TOMMY DICKERSON
TOURNAMENT AND FINISH : 2019 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit on Cherokee Lake , 130th place LESSON LEARNED : Listen to what the fish are telling you .
He may hail from Texas , but Tommy Dickerson is quite the fan of catching smallmouth . It ’ s too bad that , for at least one tournament , he didn ’ t pay attention to what they were telling him to do .
“ I figured out what the fish were doing the first day of practice , but I didn ’ t realize it ,” Dickerson says .
While throwing a swimbait in and around the huge boulders lining the shoreline of Cherokee , Dickerson got a backlash that required him to spend a minute picking it out . When he finally went to reel in , he had a 4-pound smallmouth on the other end of his line . That prompted him to not put the swimbait down for the rest of the day , and he never got another bite .
“ I never stopped to think about that one fish ,” Dickerson adds . “ I should ’ ve thought about why I never got another bite . Why did that fish bite when my bait was on the bottom and not moving ? If I had , I ’ d have realized the bass wouldn ’ t eat anything unless it was sitting on the bottom because it was in their beds .”
Dickerson ended up chasing largemouth the first day of the tournament , and while everyone else was catching upwards of 50 fish a day , he only brought in three fish . The second day , he went back to the pattern he missed from practice , fishing for smallmouth . The results were dramatically different .
“ I brought in almost 16 pounds – one of the largest bags of the day ,” Dickerson recalls . “ It was so simple , and it was right in front of me if I ’ d just listened .”
PHOTO BY JODY WHITE
PHOTO BY ANDY HAGEDON
JEREMY LAWYER
TOURNAMENT AND FINISH : 2018 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit on the Harris Chain , 171st place LESSON LEARNED : Know when to abandon ship .
Change can be scary , especially during a tournament when time is limited . Yet , having the confidence to abandon a dying pattern would ’ ve saved Lawyer from one of the worst tournaments of his career .
“ I had an awesome practice ,” Lawyer says . “ I ’ m talking almost 30 pounds a day , and it just sucked me in .”
Unfortunately , as tends to often be the case , the conditions changed by the start of the tournament , and Lawyer knew his pattern would die as the winds picked up and messed up the area of grass he was fishing . He admits he just “ couldn ’ t make himself leave ,” as he was scared about the idea of making such a drastic change during the day .
“ You know , it ’ s scary to just abandon ship and scrap what you were doing – that had been working – and to go do something else ,” Lawyer admits . “ It ’ s a big risk where you have to weigh trying to survive versus the possibility of crashing and burning .”
Obviously , in this case , Lawyer went the safe route and still crashed and burned , but it taught him a lesson he later used for success .
“ I learned you can ’ t second-guess your gut , because that ’ s the kiss of death ,” Lawyer says . “ You have to have the confidence to trust it , even if it means scrapping everything . Now , that ’ s easy to say and hard to do , but for years I wouldn ’ t do it and I ’ d go down with the ship . I don ’ t do that anymore .”
DECEMBER-JANUARY 2021 | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | FLWFISHING . COM 41