By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

When he got out of college a little over a decade ago, Jake Lawrence didn't consider himself ready for the rigors of a tour-level fishing career. He figured he might be close on the fish-catching side, but he had a lot to learn about the business aspect.

The former Bethel College competitor sold insurance for a few years, then developed a highly successful guiding gig based around offshore fishing and the use of electronics (Side Scan and Down Imaging at that time). He resisted the temptation to go all-in on tournament competition until last year, and his results show that perhaps holding out was the right way to go.

"I took a little bit different path than a lot of guys have," the 33-year-old said. "It's something I've always wanted to do and as far as a long-term career I never had any intentions of doing anything else, but coming out of college, I just didn't feel like I was prepared.

"By last year, and really the year prior to that, I had enough (financial) support to take a break from guiding and give myself a shot before I got too old. I had some people who really pushed me out there – I've got a wife and two boys at home and I'm not really much of a gambler. They said, 'Even if it's just for a year, you gotta go out there and do it.' I really needed that extra little push and it's really been an unbelievable 24 months. Everything's rolling in the right direction, I'm making good decisions and I'm having a lot of fun doing it."

The Paris, Tenn. resident and longtime Kentucky Lake ace qualified for this year's MLF Bass Pro Tour via his second-place showing in last year's Invitationals points standings. Through three BPT outings, he's posted two Top-10 finishes (sixth at Lake Conroe and 10th at Lake Murray) and currently sits at No. 6 on the Angler of the Year (AOY) points list.

Now he gets a shot at a $300,000 payday on a Tennessee River venue that he's pretty familiar with. His Invitationals win at Lake Eufaula last year gave him a berth in the REDCREST Championship, which will take place April 3-6 at Lake Guntersville in Alabama.

"Qualifying for REDCREST anytime, anywhere is always an unbelievable deal, but having it on a (Tennessee Valley Authority) lake is very exciting," he said. "I've fished there 30 to 40 days total, but most of those were 10 to 15 years ago. We had at least two and maybe three tournaments there every year when I was at Bethel.

"I know it pretty well and even though it might be fishing as well as it ever has, the dynamic of it has changed over the last eight or nine years with all of the eel grass. Once it gets in a lake, it really takes over and it becomes a dominant deal."

He explained that the difference between eel grass and other forms of submergent vegetation (such as milfoil, hydrilla and coontail) is that it has no edges and very few holes for anglers to focus on. Also, it gets torn up by boat props and feeding coots, which adds to the number of surface acres it covers. It can pretty much render any moving bait with treble hooks useless.

"It's really vast and it's all the same," he said. "It's like the shag carpet from the 1980s or '90s – there's just nothing different in there.

"It's good for the bass population because it provides a lot of protection for them, but it can be really frustrating for an angler. Somebody could be on what's most likely the winning fish, but if the wind blows in the wrong direction, they're not going to be able to fish it."

Despite that potential pratfall, he likes his chances to fare well. He can focus entirely on winning and won't have to worry about the points that are accumulated in regular-season events and could be critical to his requalification for next year, when the roster will be reduced from 66 competitors to 50.

"In two of the three events so far I've felt like I've almost been in survival mode and that's not the way I like to fish, so I'm very much looking forward to this one," he said. "I'm super-relaxed and that gives me confidence.

"I won't be fishing scared and I'll just go out and try to make it happen."