By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Jeff Sprague's third season as an FLW Tour pro in 2016 was easily his best. The 35-year-old Texan finished among the Top 15 in each of the first four regular-season events and was leading the Angler of the Year (AOY) race with two-thirds of the campaign in the books.
He got tripped up a bit in the final two derbies, logging a 71st-place finish at Kentucky Lake and a 57th at Lake Champlain to ultimately end up tied for 6th on the final points list with eventual Forrest Wood Cup winner John Cox. It wasn't the conclusion he'd hoped for, but he gained a lot of valuable experience that he can utilize in the future.
Mechanical troubles were an issue throughout the season – he said there was only one tournament in which he didn't incur any. Also, some increased attention from FLW media altered his preparation for the final two tournaments.
"I did a piece with FLW about my mental side, if you will," he said. "I hate to say I'm a head case because I'm not, but I practice a certain way. Some guys like (Bryan) Thrift will hit a hundred places in a day and that works for him, where I might do 20 different things in a day and try to pick the lake apart.
"For the last two tournaments I had a reporter with me for every day of practice, on and off the water, breakfast to dinner, daylight to dark, and it changed the way I practiced."
Found Comfort Zone
Sprague was on quite a run leading into the Kentucky Lake event in June. Dating back to the end of 2015, he'd notched six consecutive placements of 26th or better – a full FLW season's worth.
His AOY finishes in his first two seasons had been in the 40s, leaving him just outside of Cup qualification. He attributed his big jump in 2016 to a willingness to disregard the prevalent pattern theory for each venue and instead allowing his own strengths to work for him.
He spent 3 seasons as a Tour co-angler before moving to the front of the boat, twice finishing among the Top 7 in the back-seater points. He picked up a lot of knowledge and learned a lot about specialized tactics from his pro partners during that period, but also developed the mindset that he had to do specific things at particular bodies of water.
"My time as a co-angler helped me mentally and made me believe that I could compete not only from the back of the boat, but the front as well. But as far as techniques and things like that, the learned behavior has probably been my biggest downfall as a pro. I had the idea that if I went to Beaver, this is what I needed to be doing, or if we were at what was considered a ledge lake that I could only do certain things.
"I eventually realized that I could take something from one event and apply it elsewhere. When you've got enough things in your Rolodex that you can reach in and pull out when you need them, that's when you can find yourself and come into your own."
An Early Beginning
Sprague finished 4th in this year's Southwestern Costa FLW Series points race and is set to compete in the championship event at Table Rock Lake in early November. He looks at that derby as the start of the 2017 campaign rather than the conclusion of 2016.
"I'll be breaking in a new boat and getting geared up for next year and I'm looking to punch my ticket to the (2017) Cup," he said. "That would take some pressure off for next season.
"I like those Ozarks Lakes and this time of year the fishing can be really good. Any of the three species (largemouths, smallmouths and spotted bass) can be in play at any time because they're all gorging to put on weight for the winter."
He said he doesn't have any specific goals for 2017, but says he's itching to claim a Tour victory.
"At this point it feels like that if you're not showing up to win then you're not there for the right reasons. I feel like any tournament should be mine to win, and in the past that wasn't always true. There've been times when I've shown up to make a check or make the Top 50, and now it's like, 'Hey, let's try to win these deals. You've got the skill set.'
"My style now is to always look for the fish to win in practice and if you're around that quality or on a pattern that could win the tournament, that's when you swing for the fence. I know what it takes to get there and now it's just a matter of bringing it together to make it all work. Getting one or two big bites that you didn't anticipate or having a pattern get stronger as the tournament goes on is what'll send you into that hot seat where you want to be."
