MICHAEL NEAL: This offseason is a pause, not a reset

In 2021, I was still searching for my first tour-level win after 10 years fishing the top levels of bass fishing. Close call after close call eventually led to a Bass Pro Tour win in the final event of the season at Lake St. Clair. That capped off a year I also won Angler of the Year on the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit.

Going into the 2021-22 offseason, it was the first time in my career I was able to truly take a breather and feel confident going into the next season. Instead of hitting the reset button, I was able to hit the pause button – I had gotten that monkey off my back and felt like there was nothing stopping me from winning again once the next season picked back up.

I won again to start the 2022 Pro Circuit season at Sam Rayburn and went on to win another AOY at the Pro Circuit level. And I think the way I mentally approached that offseason was the key to keeping the ball rolling through the few months of down time between tournaments.

This year, I’m hitting the pause button again.

When I end the season with one or two bad tournaments, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth and makes it harder to step away for a few months. I dwell on the lack of confidence and momentum. I still stay away from bass fishing, for the most part, but mentally, it’s hard to not want a full reset – to feel like I need to forget last season and start from scratch.

The 2024 Bass Pro Tour season was starting to feel like the same old story: multiple second-place finishes. So close, but still so far away. I was starting to wonder again if that was just going to be the way it goes for me. Then, I won Stage Seven at the St. Lawrence River. And just like in 2021, I’m entering an offseason with a taste of winning instead of the bitter taste of coming up short.

Some guys are all bass fishing, all the time. Not me. In the offseason, the only rod I regularly pick up is a crappie rod, and I’m usually spending my time harvesting corn and soybeans, taking care of the tackle shop, deer hunting and spending time with my wife (who probably feels neglected the other nine months out of the year while I’m on the road for tournaments). When the season ends on a bad note, that’s my reset. When it ends on a win, it’s a way for me to just not do anything to screw up my momentum and confidence.

Confidence in making the right decisions at the right moments is what equals success to me. If you don’t have the confidence to make the right decision when your gut tells you to make them, that’s the big problem, and that can happen a lot when you’re fishing all the time – especially in the fall and winter when everything is so different from when we’re usually fishing our tournaments. I’d rather spend a few months reflecting on a win and preserving my confidence of knowing I made the right decisions at the right times and am capable of doing that again when the season starts back up.

After a win, you want to pick up where you left off. You just want to pause everything right there, don’t do anything to negatively impact it and then hit the play button again at the start of next year. That’s what I’m trying to do this offseason. 

I’ll need to do some preparation at some point, but I’m also the kind of person who puts things off until the last minute. I don’t prepare at all until the week before the tournament. If anything, I prefer to stay away from that pause button and not start it back too soon. Once I push the play button, it’s time to get back to work.

Luckily, I don’t feel the need to push play. That time will come when I’m prepping tackle and breaking in my new Mercury and making sure I have everything I need for Stage One at Lake Conroe in January. Until then, bass fishing will be out of sight and out of mind for me.

This year, I’m okay with that, because I know when the 2025 season starts I’ll be picking up right where I left off. You’re only as good as your last finish in this sport, and I’ve got a good one to build off. All that’s left now is to enjoy the offseason and stay away from the play button for as long as possible.