By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
The way things had been going for James Niggemeyer, he knew something needed to change in 2014 if he was to reverse his startling pattern of falling further down the Bassmaster Elite Series points standings each year.
Since qualifying for the 2010 Bassmaster Classic by virtue of a strong 2009 campaign (26th in points), he had dropped an average of 15 spots per season in the standings. The rock-bottom point, he hopes, came last year when he finished 90th in the Angler of the Year (AOY) race.
After a long off season of reflection, he bounced back with what he called his best season as a pro. The Van, Texas resident cashed checks in seven of eight Elite Series events and qualified not only for the Angler of the Year Championship, but also clinched a berth in the Classic at Lake Hartwell with a 27th-place finish in points.
Needless to say, he was thrilled to put together a season that reversed his downward trend. Hartwell will be the site of his third Classic.
“You’ve probably heard it 100 times: making the Classic is obviously huge,” he said. “It really is and on the heels of my 2013 performance, or lack thereof, I’m just really excited to come back and turn things around and get back in the Classic. It’s so satisfying any time you can perform and excel and have a degree of success at what you love to do. That’s what’s so gratifying about this.”
Time to Reboot
Niggemeyer is typically a glass-half-full guy on and off the water. It’s just his nature to be positive and try to see the good in every situation. He admits that was a difficult task when reflecting on the 2013 season.
“I’m not one to look for negative motivation, but that was some of what happened last fall,” he said. “I started to think about how I could turn this around and what I could do. I had a lot of reflecting time, no doubt. We had a lot of things going on last year, personally and professionally, that weighed on us.”
He tried to wrap his arms around what was causing him to struggle so frequently. Blaming lost fish was an easy way out and he knew everybody he competes against deals with that aspect. He sought the counsel of some of his peers to get outsider’s perspectives on how they shake the blues.
What it boiled down to was getting back to a simplified approach, which meant not getting caught up in dock talk, staying in his comfort zone in terms of techniques and simply having fun.
“I had reached out to guys I trust and know on tour and bounced things off of them and tried to put my finger on what it was that made a difference,” he said “I reached out to some friends from church and prayed about it a lot and I thought about it in my Christian faith and in my day to day work as a pro angler.
“This year was a culmination of a journey in my Christian faith and on the water. I think what happened this year was I reverted back to the way I used to fish in 2009 and some of the success I had in prior years. I just got back to my confidence techniques and strengths.
“After being out here for 8 years, I like to think I’m not just a one-trick pony,” he continued. “After a year like I had in 2013, you tend to revert back to your strengths. You have to get back to a place where you’re on confident ground. I went back to those things where I know I can do this or I’m going to look for these fish. The key was to not get distracted by other stuff.”
He said even reading about fellow Elite Series angler Jared Lintner and his strategy of fishing his strengths and enjoying his time on the water more this season served as an inspiration to his turnaround.
“Jared’s a great guy, but we don’t spend a ton of time together,” Niggemeyer said. “I spent a night at his house during my rookie year when we were out west. A lot of things he said mirrored my take on things.
“There’s a lot to be said for that,” he added. “A lot of guys could win doing a lot of different things. The field is so stout you have to bring your A game every time, but not all of us have an A game at every technique. You have to bring your best and sometimes that means doing what makes you comfortable. I just had a lot of fun and enjoyed myself fishing the way I like to.”
He even removed more tackle from his boat than he has in the past in an effort to “simplify, simplify, simplify,” he added. “This year I ran the lightest load in my boat in years.”
Plenty of High Points
Niggemeyer put himself on solid footing points-wise with four straight money finishes to open this season. He followed up a 16th at the Lake Seminole season opener with 50ths at both the St. Johns River and Table Rock Lake before logging a 26th at Toledo Bend Reservoir.
His momentum, though, started to build even before the Elite Series season as he managed to cash a check at the Lake Amistad Central Open in early February with a two-day total of 14-13.
“Amistad was so tough and I managed to get a check there,” he said. “I knew guys would catch them deep, but I went and did my thing, power-fishing shallow, and it worked out. I always like to have a good tournament before the season to knock the rust off and after Amistad and Seminole, the wheels were starting to turn.
“Seminole was great because I was able to get back into the top percentage of the field there. I caught my fish a couple hundred yards from where (Brett) Hite caught his giant bag on day 3. I was like, “OK I’ve gone out and I’ve went looking and tried to fish my strength and do things that make me confident and I performed at a high level.”
He called Toledo Bend the highlight of his campaign because of a decision he made to go away from a deep-water pattern he sensed was fading in favor of fishing heavy cover in shallow water. After his weight fell off more than 9 pounds from day 1 to 2, he went shallow on day 3 and came in with 15-plus pounds to finish in the 20s.
He did the same thing at the Delaware River, where he didn’t know what to expect.
“I was 50th after day 2 and I opted to switch it up and got some valuable points,” he said. “Being able to make those little adjustments and being more fluid like recognizing a pattern going away was so important for me.”
