It seems pretty accurate to say that
you have some level of natural abili-
ty, though. It’s unusual for somebody
in their mid-20s to be as successful
as you have been, specifically
against competition that can be
called “the best in the world.”
I think I’m just a pretty good judge
of when I’m around good water. I can
usually tell pretty quick if I’m in a
good spot. I can get a few bites and
feel it out a little. So sometimes I feel
like I can read the water good, and
sometimes I feel like I make one or
two good decisions during a tourna-
ment that may change that tourna-
ment for me.
It’s not anything crazy, though,
like I get this feeling that tells me
exactly where I need to be, or what I
need to be throwing. Whenever I
have good tournaments, it’s because
my decision-making is good. I’ve
decided that I need to make a 45-
minute run back down to a spot, and
it turns out to be the right decision.
But I think you can say that about
everybody who does good in a tour-
nament. The decisions are usually
what make you win or lose.
In the big events you’ve won, did you
think you were going to win them
early, or not until late?
Most of my wins, I hadn’t really
thought I was going to win going into
the tournament. That’s usually how it
works for me: It just kinda happens. I
never have all these offshore juice holes
like Jacob Wheeler. I can’t ever predict
that I might win. Most of the time, I’m
like, “Oh, this is good.” I’ll find a place
halfway into the tournament, and that
turns out to be the difference-maker.
You’ve mentioned before that you
fish your best when you’re just mak-
ing it up as you go, true?
That’s true, for the most part. I kinda
have to be “feeling it” for me to be
comfortable in a spot. If I get to a spot,
set the trolling motor down and am not
feeling it, I have to move. I’m not very
good at just staying around a spot and
grinding it out if it just doesn’t feel
right.
You’re pretty well known as being
easygoing and hard to rattle. Do you
ever get spun out?
I don’t know about “spun out.” I
don’t think I’ve ever gotten so flustered
that I’m spun out. I can definitely rush
sometimes when I’m trying to find fish
in a hurry, but to me there’s a difference
between being spun out, and just trying
to find them fast. I probably look spun
out sometimes if you follow me for a full
tournament day and I’m trying to find
fish fast. I probably look like a mess.
You’re getting ready to fish an event
in Florida. Didn’t you fish your first
major, post-college event there a
month before your first Bassmaster
Classic in 2014?
I sure did. That was at Toho.
And you didn’t do great, if I recall.
No I did not. I did pretty terrible:
110th or something, I think (it was actu-
ally 105th).
But then five years later, you won the
first-ever Bass Pro Tour event on basi-
cally the same body of water. How do
you explain that progression from the
100s to winning just a few years later,
against a pretty stacked field?
I don’t know how to explain that, but
it was a big learning curve to figure out
how to catch ‘em in Florida. It’s just so
hard to figure out what the fish relate to
down here. Places like Okeechobee and
Kissimmee, everything all looks the
same when you first start fishing there.
It all looks good, and it’s overwhelming.
A place like Okeechobee; you have this
huge lake, and it’s not like you can go
out and just fish down any ol’ grass line
and catch fish. You have to be in perfect
water, which might be just a 50-yard
stretch. There are some key ingredients
that go into a good area in Florida, but
it’s pretty hard to know all that when
you’re from out of town.
So how/when did you start to get
over that “overwhelmed” feeling?
Every time you fish a lake, you learn
something new. I just started to pick up
on things every time I came back to
Florida. Now, I’m no expert, but I learned
APRIL-MAY 2020 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | FLWFISHING.COM
on Kissimmee that any kind of submer-
gent grass is real important because it
cleans up the water and fish relate to it
a lot. I had to learn to look for that grass,
and how to fish it right. The fish just act
so different here in Florida. You have to
figure out how they react to the weath-
er, what baits you can catch ’em on – all
of those things that are different here
than anywhere else.
Are there any other well-known fish-
eries where you’ve had a steep
learning curve?
Oh yeah, lots of them. Lake St. Clair
is one of those. It’s a phenomenal place
to fish, but the first time I fished it, I
didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I
hadn’t talked to anybody and really
didn’t have anybody to “show me the
way,” so I got there and felt like I was
on the moon. That one was confusing
for me. Even as phenomenal as that
lake is, it has its own kind of conditions
where you have to know what to look
for. I’ve only fished it maybe two or
three times total, but I understand it a
lot more than I did the first time.
What do you think you’re really good
at, technique-wise?
Oh, man, as far as techniques go,
I’ve done good in tournaments a lot of
different ways. I’ve done good flipping,
throwing a ChatterBait. I feel like I can
kind of do everything decent. I like to
think that I’m good at spring tourna-
ments, when fish are shallow on beds. I
think you have to be diverse these
days. Maybe 20 years ago you could be
really great at one technique and win
some money, but, man, if you can’t fish
all kinds of different techniques now,
it’s tough to keep up.
All right, then what are you NOT
good at?
I don’t love flipping a big jig. It’s
kinda intimidating to me to have to flip
a 1-ounce jig. I’ve just never done it
much. And big, giant swimbaits. I don’t
think I own anything bigger than 6
inches long. I could never throw one of
those in a tournament. Heck, even fun
fishing, I don’t know what I’m doing
with those big swimbaits.
81