By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
Brad Knight still puts in hours behind the counter at the Wartburg (TN) Pharmacy a couple days a week just to maintain some normalcy in his routine. Ever since August, that routine has been altered just a bit.
After capturing the Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Ouachita, Knight’s says life has been a “whirlwind” as he tries to adjust to being the reigning champion of one of bass fishing’s marquee events. He’s spent the fall attempting to capitalize on his Cup win with sponsors, both new and old. He hasn’t fished as much as he usually does, partly because he suffered a broken foot at a charity event in September.
“There’s been no time to really to stop and process much and a lot of that is on me,” Knight said. “I’ve had some decent partners before the Cup, but this was a chance for me to build my brand off the ground with a lot of companies. Winning the Cup has given me that opportunity and I’m trying to not let it go to waste.”
Already, he’s secured new sponsorships with Lew’s and Strike King and has a few others close to being finalized. Still, he doesn’t want his mind wandering too far from what really matters – catching bass. He has started an informal countdown to the FLW Tour season opener at Lake Okeechobee.
“I have put everything about the Cup behind me for the most part and now I’m focusing on having as strong a 2016 season as I possibly can,” he said. “I’m already focused on Okeechobee and I’m looking forward to when that mindset shifts from business back to fishing mode.”
Motivation Even Higher
Knight related winning the Cup to getting the monkey off his back when it came to high finishes in high-dollar tournaments. Prior to the Cup, he hadn’t posted a Top-10 finish in 40 previous FLW Tour events. Now that he’s broken through, he’s anxious to return to competition to see if he can develop some consistency.
“The main thing has been to continue competing at a high level,” he said. “I don’t know if I have specific goals, but I know having next year’s Cup made alleviates some pressure. Still, I put so much pressure on myself to perform at high level. I’m extremely competitive and I want to do well. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if it’s for 500K or 50 bucks in a club tournament, I want to go out and win just as much as the next guy.”
He’s planning to head to Florida shortly after Jan. 1 to get back in the fishing groove and get in tune with how the fish are setting up. He says the Cup win will make him hungrier on the water.
“I think it will,” he said. “You had the taste at the highest level and it’s one of those cases of I’ve been done there and done that and I want it more. You achieve it once and want to do it again to prove that you can attain your goals. I’m looking forward to my drive being as strong as it ever has been. I’ve been so involved on the business side lately and I normally fish a lot in the offseason so I’m not chomping at the bit once the season starts, but this year will be different.”
Opportunity Knocks
After Knight won the Cup, he naturally talked about the financial ambitions that winning $500,000 can trigger. Paying off his mortgage was attractive, so was setting aside money for his daughter’s college fund. In reality, after taxes the half million can turn into just over half of that so he had to temper some of the plans he and his wife had.
“We had a lot of high ambitions until I met with our accountant,” Knight joked. “He brought me back to reality. Winning that much money is a great thing, but it’s a far cry from winning the Power Ball. It’s a great thing and sets you up for the future, but it’s not like I can retire anytime soon.”
And so he looks ahead to next season’s schedule that will feature plenty of familiar venues for Knight and many of the FLW Tour vets. With so much history at all of these lakes, he says it’s a challenge not to fall back on what worked last year or the year before that.
“I try to not rely on history,” he said. “We’ve been to Beaver in April every year since the start of time and Matt (Arey) won in back-to-back years doing different things so it proves you can’t hang your hat on much of the past. You have general ideas that gives you a starting point, but it’s all about figuring out what’s happening almost hour to hour.”
He would prefer going to different locations or even the same locations at different times of the year just to keep it interesting. He’ll get some variety next year when he also competes in two divisions of the Bassmaster Opens with an eye on competing on both top-level circuits down the road.
“The only way to make money is to fish as many tournaments that pay $100,000 for first and $10,000 for 50th,” he said. “I can’t ever take my foot off the gas.”
