How hard do you think it might be to stay in that zone ?
The hardest time to sustain that rhythm and keep it going is during the spawn – that ’ s the most 180-degree change in a month that the fish go through all year . They ’ ll go from winter behavior to summer within a month . April is the most dynamic month of bass fishing all year . If you survive April and stay in tune with the fish , you can keep up with it .
Your career stats only go back to 2021 , when you started competing in some College Fishing events ; just three years later , you ’ re knocking down BPT Top 10s and leading AOY races . Doesn ’ t that blow your mind at least a little bit ? And if not , why ?
It absolutely blows my mind . Ultimately , we ’ ve only been truly learning about and understanding bass behavior at the rate we have been for three to four years . We don ’ t know where that horizon or plateau is because it keeps getting higher . It ’ s like when you ’ re a kid and there ’ s a hill you hit the brakes on , but every time you raced with your buddies you never hit the brakes . You get up to a speed where you ’ ll crash if you stop , and we ’ re at that level with bass fishing . I wasn ’ t expecting it , and now it ’ s a keeppedaling thing .
Everybody went on notice that you were an angler to watch when you finished third in the 2022 Toyota Series Championship , but then you followed it up with three Top 10s in your rookie year on the Invitationals in 2023 , two Top 10s and an AOY in the Plains Division , and another third-place finish in the Toyota Series Championship that same year . Was there anything in your previous fishing experience that contributed to that mega-year , or was it a case of “ right place , right time , right baits ?”
Oh man , it really was just a continual progression . The more I fish , the more little situations I see and understand what makes each one different . That ’ s what I do ; it ’ s measurable learning experiences . The more of those you get , the faster you ’ ll get better , because you can understand why a certain time , place or thing was what it was .
I hope if I can continue at this pace of learning and expanding , then the incremental growth should continue – but right now , the potential increases I can have are getting more marginal every day . As you get close to the top , the steps get a little more tricky . Luck doesn ’ t play out on a seasonal basis , but it does on the difference between finishing fourth and winning ( an event ). It ’ s all about creating incremental growth and discovering what makes a winner a winner .
I think most of the fishing world has heard your background story , but let ’ s get into it again quickly . When did you start , who got you started and how quickly did you tell yourself “ Oh yeah , I now have the fishing bug ?”
I grew up fishing with my dad ( Todd Gill ) for as long as I can remember . I would go with him and fished for whatever bit , and that transitioned when I was about 14 and I figured out how to throw a casting rod . I was like , “ Man , this is way more enjoyable and ‘ figureout-able ’ than fishing for other species .” I have a competitive strain , and I wanted to compete at it , but the only way to do that is with a measurable system , and we have that – it ’ s all measurable . So , I did some local tournaments when I was 17 and went out and mowed yards and worked at the grocery store and bought a boat so I could fish tournaments .
I started up a club at Wabash Valley College ( in Mount Carmel , Illinois ) with my dad and I thought it was cool to fish and have the college pay for it . Then the moment I realized it was something I thought I could do , I fished my first major tournament of the spring at Lake Hartwell , and I was eighth or ninth . After that , I put all my time and attention into bass fishing as a whole .
What is it about competitive bass fishing that draws you to it – basically , what made you say , “ this tournament deal is the thing for me ?”
The thing that drove me to competitive fishing is I played sports growing up and I enjoy winning . I enjoyed the feeling of working through something and discovering you did what was necessary and you win . The thing that makes fishing so different from team sports is : In team sports winning is winning , there is no other win than winning . You can hit home runs or shoot the lowest round of golf , but in bass fishing it comes down to how you define it – whether it ’ s a learning experience , making a check or making the Top 10 . I can set the bar for myself ; the tournament doesn ’ t set the bar for what a win is .
It ’ s an incremental system , so I could win in my own mind and kept increasing that goal to where we are now . You can fail , but still gain some experience out of it so it feels like a win . Over time , I was able to win every event because there was something to gain from it .
Speaking of learning , you ’ ve been an astoundingly fast study with LiveScope . Did you have a true “ aha moment ” when you first looked at a LiveScope screen ? How quicky did you start to pick up on that skill , and why do you think you absorbed it so quickly ?
I really enjoyed it when I first got it . It ’ s cool to see my bait , the fish , the targets . I understood when I started using it that it was something to spend time on because it was a direct learning thing ; you knew you learned something , and you knew you didn ’ t just misread a situation .
People view LiveScope as a skill , like ( what ) Dustin ( Connell ) did at RED- CREST , but in reality , that ’ s just a portion of the pie . It allows us to do things we never could before . The majority of the pie is fishing for fish we previously fished for , but forward-facing sonar allows us to do it efficiently and understand all that is going on . I see it as a separate skill . … There ’ s so many young guys doing well so fast because they understand bass have rules . Believing fish can do whatever they want stunted the sport for so long , but the young anglers succeeding understand that bass have rules and they studied them to know what those rules are . Nature has rules , animals have to make their decisions based off the conditions around them , and that ’ s what drives them to do what they do . Once you figure out what makes them do what they do , you ’ ll be ahead of the curve .
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