“Ba-ba-doo, ba-ba-de-ee…”
“I was struggling and beating up on myself…”
— Caleb Sumrall
Dateline: Cayuga Lake, N.Y.
To most of us it is but a lake, to the 75 Elite anglers though, it is a mirror, a reflection of who they are and how well they play this game. It is the ultimate, glass…flooring.
It is calm on the surface of the water as it is on the face of the angler, but beneath the mirror, beneath the brim of the baseball cap, there is tension, there is chaos and there is questioning by all those who stare into the mirror.
Whatever game it is you play, the mirror you gaze into is the only scoreboard that really matters, the true playing field lays between your ears.
“…ooh, ooh, the flashing lights…”
“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
— Mark Twain
Comes now the story of a young man who recently caught what may in fact be the most important bass of his career, a young man staring full face into the career mirror, a dude I first met a couple years ago when he won the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship…Caleb Sumrall.
“db, I was basically out of a job when I won the Nation Championship. I had nothing to lose accepting the invite to fish the Elites.”
I took to him right away, a young man with a young family…
…a working man, a man with manners, a man of faith, a man…
…with a life long love of fishing.
A man who last year was a rookie on the Elite gig, so I was friendly with him but he knew coming in, “I know, Mr. Don. I know you don’t do stories about rookies.”
Nope, I don’t, got a whole bunch of folks who’ve been scrumming out here for years. They’ve earned the right to be in front of the line, rookies at the rear, earn your way up.
But I was watching, hoping, pulling for the Nation “kid.”
“…lit him up now he’s a rocket baby…”
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.”
— Suzy Kassem
Caleb finished in 65th place overall out of 110 Elite anglers. To be honest, pretty good for a rookie, but I noticed that in the last six events of the season he finished out of the money four times.
Something to watch going into this Elite season, his sophomore year on the tour.
First tournament of 2019: finished in 72nd place.
Second tournament of 2019: 42 place.
Third tournament of 2019: 50th place.
At this point we were a little under a third of the way through the season, and it was not going well for Caleb. So at the beginning of the Winyah Bay gig, Elite no. 4, I leave this note on the dashboard of his boat…
Yep, quite possibly a jerkarse thing to do, except: “So Caleb what did you think when you saw the note?”
“You were telling me to get off my ass and fish like an Elite.”
“Did it bother you?”
“Nope, in fact I keep it with me in the boat all the time. I get what you did.”
“What?”
“You motivated me, you made me step back and look in the mirror and ask myself is this how I wanted it to be.”
And his answer was simple…no, not how he wanted it to be, and he did something about it.
“…he’s got promise yeah he’s got the shine..”
“Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.”
— Randy Pausch
Here’s a secret you young folks should know: You need to listen to the advice of us old codgers, not because we are right all the time, but because we have been wrong so many times. Learn from all our goofups.
Confidence comes from experience…and possibly a note left in a boat.
“db, I was fishing on Lake Guntersville for the Elite tournament, things hadn’t been going so well, but I kept pressing on, then suddenly I put a 6-pounder in the boat, and it hit me, hit me. I said to myself, you know, you know I can do this, I can do this, not only can I do this, I can win this.”
We are sitting together after the Elite registration meeting, and I write that quote down exactly as he said it, put my pen down, look at Caleb, smile, put my hand on his arm and say, “You know dude that’s what I want to hear. You stay humble, but years from now if you keep doing what you are doing you will look back at that Guntersville 6-pounder as possibly the most important catch of your life.”
“Why, because I caught it?”
“Nope, because what you finally caught was…confidence and confidence comes with experience.”
And Caleb just smiles.
Here’s why, since I left that note in his boat, the “Do Better” note. He’s made a big check in each of the last four events and moved up in AOY points from 73rd place to currently sitting in 26th place. He’s well on his way to qualifying for the upcoming 50th Bassmaster Classic in Birmingham next year.
So, “Do Better.”
Yep.
“…now, he’s got some smarts he’ll swing this game dontcha’ know, dontcha’ know.”
It’s Easy
Mia Sable
“Experience is not what happens to you; it’s what you do with what happens to you.”
— Aldous Huxley