Mueller Looks To Make Up More Ground

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Paul Mueller came into the 2016 Bassmaster Elite Series season knowing that at some point early in the schedule he’d become a father for the first time.

He left home in Connecticut for the season opener at the St. Johns River in northeast Florida sensing he might get the call to hurry back if his wife, Kimber, went into labor. Sure enough, after he caught a couple keepers that weighed 4-06 on the first day of competition, his phone rang. It was time to go.

The 32-year-old Mueller made it back in time to see Waylon Paul Mueller, all 8 1/2 pounds of him, come into the world alongside Kimber on March 17.

“It’s been awesome,” Mueller said last week. “You always hear people say that after their first child, but until you actually have one yourself, you don’t realize what a life-changing deal it is. You’re not fishing or working for you anymore. You have someone else to take care of. It makes you work harder and realize you have to be successful. It doesn’t add more pressure, but it forces you to go the extra mile. It’s been great.”

Since then, he’s tried to balance being a new dad and trying to claw his way back up the points race. He wound up finishing last at the St. Johns and earned 1 point. In the six tournaments since, most of which have been dominated by shallow-water patterns. he’s posted three finishes in the 60s and cashed checks in the other three, including a 5th-place showing at Toledo Bend. He’s currently 57th in points and sits just 10 points out of 50th going into next week’s penultimate regular season derby at the Potomac River.

It’s been a grind, but he remains upbeat about his chances to fish his way into the Top 50, which would earn him a trip to Mille Lacs Lake in mid-September for the Angler of the Year Championship, where he can make one last push toward a berth in next year’s Bassmaster Classic.

“That’s the goal now,” he said. “I’m in the position now where I need to do well in the next two obviously. I not only want make the AOY tournament, but I don’t want to make it in 50th. I want to be in a position to challenge for a Classic spot. It’s doable if I have a Top-12 and a finish in the 20s or 30s.”

Challenging Schedule

Some might think that after a last-place finish in the opener Mueller would be in all-out scramble mode to get back into the race. He admits he’s had a smaller margin for error compared to his competitors, but it hasn’t altered his planning or tournament strategy.

“It’s the type of thing where obviously that first event was out of my control,” he said. “That said, it’s no different than any other time in my career. I’m a big fan of faith and look to God in a lot of situations so when things look hard, things that seem impossible can be done.”

It’s been impressive how Mueller has been able to pass nearly half the field in the points standings despite basically sitting out an event. What’s been more telling is he’s been able to do it on fisheries that haven’t been in his wheelhouse.

Mueller will be the first to admit that he’s not the best shallow-water angler. He’d much rather be offshore and targeting deep structure. The way the schedule has played out so far meant he was outside his comfort zone most of the time.

“I wouldn’t call myself a good shallow-water fisherman and the whole year with the exception of Toledo Bend has been shallow water,” he said. “I feel I’d do better if there were more offshore tournaments. That said, I know I have to improve on my shallow-water deal. I’m doing okay, but I feel like I can do better.”

He says the Winyah Bay (61st) and Cayuga Lake (24th) events were the most frustrating for him in terms of the fish he’d found versus how he finished.

“There were some other ones where I was one big bite away from being in the Top 50,” he said. “Sometimes that’s going to happen, but at Winyah and Cayuga, I thought I had the fish to do better than my results. It stinks when you have opportunities to do well and you don’t capitalize.”

The high point so far was a 5th-place finish at Toledo Bend, where he felt like he was a couple good fish away from challenging Kevin VanDam for the win.

“That was a confidence booster,” he said. “If I get two more big bites with those three fish (I had) on day 4 and it would’ve been an interesting weigh in.

“I felt like if I knew Toledo Bend better I could’ve won. I was on the winning pattern, but didn’t have enough spots.”

He knows the experience he’s gained through his first season and a half will only help him down the road, which falls in line with some guidance he received from a well-respected name in the industry.

“The best advice I got before I decided to sign up (for the Elites) was from Gary Dobyns,” Mueller said. “He’s close friends with Aaron Martens and Aaron told him that there’s a 5-year learning curve to get into it. In those 5 years, you’ll basically see all the fisheries B.A.S.S. is going to go to. There’s a learning curve so if you can do well and survive that learning curve and learn these bodies of water, when you spend all those days on a body of water, the more you’re going to realize the little nuances each lake has. I’m still in that process now.

“If we got to a fishery where I can fish my strengths, I know I can do well. In the meantime, I need to work on what I’m not good at.”

Potomac Will Be ‘Pivotal’

Mueller thinks the Potomac will be the most challenging of the two remaining events. He’s not a fan of tidal fishing and has limited experience at the Potomac.

“Pivotal is the best way to describe it,” he said. “This one scares me the most out of all of them. It’ll be the biggest hill to climb. If I can get over this hump, I think I can get something together at the Mississippi and get to Mille Lacs. I feel like that’ll be more my style.”

He spent 2 days at the Potomac before it went off limits and he came away no more confident that when he arrived.

“I don’t feel good about it,” he said. “Tidal is probably my biggest weakness. I don’t feel like I have a good handle on tidal fisheries, but I’m going to work hard and keep my faith and fish hard.”

Scouting trips have paid off for him in the past, though, so he’s not going to concede that a poor finish is in his future. In the two Bassmaster Classics he competed in, including the Lake Guntersville event in 2014 when he was the runner-up, scouting trips proved to be valuable learning tools.

“As fisherman, we build off positive momentum,” he said. “When you have a good scout trip, you have a good vibe about it. This one, though, I don’t have a good feeling. I need to buckle down during practice. It’s probably going to be real hot and it’s going to wear you out. There will be a lot of things to overcome.”