By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Unlike a lot of veteran pros, Scott Rook doesn't pine to win a tour-level points title. There's another trophy that he'd much rather possess.
"I really couldn't care less about the Angler of the Year – I want to win the Bassmaster Classic," he said. "I wouldn't care if I won another tournament for the rest of my life.
"I want that trophy that says 'World Champion.' That would mean a whole lot to me. It's the reason I work so hard just to get there."
Come February, the 53-year-old Arkansan will be there for the first time since 2011. He finished 21st in this year's Elite Series points race and will compete in the Classic for the ninth time at South Carolina's Lake Hartwell.
"I've been close to winning it several times. I finished 2nd to (good friend Kevin VanDam) in 2001 and I had the fish on to win – it's just the typical story. The last time at Hartwell (2008) I was in 2nd after the first day with 20 pounds after I'd gotten on a real strong pattern in practice.
"I'm looking forward to going back because it's a cool lake and it's always interesting because you can catch them deep or shallow. But I really don't care where the Classic is – I just want to be there."
Had to Cut his Losses
It wasn't as if Rook totally stunk it up during the 3 straight years he missed the Classic prior to re-qualifying for the event this year. Yeah, he struggled in 2011 after contending in the Classic at the Louisiana Delta (once again won by VanDam), but he missed the cutoff by a single point the following year, when only the Top 33 got in.
He ended up between those extremes (55th) in 2013.
"I had some issues with losing fish," he said. "I felt like I'd been around plenty of fish – maybe not to win, but at least to do well and make the Classic all 3 of those years. When you're losing that many you start to think that it's something in your equipment that's causing it and you start with your hooks and baits and work your way up.
"You get to a point where you break a couple off and you start not setting the hook as hard as you should and you end up losing the fish. But this year I went to Bass Pro Shops XPS line and it might be the best stuff I ever put on a reel. I could set as hard as I wanted to and I couldn't break it."
He said he also made an adjustment farther up the chain.
"Tournament fishing is all about mental attitude and I went into this season determined to have a good attitude and to get back to the game I'd played in the past. I wanted to be consistent again and if I wasn't on the fish to win, then I'd just do the best I could do. I've won a number of tournaments (including the Bassmaster Legends Major on his home water, the Arkansas River, in 2006), but I've never been the hero-or-zero type, even on the local level.
"For some reason, I'm not a great finisher and I don't know what I can do to change that. I can name a handful of guys who do it real well, but there've been times when I've fallen apart or had the wheels come off on the last day. I just want to be consistent so I can keep making a living doing this and keep getting chances to fish the Classic because it's not easy out there."
Delaware was Dandy
Another topic on which Rook diverges from many of his fellow Elite Series pros is the Delaware River: He thoroughly enjoyed the circuit's visit to the tough-bite fishery near Philadelphia last summer, which resulted in a season-best 9th-place finish for him.
"I thought that tournament was fun," he said. "It was river fishing, which I was brought up doing, so I felt like I was right back home again. I enjoyed running around and fishing every piece of visible cover I could find.
"Then on the last day we had the best tide for the longest time and I fished a lot of cover that I couldn't even see before, but I didn't catch them. I guess it was another one of those times when it wasn't meant for me to win."
He's not looking forward to all the driving he'll do next year with two tournaments on the West Coast and two in the northeastern part of the country. He says that's his least-favorite aspect of the profession.
One derby he does have great anticipation for is the opener at the Sabine River in Texas. He finished 63rd there in 2013.
"I want another shot at that place because it got me last time. I caught a lot of fish, but they weren't keepers. A place that's stingy like that, you don't set the hook on a lot of fish in practice and in the tournament I caught 35 or 40 fish, but only two were keepers."
