-pounder, 8-pounder, 6-pounder. We’re looking at each other, ‘What just happened there?’ It was just one of those moments.
“There’s a lot of moments when you don’t feel that strong a presence of God when you’re fishing a tournament, but there are pivotal times in my career where that’s happened. That was one of those days.”
Nowhere to go but up
Appearing in his first Classic, Mueller admits he might have been a touch starstruck when he attended events with the 54 other anglers in Birmingham in late February.
“That was my first Classic,” he said. “I never had fished against those guys. I grew up watching and admiring a lot of those guys in that tournament, then you’re thrown into a tournament fishing against them. The Bassmaster Classic is the biggest event in fishing, period. But when you actually compete in it, you have a whole new perspective as to how big it actually is.”
As a 29-year-old from Connecticut, Mueller was out of his element, but, as evidenced by Bryan Kerchal, fishing can be a funny game. It was 20 years earlier that Kerchal won the 1994 Classic after qualifying through the Nation. Mueller, although a long shot, knew he had a chance to follow suit. He had scouted the famed big bass fishery in December, mapping almost the entire lake, and felt comfortable about how he would fish.
A huge rainstorm on the eve of competition dirtied his areas, and Mueller said Guntersville is not a lake one can waste time running spots. Getting an early strike from a 5-pounder on his lipless crankbait fooled him a bit, and then he tried to force feed them.
“When you’re fishing a tournament, time goes by fast. When you’re fishing the Classic, time goes by even faster,” he said, adding he didn’t capitalize on limited bites. “The biggest mistake I made was being stubborn and sticking with what I was doing in practice and not making the adjustments I needed to make, which was switching over to the ChatterBait.”
It was disappointing to end his first day in a Classic with only three fish for 9-10, which put him in 47th. With the lost bites, he said he might have had around 16 pounds but would still have been in the middle of the pack. He was in scramble mode on Saturday, where his only goal was to try to climb inside the top 25 cut and fish Sunday.
“On Day 2, you got nothing to lose,” he said. “You have to evaluate what you did wrong the first day. You have a night to think about it. You just try to figure out. It’s all theory. You have things you may try. You just start thinking the different scenarios and what you can do.”
As he sat in his boat pondering his position before takeoff, Mueller fiddled with tackle and thought ChatterBait, rigging five different setups with different trailers. The first had a creature bait, but he didn’t like how it looked in the water. What he thought looked right was his 3/8 Original Pro Elite ChatterBait with a Reins 4-inch Fat Rockvibe Shad in the glow white silver color.
An early 4-pounder showed his instincts were right. He worked it slowly through eelgrass and hydrilla in a creek channel off the main river. He said the key was the water had cleared some, helping him to a bag topping 25 pounds when his big flurry happened around 11:30.
Getting on the map
The middle fish of Mueller’s 8-minute flurry was an 8-2, just two ounces shy of tying for big bass of the event. At the time, it was the biggest bass he’d ever caught.
“To catch that in the Bassmaster Classic at a pivotal moment, it was just one of those days,” he said.
Yet after those culls, Mueller wasn’t quite certain exactly what weight he had but thought about calling it a day. He left that spot and went to another where he pulled in a bass close to 7 pounds.
“I don’t know if I could get more weight. I’ve got over 30 pounds,” he said. “I don’t even know if I should fish anymore. I could do no wrong that day. It was a day I’ll never forget.”
When Mueller arrived at the check-in before the drive to Birmingham, this author approached his unwrapped Ranger in the bump line and asked him how he did. Mueller, beaming with pride, said he thought he had more than 30 pounds. The crew filming the live First Take was summoned, and Mueller talked about his day and showed his best fish, smiling all the way.
“Of course you’re all smiles,” he said. “It was my first Classic, and it’s just a dream to make one. To have a good day and be in the mix going into the final day, that’s why you do it. It’s special.”
While his record total was 5 pounds more than any other bag after two days, Randy Howell busted 29-2 on Sunday to take the title with 67-8, the second heaviest total in Classic history. Mueller’s total stands third after he posted one of the biggest Day 3 bags at 24-11, leaving him a pound back with 66-8.
While the Classic record is quite the accomplishment, Mueller said he’d much rather be announced as champion.
“I’m not someone to really brag about it. Somebody may say it and it reminds me I have it, but honestly, I don’t really think about it too much,” he said. “You’ll never forget the day of fishing, but as far as the record, nah. Now if you can get that title …”
Hoopla aside, Mueller said taking second place helped propel his career. He’s certain a number of his clients have booked him because he made a name for himself in the championship and helped ingrain him further in the fishing industry.
“That day was very important for my whole career, my guide service. That kind of put me on the map,” he said. “Even though I didn’t lead and finish with a first, I think it was the most impactful second-place finish you could have. I was doing pretty good guiding, but it brought guiding to another level.”
With faith, there’s no regrets
There have been other tournament occurrences that might haunt Mueller, but the 2014 Classic isn’t among them, especially since he was basically out of it after the first day. His previous best day competing was 29 pounds, so to rally back and cash a $45,000 paycheck was a Godsend. He said he never thinks about the what-ifs.
“No. This is the biggest reason. I realized that God’s plan was for Randy to win that tournament,” Mueller said. “He had one of those days where he was going somewhere and he turned around. He had no idea. That was God’s plan. When you’re in tune, you don’t question God’s plan.
“I don’t have nightmares over it. ‘One fish. Wow! What would that have done for my career?’ That doesn’t cross my mind. I believe in God’s plan. I know His plan is the best, and I know I’m going to have another crack at it. It might not be this one, it may be another one. You never know when that is. But I know that it can happen at any one of these, just like an Elite can happen. I know with God all things are possible.”
Mueller, who won his first Elite event in 2019 at Lake Lanier, does have another shot at it after qualifying for the 2020 Academy Sports + Outdoors Bassmaster Classic presented by Huk. It will be his third Classic appearance. He won the Eastern Division in the 2014 B.A.S.S. Nation Championship to earn a return trip to the 2015 Classic on Lake Hartwell, where he finished 12th.
It’s somewhat of a coincidence the 50th anniversary Classic is back at Lake Guntersville, March 6-8. Mueller admits Big G doesn’t fit his style of fishing, and that it’s later in the year falls even further out of his preferred tactics. Even more unsettling is the June 2019 Elite there — he fell to 68th place and missed the cut after leading.
“It’s not like I have a tremendous amount of confidence there. I led after Day 1 and blanked on Day 2, so to say I had a handle on it?” he said, noting reports that he must have been dialed in. “I was laughing at that. I only had 7, 8 bites. It showed I clearly don’t have that lake figured out. I don’t have a game plan.”
Yet he will get one, again planning to pre-practice with hopes he can once again catch lightning in a bottle. He said his mindset is simply to work as hard as he can and let the chips fall where they may.
“You can’t dwell on bad finishes, on missed opportunities. If you do that, it can snowball in a negative direction,” he said. “This is my motto: God is in control of all my circumstances, good and bad.”