Finishing the season strong

When the Elite Series heads to the Potomac River, I’ll arrive well-rested and happy that I got to enjoy some time to recharge the batteries.

I had been on a stretch where tournaments and ICAST kept me away from home a lot. But this vacation has allowed me to get some work done around the house and get organized for the final stretch of tournaments.

With my family, this has been an important time because my kids will start back to school soon. With their summer break coming to an end, I’ve tried to do as much as possible with them.

One of their favorite things to do is play in the spring-fed creek near our house. We have a pool, but they really like splashing around in that creek and I like being down there with them.

We’ve kind of gotten into a pattern where we get up early to get some work done around the house, run any errands and then head down to the creek. The girls might swim a little; sometimes they want to fish, or they might just catch crawfish. We’ll let the dog swim, and we’ll all just enjoy some relaxing family time.

This time of rest and recreation is important because the next Elite event is going to require a lot of focus and concentration. I’ve only been to the Potomac twice before, and it’s been several years since my last visit.

Both times, I had poor finishes, but that was early in my professional career and I’ve learned a lot about how to approach tidal fisheries. Before, I got caught up in studying what other people said you had to do on certain tide stages and that didn’t work out well.

So, I’ve quit trying to do it the way I was supposed to do it, and I’m focusing on the way I like to do it. Am I now an expert on tidal fisheries? Well no, not at all. But I have a much better understanding of how to work with the tides.

I’ll admit that, with two poor finishes, I’m a little concerned about this event, but on the other hand, I want a little revenge, so I’ll carry plenty of motivation with me.

The one thing you have to keep in mind is that this place is big and it has a lot of fishable water. In two and a half days of practice, finding the perfect tide and the perfect location is tough. You have to get a little lucky.

Typically, you only get one tide cycle during a fishing day; so if we’re going to have low tide during the tournament, you’ll only get four hours a day to practice that. You kind of have to be a really good guesser and learn something quickly.

It’s really hard to cover that much water, especially on the tides you want to fish. There’s a lot of strategy that goes into a place like the Potomac and I’m looking forward to it.

I will, however, have to put in some time in the coming days to get myself back into fishing shape. I had originally planned on doing a little fishing around the house to get used to being out there 12-14 hours. But the kids take priority, so I’ve put this off a little.

Once they’ve back in school, I’ll start spending long days on the water because it’s the tournament practice that can really get you knocked down. You go from doing nothing to 38-40 hours of practice before the tournament even starts.

It’ll definitely be an adjustment, but I’m looking forward to getting back into the groove and finishing up this season. Being off for over a month, I’ve been thinking about what I need to do to finish out the year well.

I’m in a position right now where I can have a good tournament at the Potomac and lock myself into next year’s Bassmaster Classic, or I could have a bad tournament and go into the next event on the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wis., being on the borderline.

That’s one thing I don’t want to do. I want to go into the Potomac, do what I need to do, take care of business and finish up the year strong with a Classic qualification.

I’ve already started doing some research on the Potomac: what kind of weights it’s taken to win and how anglers have caught fish. I was on a 5-hour plane ride recently, and I just spent the time looking at a map of where I’ve fished and where I might want to fish this time.

On a normal body of water, I’d say it would be about the current, but with this being a tidal fishery, there’s current all the time. So it will be about the grass and how much we can spread out.

I think if we get there and there’s grass everywhere, a guy will be able to fish wherever he wants. But if we get there and there’s very little grass, we’ll end up fishing on top of one another.

In any case, I think it’s going to be the standard shallow water fishing 101 with a Booyah Pad Crasher frog, a Booyah spinnerbait and a Bandit squarebill producing. I’m sure that flipping a Texas-rigged YUM Christie Critter or a 5-inch YUM Dinger or punching a YUM Bad Mama will also work.

And as hot as it’s been, I think there will be plenty of use for finesse baits like a drop shot with YUM Warning Shot or a shaky head with a YUM Dinger

Ultimately, I think that location will trump bait choice. If you get in the right area and figure out when those fish will bite, that will be the ticket.