Jeff Kriet had the best year of his career in 2005, with two Top 10s on the Bassmaster Tour and a 6th-place finish in the Angler of the Year (AOY) race. One of the reasons for his improvement was he learned not to be so stubborn about patterns.

The most successful anglers are those who make the best day-to-day adjustments. After years of pig-headedness, the Oklahoman has finally learned there are times when he needs to put "yesterday's bait" back in the tackle box and switch to one that might get bitten today.

"I used to be horrible about that," he said. "If I had a good day of practice with a crankbait, I'd go into the tournament thinking, 'Man, I'm just going to go out there and crank every day.' Well, that doesn't always work out too good.

"What makes the (Kevin) Van Dams and those guys as good as they are is they're willing to change things up whenever they need to. One of the things I've learned is you've got to fish the fish and fish the conditions as they change every day."

The New Strategy

The old Jeff Kriet went into a lot of tournaments with a preconceived idea of which pattern would be most effective. The new one's first order of business is to locate some quality fish. They'll eventually let him know which bait to use and how to present it.

"I just try to put myself in areas that are holding fish and have the potential to produce," he said. "Then, I'll fish for them however I have to. I might catch them flipping the first day and cranking the second day. Making good adjustments is the key to being successful and consistent."

On tournament days, he tries to catch a limit as quickly as possible. The bigger fish can wait.

"I want to find the quickest, easiest five fish the first thing," he said. "If you go for big fish right away, it's too easy to panic when you don't get the bite you want. Getting a limit first and then switching gears (to look for bigger fish) later works much better for me."

He described his friend Edwin Evers as a "home-run hitter" – an angler who can focus only on the big bite and then go out and get it. He's more of a singles hitter who'll take his walks and won't strike out much.

"Guys like Edwin, we call them 'toad slingers' because they're always swinging for the fences," he said. "I don't like to take too many chances. The tournaments I do best in are usually the ones where I have something going on, I'm on some good fish and I'm consistent over 3 or 4 days. When I go out trying to fish for big fish, those are the ones where I do the absolute worst."

Victory Drought

Kriet doesn't have a significant win to his credit since the 1998 Bassmaster Oklahoma Invitational at Lake Texoma. He had some chances to end that drought this year (four times he finished in the Top 15), but he knows his style can be a hindrance.

"I'm not a big runner and gunner – that's not my strength," he said. "I'm more of a grinder and that's good for consistency, but not great for winning. Three times this year I thought I was on the fish to win, and usually if you can have that happen one time in a year you're pretty fortunate.

"My goal next year is to give myself some more opportunities and with the new schedule (11 events), hopefully I can pull one off. I really want to win a Tour event. It would mean a lot to me."

A Classic to Forget

Kriet finished no worse than 37th in the last five events of 2005. Unfortunately, that 37th occurred in a field of only 47 anglers at the sport's premier event – the Bassmaster Classic on the Ohio, Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pa.

He said he practiced too hard for the tournament and when those sessions didn't go well, he developed a poor outlook.

"We had 5 days of pre-practice and I was on the water from daylight until dark every day," he said. "Those were long, long days and I just kept thinking that I had to find something that would work. I didn't, so I didn't have a very positive attitude about the tournament as a whole."

During those long days he probed the same bridge pilings where winner Van Dam and runner-up Aaron Martens eventually caught most of their fish. They didn't produce for him, so he wrote them off for the tournament. That was a big mistake.

"I should have realized that during pre-practice, most of those fish were in the post-spawn," he said. "By the time the tournament came around, they were in more of a summer pattern. I just did a horrible job of adjusting, but it was a good learning experience."

Notable

> Kriet is excited about the 2006 Classic, set for Feb. 24-26 at Lake Toho. "I like fishing slow and that one should be fun," he said. "My only fear will be if it turns into a major sight-fishing tournament. I'm not saying I can't catch them that way, but I'm just an average sight-fisherman against that group of guys."

> His boat-wrap deal for next year transpired through a friend. That guy is friends with the owner of the insurance company GetWorkComp.com. "He believes in advertising and thought he could get some business out a wrapped boat," he said. "They've already given me some great clothes and some posters I can hand out at the Classic, and the wrap is really neat-looking. The whole thing has been awesome."

> He captained the Oklahoma team in a losing effort at the Texas/Oklahoma Shootout at Lake Guerrero, Mexico. Still, he enjoyed his second visit to that giant bass factory south of the border. "The fish down there are unbelievable," he said. "You can catch a 40-pound bag out of an area no bigger than your truck."

> He's glad the Harris Chain in Florida isn't on this year's schedule. His 100th there this year was his best finish ever. "For whatever reason, that place just has my number."