Last year was my fourth season on the Bass Pro Tour, and each year I have been able to build on my performance and improve in the Angler of the Year standings. After all was said and done this year, I ended up in fourth place in the points, which surprised me but really helps my confidence going into the new season.
I’ve been asked a bunch about my year and what my secret was ending with those five straight Top 10s. Honestly, I can’t pinpoint exactly what I did differently, but I focused on my strengths this year and didn’t overthink things, which are two things I plan to continue when we head to Lake Guntersville in January. I’ve been so focused on deer hunting this fall that I haven’t even given 2026 much thought yet, but it will here before we know it, and I’m slowly starting to look ahead to the new season.
A good schedule for my strengths
The 2025 season was perfect for fishing shallow, which is something I love to do. It let me stop worrying about the forward-facing sonar deal at every event, thinking I was missing out on something. That helped me a lot.
I don’t mind utilizing forward-facing sonar; it was how I started last year at Lake Conroe and gave me a good event to build some momentum. But the rest of the year was fishing in the dirt. Flipping and frogging were things I could do just about everywhere we went. I don’t know if I’ll have a schedule set up that well for me again, but the lesson this year was to fish your strengths wherever you go.
Lost in the debate about forward-facing sonar is how hard it is to practice. On the Bass Pro Tour, we only have two days of practice, and it can be hard to dial in that bite on a big lake – especially if you’re also worried about finding a bite for the other two periods a day. I think the new rule changes last year threw a lot of guys for a loop, because you know forward-facing sonar is going to be a player at some events, and if you don’t get it dialed in during practice, you’re going to be at a disadvantage.
My strategy last season is something that I’ll do again this year, and that’s to spend most of my practice figuring out the ‘Scope bite if I think that’s going to be a player. Then, when I go shallow, I can fish by the seat of my pants, because I feel so comfortable doing that. If I don’t see it being a big player, I can spend my whole practice looking for things up shallow.
Finding my fish
This tour is all about strategy, and the new rules last year limiting forward-facing sonar made that even more important. For me, the rule change actually simplified my strategy, allowing me to focus on my strengths without getting too caught up in everything else.
The other big thing this year was seeking out bites that made sense for me. A good example of that was the frog bite some of us got on at Heavy Hitters on Smith Mountain Lake. It was throwing a frog around bluff walls and trees, which is something we’ve done around home for years. That was right up my alley, and immediately when I found it, I knew what I was going to do for the whole tournament. That’s my plan for next year: Find the fish I want to catch and fish to my strengths.
I don’t know if I’ll be able to repeat my success next year, but I’ll be going into the season with more confidence than ever before. That’s such a big deal in this game. I know my strengths are up shallow, and I know that bite can put me in contention to win in this format. I don’t mind the offshore stuff, but if I can find a shallow bite somewhere, you’ll find me there every time.