Carl Maxfield of Summerville, S.C., qualified for his first of four Red Man All-Americans in 1985. In that, his rookie season on the Red Man Tournament Trail, Maxfield almost won the All-American. He led the first day before finishing third at Lake Havasu, Ariz.
Members of the bass club at Charleston Air Force Base in Charleston, S.C., were not surprised when their former bass club member proved he could compete on the national level. After all, Maxfield was a regular winner at tournaments on the club’s home waters, Santee Cooper. The transplanted Tennessean had fished the twin lakes of Santee Cooper almost daily since 1971, and he had learned well how to catch hefty limits of bass.
Bolstered by the confidence that he gained through his All-American appearances, Maxfield focused on his dream of becoming a full-time bass competitor on the national tournament tour. It was a dream he had been nurturing since the 1970s when he first began to read about big-time bass tournaments.
Proceeding cautiously, Maxfield made sure that he was prepared physically, mentally and financially before he began to devote full-time to bass competition in 1991. Since that time, he has consistently finished in the money on bass waters around the country.
Bass Fishing: Who got you hooked on bass fishing?
Maxfield: My dad, John. I grew up in the mountains of east Tennessee at Bristol. My older brother, Dave (now an Operation Bass tournament director), my younger brother, Tim, and I are all bass fishing nuts.
Growing up, my dad seldom fished for anything else but bass, and we always used artificial lures, mostly jigs and top-water lures.
We caught plenty of nice smallmouth from the mountain lakes around our home. There aren’t any smallmouth bass in my home waters of Santee Cooper. So, I really get excited when I fish a tournament on Michigan’s Lake St. Clair or New York’s Lake Champlain where there are bunches of smallmouth.
Bass Fishing: How did you end up living in the low country of South Carolina and how has it affected your fishing?
Maxfield: After I graduated from high school, I joined the Air Force. In 1971, I was stationed at Charleston Air Force Base. I had read about the great bass fishing at Santee Cooper while growing up. So, I was thrilled to be there.
I fell in love with Santee Cooper and the surrounding area. I met a local, Ed Belken, and we became close friends.
Ed loves the outdoors as much as I do. We bass fished Santee Cooper. We netted shrimp out of Charleston Harbor. We caught redfish and speckled trout from the surrounding salt marshes. For me, it was a great place to live.
In 1976, the Air Force was getting ready to transfer me to Japan. I couldn’t leave Santee Cooper. So, I got out. By 1980, I was guiding on the lake.
Since becoming a national touring pro, I have realized that Santee Cooper was the best school I could have ever gone to in order to develop my bass fishing skills. The two lakes (Marion and Moultrie) have all kinds of different cover and structure to fish. You can fish riprap, stumps, cypress trees, brush piles, lily pads, willow trees, channel ledges, flats, a swamp and a river.
Before they poisoned all the hydrilla, I learned how to fish grass. The grass-fishing experience still helps me when I fish a number of lakes around the country with vegetation.
The twin lakes are massive and the surrounding terrain is flat. So, I learned how to drive a bass boat through deep waves and how to navigate shallow flats.
We do have four seasons here. So, you learn about seasonal migrations and patterns that you can rely on when fishing lakes across the country.
Bass Fishing: During the past year, your tournament finishes have dramatically improved, what adjustments have you made?
Maxfield: I’ve got everything in order now with my sponsors and my business.
I also realized that since turning pro, I have set my goals too low. Instead of trying to accomplish what I really wanted, I was concentrating on just finishing high enough in each tournament to qualify for the year-end championships.
Now, I focus on doing what I need to do in order to win. I take more chances.
For example, at a recent tournament on Alabama’s Lake Martin, I knew I could catch a limit of spotted bass by casting a worm on a jig-head, but I knew I couldn’t win by doing that.
Instead, I chose to cast a spinnerbait. I knew I wouldn’t get as many strikes, but I also knew that the bass I did catch would be bigger. I finished second.
At the last Wal-Mart FLW tournament on Kentucky Lake, I knew I could cast a crankbait on the ledges and weigh a limit of 12 to 14 pounds. I also knew a lot of other competitors would match that weight. So, I chose a flipping rod and a jig. I knew that I would only get 6 to 8 bites a day, but the fish would average 5 pounds apiece. I finished seventh.
When you make decisions like that, you have to be mentally tough. You leave the dock knowing that you won’t catch as many bass as some of the other people.
Your rods, reels, everything has to be perfect, because you can’t afford to miss even one bite. You have to concentrate harder than when you’re catching numbers of 2-pounders. When you’re fishing for the winning bass, one missed opportunity can drop you 20 places or more in the standings.
Bass Fishing: How do you rate the competition today compared to 10 years ago?
Maxfield: I don’t see how the competition can get any tougher. There are so many new kids competing today. They have plenty of money and plenty of backing. And they have one goal and that is to succeed as a professional tournament fisherman.
The young guys are willing to make the necessary sacrifices. At the Ranger Millennium tournament, I was talking to Aaron Martens, a young pro from California, and he told me that he had been away from home for four months.
Irwin Jacobs and Operation Bass are luring new people into tournament competition. Jacobs makes some bold moves, but it has been good for fishing. He makes it happen today, not someday.
Bass Fishing: What advice would you give a young person who wants to be a bass pro?
Maxfield: I would tell him or her to first get an education. Successful tournament fishing is a business, and you have to be able to deal with that end of it as well as catch bass.
Next, get your finances in order. You can’t do well fishing on scared money. If you have to win to get home, the pressure will crush you.
I would tell the young person to have enough money saved up to pay all of his expenses for one year, including his household expenses, because you may not win a dime during that first year.
Bass Fishing: Do you think the pro and co-angler format of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour circuit gives a young person a chance to make a smoother transition into professional fishing?
Maxfield: I believe so. A young person who begins as a co-angler gets a chance to know the pros without having to spend a lot of money. The pros watch the co-anglers and get to know them, too.
Rick Clunn and I were talking about co-anglers, and we agreed that the most successful co-anglers are the ones whom you never see. By that, I mean the co-anglers who quietly do their own thing from the back of the boat, usually, do the best. Successful co-anglers read the water and realize what the pro is missing. Then, they capitalize on what is available for them to fish.
I believe one of the most important things that a co-angler can do is to fish a lure that he has confidence in. If you don’t have confidence in a jig, cast a spinnerbait. If you don’t like spinnerbait fishing, use a Carolina rig.
The co-anglers fish hard. They have their own championship to make. They help keep me fishing hard. I don’t want my co-angler to beat me, but it happens.
The co-anglers that I have fished with have acted very professionally. Some of them are concentrating so hard, they hardly say anything. Others ask me for advice and sometimes my advice helps them.
The co-anglers range from 16 years old to 75 years old. They come from all walks of life, but we all share the same basic love for bass fishing. For example, if I’m pitching a jig to bushes, my co-angler may opt to cast a little crankbait in order to catch bass that are staging on shallow, submerged cover outside the bushes.
Bass Fishing: Your son, Michael, and nephew, Carl Maxfield Jr., are also competing in bass tournaments aren’t they?
Maxfield: My brother Dave’s son is fishing Red Man tournaments now. Last year (1999) he won his first Red Man tournament.
My son, Michael, who is 26 years old, is fishing as a co-angler on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour. He made the money in his very first tournament. (2000 Lake Okeechobee event.)
Michael stays with me at the tournaments, and he practices with me. We’re having a lot of fun.
My daughter, Mandy, attends Columbia College. She wants to be a teacher. Mandy has attended a number of tournaments with me, including events in New York, Minnesota and Arkansas. This summer she is going with me to the Classic in Chicago.