His AOY Reign Over, Dudley's Charged Up For Red

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

David Dudley will never forget the halftime speeches his junior varsity football coach Mike George used to give. The score didn't seem to matter. Dudley's team could be up by four touchdowns or down by the same margin. The message never changed.

"Never be satisfied," was George's refrain. Every practice, every game, every time.

"He used to tell us that if we became satisfied, we'd reach a plateau and wouldn't go any further," Dudley recalled. "We used to chant it before games – never be satisfied. You never know what's going to strike a kid when you tell him something. Well, that struck me."

"Never be satisfied" has become Dudley's mantra when fishing tournaments – the phrase is emblazoned on the front of his jersey – and it's a belief he holds himself to ardently even when it's tempting to back off the accelerator.

"It's always been my biggest fear in fishing," he said. "When I look back to 2011, I won Angler of the Year, got to number one in the world rankings and then did it again in 2012. It's extremely hard to fight that temptation.

"It's a lonely place, being at the top. It's not because I'm saying I think I'm the greatest, but it's because where else can you go? It was like I was standing on top of Mount Everest. Nobody was there with me. It was lonely. Being satisfied is the hardest thing to fight off."

Coming off the consecutive FLW Tour AOY titles and a dazzling 2-year run that saw him win twice and register six other Top-10 finishes in FLW Tour events, he came into 2013 on quite a roll. Not that satisfaction got the best of him, but he was slow out of the gates at Lake Okeechobee (65th) and Lewis Smith Lake (104th). It was the first time in nearly 4 years that he posted back-to-back finishes of 65th or worse.

He closed the season with four finishes in the Top 40, including a 4th at Lake Eufaula, and qualified for his 15th Forrest Wood Cup. Still, it still fell short of his expectations. After starting the year atop the BassFan World Rankings presented by Livingston Lures, he's now 8th heading into next week's Cup.

"Am I happy with it? No way," he said. "Even though I was 15th for the year, I'm not going to be happy unless I'm first. … When I look back through the year and rewind in my mind and analyze what I did and why, there were some stupid things I did and now I look back and go, 'I'm an idiot for doing that.' It makes me mad because I know I could've made another run at AOY. It just goes to show you can't slip up in this sport, not once."

What A Racket

Those who know Dudley well or have followed his fishing career understand he has unwavering standards when it comes to performance. When he slides his boat off the trailer for the day, he's there to win, regardless if it's a one-day jackpot or a 4-day tour event. The man is driven to succeed.

When asked to identify the source of his insatiable desire to win at anything and everything he competes at, he again pointed back to his childhood and his year-round involvement in sports.

"I grew up playing sports – football, basketball, baseball – since I was 6," he said. "I never missed a season. Even when I wasn't playing in school, I was in the backyard.

"You never know when people are born, how they're going to turn out. With me, I grew up with a desire to win. No matter what it is, I want to beat you."

He said the toughest time for him came when he graduated high school since he suddenly had no outlet to unleash his competitive fire. To fill the void, he took up, of all things, racquetball.

"When I graduated high school, it was tough for me," he said, "because I went cold turkey on competition. For a competition addict, I'll forget graduating high school. Sure, I was happy to be done with school, but inside I wanted to go back because I wanted to play sports.

"I took up racquetball and go so obsessed with it. People always ask me what sport I think parallels fishing the most. I've always been intrigued by racket sports like tennis or racquetball because of how you can go out and absolutely smoke someone 6-0 then have the tables turned on you the next set. The intriguing part is the mental aspect of racket sports is so intense and I think it's a really great training ground for fishing.

He continued, "In fishing, an extreme amount of what we do is the mental game. It's not the casting and reeling. It's the quick decisions. In racket sports, in a millisecond you have to decide your next shot and where you're going with it and how you're going to prepare for the next shot after that. It's the same thing in fishing. It's all about the mental game and the decisions you make even when you're down or you don't have a fish at 11 a.m. or when the shad bite dies off or the morning bite quits. You can just say, 'You just beat me 6-0 so now I'm going to beat you 6-0.'"

Two Stinkers To Start

The way Dudley started the year, he probably felt like he was up against Roger Federer in his prime. He thought he was doing the right thing prior to the season opener at Lake Okeechobee. He practiced around the Everglades in an attempt to shake off the offseason rust and fine-tune his flipping technique and get himself prepared for the Big O.

"Going into it, it's like being a runner," he said. "You can't just show up for a 5K. I thought I was in good shape. I practiced all different kinds of stuff and really had some confidence going and felt ready."

The weights this year didn't measure up at all to past tour events at Okeechobee and Dudley wasn't able to get on the better quality fish. He failed to crack 10 pounds on day 1, but came in 4 pounds heavier on day 2 and managed to cash a check in 65th.

"At Okeechobee, you never know how good your practice was until the tournament starts," he said. "On day 1, I had a good day to do what I was doing, but I didn't catch them all that well. Then on day 2, I got to smoking them. That was the tournament I thought I was the most prepared for."

His 104th-place finish at Smith Lake still gets under his skin when he talks about it. In hindsight, he feels that he wasn't fishing fast enough with his dropshot.

"It wasn't until the last 90 minutes or 2 hours on day 2 that the light bulb went on," he said. "It became easy then and I knew if I'd only had one more day, I could make a major charge.

"I was marking a lot of fish, but I started playing the numbers game. I'd see one and take my time and try to fish for that one. If I couldn't get that one to bite, I'd see another one and try for him. I started fishing extremely fast and video-gaming and when I started doing that, it was stupid how easy it was. I was so mad that I didn't adjust sooner.

"That's what separates Angler of the Year from also-rans. That was just me being out of shape for that style of fishing."

Short Run At Red

Dudley spent 2 days at the Red River before it went off limits. He finished 7th there in 2011, but after the scouting trip he came away feeling about the same as other qualifiers he talked to.

"I fished for about 5 or 6 hours total and caught 30 or 40 keepers," he said. "You could pretty much go anywhere and catch 'em, but like everyone else getting size was the issue."

Only spending a couple days there allowed him to get a feel for the fishery without getting locked in on any particular area or baits.

"I didn't get any preconceived notions," he said. "They were biting pretty good, but anything bigger than a 1 3/4-pounder was a pretty good fish. It's a good fishery and you can get a lot of bites."