The tournament season for 2013 is fast approaching!!! And I couldn’t be more excited! Last year was a great year full of highs and lows in my tournament fishing, but in the end, the highs outweighed the lows. So far since we moved here to Texas about 4 years ago, I’ve been very satisfied with the steps that I’ve taken each year towards ultimately making my way towards the top of the competitive bass fishing world. With other obligations with school, work, and family on my plate, I’ve set small goals for myself each year, and pretty much every year, I’ve been able to step up my game and meet those challenges. In 2012, my goals included beginning to build up some sponsor support and to fish in/have success in some local tournament trails. Well, by the end of the year, I was able to accumulate 6 great sponsors and win the Faith Angler Network Championship tournament! I couldn’t be more pleased!
So what’s the next step for 2013? For sponsorship, my goals include helping my sponsors in a fashion to where they will look forward to sponsoring me again for the 2014 tournament season, and to see if with at least a couple of those companies I can impress them enough to where they will be willing to increase the level of support they give me. I’m also looking to increase my sponsor base to include companies such as a line company, reel company, terminal tackle, and perhaps even some non-industry related companies. So I’m looking to expand!
For tournament goals, this year I’m stepping up my game and diving into the biggest team tournament trail in Texas, Bass Champs. With the success that my partner, David Bueche, and I had in FAN last year, we figure we’ll try to tackle Champs and see if we can’t come out with a win somewhere in there. Bass Champs guarantees $15,000 for first place at each of their tournaments. Yeah buddy. Also, I’m going to fish Media Bass again this year because I like the individual format, and there’s really no other trails in the area that do the individual format. My goal is to qualify for the championship tournaments in each of those trails and to make enough money in each of them to where I have a definite profit at the end of the season.
What else is new for 2013? Well, it looks like I’m going to be joining a new bass club this year. For the last few years I’ve fished with the ATX Bassmasters. It’s been great, and they’re a great group of guys, but it just doesn’t make sense for me to stay with them anymore. Their tournament schedule just really doesn’t work for me anymore. Sponsors love it when you’re involved with a bass club though, so I figure I need to find some club I can be affiliated with and participate in. As I’ve searched, Big Sandy Creek Bass Club, seems to have what I’m looking for. I attended their first meeting of the year last night, and saw a handful of guys I already knew there. Also met some new ones. I’m looking forward to getting to know them all, fishing with them, and learning from them. It’s also a bit bigger of a club than ATX is right now, so that’s a plus as well.
I was thinking about doing a breakdown of each tournament that is scheduled for this tournament season and discussing which ones I’m looking forward to and why… but as I’ve thought about it… I really don’t think that there’s one tournament I’m looking forward to more than another. The last couple of years, there’s always been one or two tournaments where I feel like I REALLY have a shot at winning, but this year… I like my odds in all of them. I’ve spent a lot of time on all of the lakes around here, at all times of the year, and have found tournament success on all of them. I’m looking forward to the whole season.
First tournament on the schedule: January 19th, Media Bass on Lake LBJ. I’ve already started fishing out there to begin getting in tune with what’s going on with the bass on that lake and to stay on top of their movements. What am I anticipating for the first tournament of the season? A tough, cold, winter bite. I think a lot of guys will struggle to even get bit. But I’m tellin’ ya’ll right now… I’ve already got one group of fish located, and I’ve still got a couple of weeks to find more. Ya’ll watch out now. It’s on.
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