With my second Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series season behind me, I’ve had some time to look back and think about how things went. Obviously, I only have two years of Elite level experience, but over the course of my career, this was one of the most challenging seasons I’ve ever had.
I dealt with a lot of change. Weather conditions affected the places I was fishing more than they ever have. Fish moved from where I found them in practice. It was just a mentally challenging tournament season.
Rarely did anything I found in practice ever stay the same. I felt like I was always behind this year, but we just kept our head down, kept fighting and we made the 2026 Bassmaster Classic cut.
You’re going to have tougher years when you can’t do anything right. It happens to everyone.
You lose one or two fish that means 20 or 30 points. I had that happen several times this year.
I fought that battle at Lake Tenkiller when I finished 54th. I lost a 3-pounder on the first day, and if you catch that bass, you don’t really know where you end up. You’re fishing Day 3, and you have a chance to gain points.
There were several times when I was in that position and I finished right outside the 50 cut. You do everything right, and it just isn’t meant to be. You have to keep going and going and going and hope you catch them eventually.
Overall, I’d give myself a B+ for this season. There’s always room for improvement, but I kept my head in the game more than I would have in the past.
I took chances this year, which isn’t always the best thing, but I was willing to do that. Not everything was always the best decision, but I feel like, mechanically, I fished fairly well.
I’ve always thought of myself as a fundamentally strong fisherman. Obviously, the more experience you have doing anything, the more confidence you’ll gain. That’s important, because confidence is everything in fishing.
You have to believe in every decision you make, but you need a return on your decision — like a bite, or the fish starting to bite. You need something to swing the momentum, because that’s all tournament fishing is — confidence and momentum.
I can say that I approached the 2025 season with a greater sense of confidence than I did last year. My first year on the Elites, I never truly practiced to win; I practiced to do the best I could. I never felt like I took a chance to find the winning fish.
This year, I fished to win more. I never got around the fish to win, but I practiced looking for the one thing that would drastically separate me from the field — especially in the Florida tournaments.
I just constantly looked and looked and looked, but I didn’t find enough stuff to survive the events. For example, at Lake Okeechobee, I spent all my practice time in the lake and, as it turned out, that was the not the right decision. I was out there for three days just grinding.
It was definitely a difficult season, but along with the challenges, I also experienced plenty of positive moments. The most obvious was Lake Fork, where I had my best finish of the year at seventh place. Having 34 pounds, 1 ounce on Day 3 and earning a Century Club belt was incredible.
On the personal side, I had several good moments just hanging at the house with my roommates Kyle Patrick, Jay Przekurat and Alex Redwine. Having that friendship and camaraderie on the road really helps moderate the pressures of professional fishing.
Of course, making the Classic was the goal for this season, and after a bad finish at the Sabine River, I knew I was outside the cut. I needed some good finishes and with top 40s at Lake St. Clair and the Mississippi River. I got that done.
Probably my biggest takeaway from my second Elite season was the value of every single point. One point can mean a lot to your season.
I’ll be taking that mindset into next year.
