A Bit of Reflection and Moving Forward Part 1
I had some thinking to do during the off-season about this year and what's next. First let's look back on 2022.
One big takeaway from last year is that I fished really well. I made good decisions and got the right bites in a bunch of big events. One thing I didn't do was get all of those right bites to the boat. The funny part is I got great looks at almost all of them and I don't feel like I did anything wrong. It just happened for whatever reason like it does to anyone who's ever spent some serious time tournament fishing.
I really feel like I became a better smallmouth angler this year. My 4 biggest events ended up being smallmouth deals. Out of the 25 fish I weighed in during those tournaments 23 were smallmouth. I'd much rather be digging around in some weeds but my comfort level with brown fish that aren't on beds really improved.
I don't really have any moments that stuck out that were overwhelmingly positive. Maybe the 3.89 on the Grand River that was second big bass in a D&R. But bear with me while I have my own personal pity party of bad breaks that stick out in my mind.
Lake Leelanau, this event was a bunch of fun but watching a boats set down on 2 different 3.6lb fish as I'm driving to them was tough. I missed getting paid by less than a 10th of a pound and my smallest fish was a 2.9 I think. Either one of those would have been huge. I took a 5 minute gamble on some mayfly fish and it really cost me. One big takeaway from that event is that 2.5 days of practice is not enough to keep up in a tight weight spawn event.
White Lake HOTD, Trevor and I just jumped in this one for something to do. No practice and no expectations. But I'm always confident on White Lake. Limit came easy and bite #5 came on a flipping stick, that fish absolutely owned me. I can't say for sure it was a bass but I'd bet on it. The other 5 pounder that we saw plain as day when it jumped off definitely hurt. I will say there was a couple flurries of greatness and we scrounged up a check.
Muskegon big stack was the one I really had circled on my list. I had a lot of things going in practice. Really couldn't even get to most of it in the tournament. I landed my first magnum smallmouth and added a 3 pounder. Things were going to plan when I lost the next 3 big bites right at the boat including another true magnum. Every fish made an appearance clearly on the GoPro. I watched it once and then sent it to the recycle bin…painful. I scrounged up a couple nice largemouth and should have stuck with that. Instead I weighed in a tiny smallmouth and barely missed a check.
Big Stack on Erie was one I was looking forward to but no high expectations. Got around a bunch of fish but no monsters. I did better than I expected with my 18lbs and change. Once again I lost a couple at the boat that would have bumped me the .03 I needed to get paid. They didn't sting at the time but sure did after the scales were settled. I expected much higher weights and probably should have kept grinding vs running around at the end of the day. Other than the wind I did have a ton of fun at that event.
I ended on a much anticipated Houghton Lake tournament. I was fishing solo and absolutely smashed them on day 1 and settled in 3rd place with 18.33. I lost a few that day too but only 1 that would have bumped me up a ways. Bound to happen when getting that many bites! Day 2 was more of what I'd experienceed the rest of the season. Make the right moves, get the right bites, and not land them. My 14lb bag on that day moved me down to a disappointing 12th but I did still get paid at least.
Tournament season 2022 left me without any major wins and a bit frustrated with how it worked out. However I fished as well as ever and I feel really good about that. 2023 is going to look a little different for me but I've got a lot of confidence heading into it. So instead of dwelling on what could have been I'd rather focus on the positive parts that don't show in results.
Stay tuned for part 2 and Merry Christmas!