North Carolina's Chris Baumgardner is fishing differently this year – sort of. He actually fished differently last year, and this year is going back to the way he was fishing before.
"I'm just going to try to have a better year than I had last year," he said (five of 13 finishes below 100th and dropped from 62nd to 76th in the World Rankings –Ed.). "Last year I kind of made up my mind to fish a little different and it backfired on me.
"I wasn't as flexible as I usually am. I picked a couple of baits I thought I was good at, tried to force it a little bit and it just didn't work out. I was fishing to my strengths, which is what you're supposed to do, but it led me to be a little close-minded when they didn't work. It took away from my versatility.
"When you go to a lake, sometimes you're looking at it and kind of feel like you need to be doing something else," he said. "I made up my mind that I'd fish a spinnerbait and catch bigger fish and try to win." He noted that he had some good tournaments doing that, but also some bad ones, "which is kind of hard to take."
This year he'll "do what feels right. I'll try to follow my instincts. There are lots of ways to catch bass. When you go on a lake, you kind of get a feeling about what you need to be doing and that's what I'm going to be doing. I'll let the Top 10s and all take care of itself."
> He noted that "a few years ago, you could go broke finishing between 30th and 50th. But now you can do it and it's not so bad, with the (higher) paybacks."
> Last year he fished the Bassmaster and FLW tours, but this year will fish the FLW Tour and FLW Series, plus the Southeast and Northeast divisions of the Stren Series. He'll be a busy guy. "Yeah," he said. "I like to fish."
