By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
With two-thirds of the 2014 FLW Tour season in the books, Jason Lambert was barely among the Top 10 rookies in the points standings and seemed to be a real long shot to qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup.
Two tournaments later, he was holding the Rookie of the Year trophy and had made the Cup with well over a dozen places to spare. All he'd needed was a couple of "home games" on Tennessee River venues.
An 8th-place finish at Pickwick Lake (which sits just outside the back door of his Tennessee home) and a runner-up showing at Kentucky Lake (which he likes even better than his home water) turned the 38-year-old's debut Tour campaign into a rousing success. His Cup performance was a disappointment as he finished near the bottom of the field, but he'd achieved his primary objective just by getting there.
He'll begin 2015 with a similar mindset.
"The only number I'm really trying to reach is the Top 35 to make the Cup," he said. "It'd be nice to be higher, but getting a chance to fish for half a million dollars, that's the goal for the year.
"I can't be too happy with a three-fish showing at the Cup, but as far as how the year went, I can't complain too much."
Steady Progression
The 38-year-old Lambert was at No. 85 in the Angler of the Year (AOY) race when the season reached its midway point with the conclusion of the derby at Sam Rayburn Reservoir. He'd finished a dismal 128th in that event.
The second half of the schedule was an entirely different story, though. He started it off with a 26th at Beaver before logging his single-digit placements on the fertile offshore ledges of the lakes he knows the best. Those finishes pushed him all the way up to 21st on the final points list.
There's only one Tennessee River stop on next year's schedule (Lake Chickamauga), but overall, he likes the makeup of it more than this year's slate.
"I'd love to have a tournament on Kentucky Lake every year, but for not having anything in west Tennessee or western Kentucky, it's a really good schedule for me," he said. "It has more places I'm familiar with – Eufaula fishes just like the Tennessee River, (Lewis) Smith's only 2 1/2 hours from where I live, Beaver's on there every year and I've been to Toho several times."
He's most comfortable on offshore structure, but considers himself well-versed in many shallow-water techniques and is looking forward to demonstrating that.
"I haven't been to a tidal fishery in a long time, but I think the Potomac (River) could be a fun place. It's a grass fishery and it'll be a Chatterbait-swimjig-frog deal and I'm familiar with that type of fishing. I won't be as worried about the tides as I will be about finding the right stretch of grass."
Early Visits Didn't Pay
Lambert took pre-practice trips to both Rayburn and Murray (Cup), but those turned out to be his worst finishes. He doesn't plan any such scouting trips for 2015 since he's had previous experience at every stop except the Potomac, and his participation in the Southern Rayovacs will rule out a trip to the nation's capital.
He said he had an excellent official practice at Rayburn, but was on transitioning fish that pulled away from him as the tournament progressed.
"I was catching them so good offshore that I just couldn't leave," he said. "I had a pretty good first day (when he weighed nearly 13 pounds), but I knew they were leaving and I just couldn't make the adjustment."
He brought only two fish to the scale on day 2, both of which weighed less than a pound and a half.
"What I should've done was gone to the bank and picked up a plastic bait and I probably would've finished in the 40s, or the 50s at least. I didn't do it, though, and it was my own fault and that's the way it goes."
He said his biggest issue at the Cup was making a wrong turn on the first morning.
"I should've gone down the lake with all those other guys and tried to catch schoolers, but unfortunately I went up the lake first. I'd had too good of a practice up there and I couldn't get those fish out of my mind.
"I think those couple bad decisions will make me a little better as I go forward. I'm not going to say I won't make other mistakes, but hopefully I won't make those same ones again."
