Paul Mueller was already under a lot of pressure heading into the Lake St. Clair Elite Series. He was 74th in points and knew those who finish the year outside the top 70 face the possibility of being relegated out of the Elite Series for the following year.
After coming in with 15-01 on day 1, he was 78th on the leaderboard and knew his season – maybe his career – would come down to Friday.
“It was probably the most important day of my career in the Elites,” he said. “I was faced with not qualifying for next year so there was my own championship going on which had nothing to do with anybody else but me. It was stressful.”
On day 2, he was more thorough in the area he fished on day 1 and made a massive jump with a 23-11 stringer that pushed him up to 24th.
“I caught my fifth fish on day 1 on my last cast and had 20 minutes to make a 16-mile run back to check in,” Mueller said. “I got back with one minute to go so it was crazy to survive that day, but the pressure was on for the second day.
“I covered more water in a productive area on day 2 and got seven bites.”
He tacked on 22-07 Saturday to make the 12-cut in 8th place before finishing 10th Sunday (an overall improvement of 68 places) with a 14-04 bag that gave him 75-07 for the tournament. More importantly, he shot up to 60th in the AOY standings and will get an automatic invitation back to the Elite Series in 2018.
He caught fish cranking, with finesse swimbait, a spybait and on a dropshot as he altered his techniques based on conditions.
“Every time I’d catch a fish I’d waypoint my boat position,” he said. “In one area I’d go by waypoints and I’d make drifts in relation to those waypoints, then I’d branch off 110 yards this way or that way. It was a big area.
“You’d never find it with a map or by graphing. I found it by fishing in practice. I got a couple bites and expanded each day. I just find little zones where there was life. It’s nerve wracking because you don’t know how many are there or when the next bite is going to come.”
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