You’ve got to know when to hold them,
Know when to fold them,
Know when to walk away,
Know when to run.
These lyrics from the Kenny Rogers song “The Gambler” sum up the gamesmanship involved in Wal-Mart FLW Tour competition. Each angler must gamble on his weight and know when he has enough weight to hold or keep fishing. This type of atmosphere makes for an exciting tournament.
The Wal-Mart FLW Tour operates on a different format than most other tournaments. A full field of 150 professional anglers compete for two days. At the end of the second day, the top ten positioned anglers advance to a third day of competition. But, these 10 anglers begin the third day tied with no weight. It’s like starting another tournament! From top 10, the top five anglers advance to a fourth day of competition, again starting at zero. Winning a Wal-Mart FLW Tour tournament is quite a feat, which involves skill, a solid game plan, and a bit of luck.
After four years on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, four anglers seem have been more consistent than most in making it to the second round. These four include two Wal-Mart FLW Tour Anglers of the Year – David Walker and Denny Brauer – and two well known tournament veterans – Rick Clunn and David Fritts. Each has a different approach to competing within the FLW Tour format.
10 David Walker
David Walker’s image will grace the Wheaties cereal box this fall. The Cannon, Ky., angler secured the coveted Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year title after the Forrest Wood Open on Lake St. Clair last June. Besides a top 10 finish in that tournament, Walker earned his title by placing consistently high in the Wal-Mart FLW Tour standings throughout the year.
Along with having the highest point total for 1999, Walker also set another record. He has qualified for the second round of competition in more Wal-Mart FLW Tour tournaments than any other angler. In the four year history of the trail, Walker has made it to the second round an impressive 10 times!
“I don’t know exactly how I do it,” he says. “My style is to move, and run and gun. I’m the Tasmanian Devil out there.”
Walker says he prefers to fish shallow visible cover by flipping a Gambler Ninja Jig tipped with a soft plastic trailer. His trick is to fish the jigs fast and cover a lot of water. Often, Walker visits 50 -75 spots during the day. By covering real-estate, he says he can get the fish he needs to make the first cut.
Many top professional anglers spend a lot of time pre-fishing tournament waters. But Walker has a different approach to tournament practice. He doesn’t!
“I don’t practice a whole lot before a tournament,” he says. “I look for places during my practice days. I don’t even fish them. Come tournament day, I go to the places I found.”
Walker will also use the tournament for practice. He reviews the lake’s fisheries and past tournament weights. Then, he calculates the exact weight he thinks he will need to make it into the second round. Once he catches that pre-determined weight on each tournament day, he stops fishing and starts looking for more fishing spots.
“You keep going back to zero, so it’s like fishing three tournaments in a row,” says Walker. “With my style of fishing, I need lots of spots. If I know I’m still in it, I’ll practice fishing during the rest of the tournament.”
While Walker has the best record for making it into the second round, he has difficulty making the final, top-five cut. From his 10 second round appearances, Walker has only made the final round twice.
“It’s just weird,” he says of his lack of final five success.
Walker is quick to admit that his fishing style may contribute to his poor showing in the final round. Tournament fishing pressure on shallow water fish is often great. This pressure makes finishing high in a four day tournament difficult.
“Usually by the time the third day rolls around, I’ve run out of fish. I just haven’t been able to find visible cover where I can catch lots of fish. I guess I need to find deeper fish,” he says.
But Walker is not disappointed with his tournament results. Mr. Consistent 1999 is very proud of his Wal-Mart FLW Angler of the Year status. And he has no plans to drastically change his formula for success.
“In order to win, you’ve got to make the cut,” he says. “If I can catch 15 or 16 pounds each day, that puts me into position to win. Someday, I’m going to figure out a way to win one of these things.
8 Denny Brauer
Last fall, bass anglers and sports fans around the world saw Denny Brauer’s picture on the cover of the Wheaties cereal box. His picture put professional bass fishing into the same limelight as other sports, such as baseball, tennis, and golf. It was truly a great moment for the sport.
To earn his place in history, Brauer amassed the greatest number of points on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour to claim the 1998 Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year title. Part of Brauer’s success involves his ability to make it to the second round in Wal-Mart FLW Tour tournaments. Over the past four years, Brauer qualified for the second round eight times -second only to this year’s Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year, David Walker.
“Actually, I’m disappointed that I haven’t been in the top ten more often,” Brauer says. “I guess I’m so used to cumulative weight tournaments that I haven’t figured out how to deal with the FLW format.”
Brauer says the key to his past tournament placings was good practice periods. He likes to study lake charts and prepare his gear for the tournament. This preparation gives him a solid game plan.
However, this past season has taken a toll on Brauer’s success. He is still one of the nation’s top competitors, but dividing his time between tournaments, his television show, and sponsor commitments leaves him little time to prepare for tournaments.
“I need to organize my time a little better, it’s tough when you have to use some of your practice time for tackle preparation.”
Brauer’s mainstay tactic is flipping shallow cover for bass. His skill often nets heavy limits, which catapult him into the second round. Yet, Brauer has had some difficulty making the final round. In his eight second round showings, he has advanced only three times.
“I’ve been close,” he says. “When you’re dealing with shallow water fish, you’re not dealing with loads of fish. You are looking at patterns. And it’s tough to have a pattern hold up for three or four days. Sooner or later, I’ll get onto the right pattern.”
7 David Fritts
David Fritts has many records from his Operation Bass career. He qualified for the Red Man All-American five times – a feat matched by only one other angler. Fritts is also the all-time money winner on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, having won three tournaments in one season.
Fritts’ success comes from his well-planned approach to fishing cut-type tournaments. It all starts at home before he even visits the tournament waters, Fritts says. He starts with 10 -12 different baits he thinks will work well in the tournament.
“A lot of times it takes two or three days to find the one bait that is going to work,” Fritts says. He works through the different baits to find the right size, color, and diving depth.
But his Wal-Mart FLW Tour winning performance goes beyond picking the right lure. His game plan involves a complex formula to catch and conserve fish. This plan often changes with each day of the tournament.
“I go out on the first day and try to catch 16-20 pounds because most of the time it takes around 30 pounds to make the cut,” he says. “Then I let the first day dictate what I have to catch.”
Fritts adds that once he obtains his desired weight, he stops fishing and goes practicing. He says he looks for patterns or slight changes in the existing patterns. The in-tournament practice has paid off for Fritts. He says pattern changes he has discovered during in-tournament practices have helped him win three Wal-Mart FLW events.
“If you are on fish, you know what you can catch. I catch what I need and try not to burn up my fish.” A lot of times you catch what you need, like 15 or 16 pounds, really quick. And then you just start experimenting.”
To prevent overfishing, Fritts likes to have three or four areas with large concentrations of fish. If such places aren’t available, he tries to find 10 -12 areas where he can catch one or two fish each day.
“I look for isolated spots away from the bank,” he says. “Most anglers don’t structure fish. In the summertime, you cut the field down to 10 or 20 anglers by fishing off the bank.”
If all works according to plan – and it has in seven Wal-Mart FLW Tour tournaments where Fritts has advanced into the second round – he begins to strategize on how to make the final five round.
“I go back and look at the first two days and look at what was caught,” says Fritts. “I look at what it took to make fifth place and then set my personal goal about 1-2 pounds higher.”
Fritts’ third day strategy has been highly successful. From the seven top 10 cuts, Fritts has advanced into five final rounds. On the final day of each tournament, Fritts goes for the win. By this time, he has perfected his pattern. And it is a safe bet that Fritts can win the tournament if he makes it into the final round.
Of his five final round appearances, Fritts has won three Wal-Mart FLW Tour tournaments and finished second in the other two!
“The FLW is a go for broke tournament.” I gamble a little more and take more chances. I think that’s what it takes to win.”
7 Rick Clunn
For 25 years, Rick Clunn has held the respect and admiration of bass anglers across the country. His ability to find bass in every conceivable fishing situation continues to awe spectators and competitors alike. And his super track record for making the second round cut on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour further amplifies Clunn’s reputation.
Clunn has qualified for the second round an impressive seven times. He has advanced into the final round five times – winning one event and taking second place twice. For Clunn, success comes from three key elements – mind, body, and soul.
“I approach the tournaments like I do the martial arts,” Clunn says. “You have to have the physical stamina, the mental abilities, and the heart. If any element is missing, you aren’t going to do well.”
While physical stamina is fairly obvious, mental abilities and heart go beyond the superficial. Besides possessing a strong knowledge of bass fishing, anglers must be able to control their thought process and overcome preconceived notions to advance into the second round. Clunn adds, that anglers must also have the mental faculties to overcome adversity. This takes a lot of heart. Clunn does not subscribe to the “holding back” theory. Many anglers try to catch just enough fish to make the second round. They “hold back” so as not to overfish areas that may hold concentrations of weighty bass.
“You must maximize what you can do on the water, regardless of what others are doing,” Clunn says. “You don’t have any room for error. You can’t be conservative.”
Clunn believes there is a danger in holding back. If an angler sets his first day weight limit too low, he could end up too far behind to catch up on the second day. Clunn prefers to push his weight as high as possible right from the start.
To stress his point, Clunn ran statistics on the first two years of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour. He discovered that two-thirds of the anglers with the highest weight totals on the first two days went on to win the entire event.
“With this cut deal, we are more concerned about tenth instead of first,” Clunn says. “That’s dangerous. The danger is that you are setting limitations. And, if you’re not careful, you are going to set the limitations to the minimum.”
Clunn says, as humans, if we continue to set goals too low, we might just achieve them and come up short in the tournament. It may also be difficult on the final day to change from the “just making the cut” ideology to concentrating on winning the tournament.
“If all you think about is making the cut, when you’ve got to switch to think to win, mentally you can get caught in a trap,” Clunn says. His theory is to go for the win from the first day. Hold nothing back.
“I’ll be honest, I don’t think I’ve mastered the FLW format yet,” says Clunn. “But if I make the top 10, I feel, I know, I’ve got a good chance. You only have to beat five guys one day and four the next. There’s not too many odds better than that.”
Clunn also believes the key to winning is positive thinking. One must overcome problems and bad situations. There is no time to fret. Too many anglers dwell on the bad, a thought process that takes away from one’s mental abilities and heart to win.
“There is a misconception that good anglers don’t have them (bad thoughts). We do. The difference is how we react to them.” The key is how you overcome the negative thoughts and don’t obsess on them. You must override them with positive opportunities.”
Making the second and final rounds are those “positive opportunities.”