Photo: FLWOutdoors.com Randy Blaukat's new approach started working to perfection at the Ranger M1.

Blaukat's New Top 10 Approach Paid Off

Monday, July 15, 2002

It's true of any sport: if you don't win, you don't get noticed. But sometimes the guys a few notches below No. 1 are doing just fine.

So it is with Randy Blaukat, who at the start of 2002 changed his entire mental approach to fishing tournaments. The change took a few months to hit its stride, but when it did, here's what happened:

> March -- Ranger M1 -- 2nd - -$110,000
> April -- Guntersville BASSMASTER -- 4th -- $37,000
> May -- Eufaula BASSMASTER - 2nd (by 1 ounce) -- $48,000
> June -- Champlain FLW -- 33rd -- $3,500
4-Month Total = $198,500

The two BASSMASTER finishes were enough to put him 6th on the list of Top 10 money-winners for the 2001-02 Tour season, just below the five anglers who won tournaments ($110,000 each) and above Larry Nixon, Kevin VanDam, Indiana's Chip Harrison Jr. and Mark Davis.

Not bad, eh? Here's how he did it.

Good 2001, But a Wake-Up Call

"I had a major wake-up call last year," Blaukat says. "I had a really good season. I finished in the money almost every tournament and I made the (BASS Masters) Classic. But I actually wound up losing money for the year. After the first of the year (2002), I said, 'This is ridiculous.'"

The result was that he decided to "go out and fish every tournament like this is the only tournament I'm fishing" -- meaning no looking down the road and not keeping points in mind -- "and I'd try to position myself around the Top 10.

"You can't go out and say that you're going to win every tournament," Blaukat adds. "You want to win, but you have to be realistic."

The Top 10 Strategy, and Defying Temptation

"If you're going to win the tournament, you have to make the finals in order to put yourself in position to win," he says. "You hear a lot of people say to fish conservatively and others say that they fish to win." To him, "those are clichés that don't mean anything.

"When I say that I focus on making the Top 10, prior to every tournament I visualize getting to that point." That way "if you're fortunate to get a few things clicking, you can do well."

But it's not that easy. Easy fish can be tempting, as he found out just before the Guntersville BASSMASTER started. "At Guntersville, where I finished 4th, I was catching lots of fish in practice on a crankbait," he says. "But the night before the tournament, I had a realization.

"I'd just come off the (Ranger) M1, which in my own mind I'd won with the most cumulative weight (in the M1, weights are zeroed on the two final days as in FLW tournaments). I said to myself, 'Look at the potential you have here by totally submerging yourself in the mentality of winning or finishing in the Top 10.' That's what made me decide to pick up the lizard (on the first competition day).

"I resisted temptation," he adds. "It took a little bit of courage to go to that, abandoning a sure thing for a not-so-sure thing."

Financially-Sound Approach

Shooting for the Top 10 or Top 5 also makes financial sense. Blaukat says: "I don't want to wind up like 75 percent of the guys on the tour: a consistent career and they make the Classic yet don't get anywhere (financially).

"In fishing, the reality is that if you don't make the Top 5 in tournament, you basically lose money. And if you don't get in the Top 10 of the season-ending money list, you lose money -- by the time you take care of your tournament and travel expenses, and take care of the bills at home.

"I don't come from a wealthy background so I rely on my winnings and my performance to carry me through," he notes.

- End of Part 1 (of 2) -