By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

(Editor's note: Brian Clark and Randy Allen are former Bassmaster Elite Series anglers and current team-tournament partners in the Texas-Louisiana region. Both finished among the Top 5 on this year's Central Opens points list and will take their second crack at the Elites in 2015. Today's feature focuses on Allen; a profile of Clark was published on Monday.)

Randy Allen was 50 years old when he fished the Bassmaster Elite Series as a rookie back in 2008, but he wasn't truly ready to compete at that level.

"Back when I fished, I didn't have SideImaging (on his depthfinder) and I'd never even really seen it," he said. "I bought a Humminbird that had it just before Lake Erie (the 10th stop on that year's 11-event schedule).

"What's really helped me since then is I bought a hunting ranch near Lake Amistad and I've spent a lot of time on the lake and I've learned a lot about electronics. That's a good place to learn because when the water drops 30 feet, I can go see what it (visually) looks like and get an image in my mind of how to interpret seeing the same thing on the depthfinder.

"I also learned a lot about fishing straight up and down with a spoon or a dropshot," he continued, "and also about catching fish that are suspended."

Allen will return to the Elite Series in 2015 as a more well-equipped competitor – not only in terms of gear, but also from an experience standpoint. More than half of the venues on the schedule will be at least somewhat familiar to him, which was not the case in 2008 (when Amistad was the only one he'd ever seen before).

"I'm a little nervous about the (California) Delta and Havasu, but the rest I feel good about. I don't know a lot about Lake St. Clair either, but in the next couple weeks I'll probably load up and head north."

Fewer Obligations

The 56-year-old Allen owns a company called Synergy Tech, which provides bacteria-killing chemicals to the beef and poultry industries. The company has sponsored Elite Series pros Cliff Crochet and James Niggemeyer over the past few years.

When he first joined the Elite Series in '08, he had only six or seven employees. Now he has more than 20, and that number could increase once the company's oil field division is in full operation.

"It's a different situation and not everything's as dependent on me," he said. "I've got some really good managers."

Some of those people can fish, too – particularly sales manager Logan Sherrer, who ended up 8th in the Central Open points and missed an Elite invitation by just two places.

"We were wondering what we were going to do if we both made it," Allen said. "We might've had to draw straws to figure out who was going to go."

Next year's schedule, with only the two Western tournaments on consecutive weeks, won't create as many logistical issues for him as the '08 slate did. That was the year of the back-to-back events, as there were four sets of those and two other derbies that were just 2 weeks apart.

"Trying to run a business and fish at the same time that year was almost impossible."

Something to Build Upon

Allen's first go-around on the Elite Series contained few highlights. He compiled four placements of 99th or lower and finished 103rd (out of 109 competitors) in the Angler of the Year race.

He believes he's much better at making on-the-water decisions now, as was evidenced in the 27th-place showing in the final Central Open and the Arkansas River that sealed his Elite slot (he ended up 5th in the Central points, having also posted finishes of 3rd at Amistad and 43rd at the Red River).

"I had a ton of fish on laydowns in the Kerr Pool (which required traversing a lock to reach) and I had a late boat draw on the first day and I almost went there," he said. "There ended up being a lot of issues with the lock and a lot of people lost time there.

"I didn't do it. I went to where I knew I could get some bites (in the launch pool) and caught five. I understand that just catching a limit every day can make a big difference."