Event-By-Event Analysis Of Ike's Key Decisions

(Editor's note: This is part 1 of a 2-part story in which Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year Mike Iaconelli analyzes each event of his season.)

Back when the Bassmaster Tour was a six-event season, there was less room for error. One bad tournament could instantly drop a pro from the Angler of the Year (AOY) race. When BASS revamped its premier circuit and created the Elite Series, it expanded the schedule to 11 events across three different seasons (spring, summer and early fall).

Yes, the expansion built in some room for error – it was now easier to overcome a bad tournament. But at the same time, it took the AOY race to a new height, since the points race now measured anglers across a "truer" season, where strengths and weaknesses all emerged at one point or another.

Mike Iaconelli, as BassFans know, won the first-ever 11-event AOY title. It came down to the wire at Table Rock, where Ike had to fend off a persistent Steve Kennedy and the hard-charging Kevin VanDam. But in the end, it was Ike all the way.

His 11-event record included one win, a total of five Top 12 cuts, and three other Top 20s. He finished outside the Top 50 just once, at Champlain.

By the numbers, that's how he won AOY. But inside the numbers are 11 individual competitions – 11 individual stories about adjustments, decisions and executions.

What follows is an event-by-event look at Ike's season. He takes each tournament and breaks it down to the few key factors that determined his finish.

Event 1: Lake Amistad, Texas (16th)

> Day 1: 5, 30-05
> Day 2: 5, 19-07
> Day 3: 5, 19-03
> Total = 15, 68-15

Almost none of the Elite Series pros had fished Amistad before, so the lake was an unknown quantity. Ike had never fancied himself a sight-fisherman, but there were a lot of sight-fish here.

"For me, the key at Amistad was having something other than just sight-fish," he said. "Going into that event, I knew there would definitely be some spawning fish, and they'd be caught throughout the event, but I tried to figure out how to develop a pattern. I wanted something more than a specific area."

Amistad had been low for years, but the water had come back up, which put a lot of scrub-brush into play. He keyed on that cover and put something together with a Berkley Gulp Sinking Minnow. But on day 1, the winds kicked up and he made an adjustment.

"I had over 30 pounds that first day on a 3/4-ounce spinnerbait," he said. "I hadn't thrown it at all in practice, but the winds were 20 mph that first day.

"That was key, and also the fact that it was a new place that nobody had been to. Instead of getting hung up on fishing the whole thing, I was able to establish a pattern I could run."

> AOY position after Amistad: 16th

Event 2: Sam Rayburn, Texas (13th)

> Day 1: 5, 21-08
> Day 2: 5, 12-08
> Day 3: 5, 13-03
> Total = 15, 47-03

At Sam Rayburn, Ike had no choice but to fish beds. It was the start of a learning process that, after a few events, led to a complete confidence in his bed-fishing abilities.

"At Sam Rayburn, I caught every single fish on the bed," he said. "Historically, bed-fishing was something I tried to avoid. It's not like I couldn't do it, but I knew the sight-fishing guys were so good, that I'd always go and try to find something else. But for the first time in my life, I started gaining a lot of confidence in it, and the confidence started to snowball."

He decided early in practice to only look for beds and mark them. When the tournament came, he didn't waver. "In my mind, I was sticking to the plan and not deviating. And again, I became progressively more confident in my sight-fishing."

About missing the Top 12 cut by a single place, he said: "I lost an 8-pounder at Amistad, and here, I lost a 7-pounder on the bed. That was the cut-fish."

> AOY position after Sam Rayburn: 5th

Event 3: Santee Cooper, South Carolina (18th)

> Day 1: 5, 20-06
> Day 2: 5, 27-14
> Day 3: 5, 20-05
> Total = 15, 68-09

Santee Cooper was another sight-fishing event, but it was a late-bloomer. All through practice, the fish held back. But on the final practice day they made their move and flooded the banks. Ike noted he was ready, and that was the key to his finish. Again, he stuck with spawning fish.

"When we got there, they weren't crashed up yet, but I felt they'd be coming," he said. "I gained enough confidence in practice to stick with sight-fishing because, on the final day, I practiced until 4:30. I had to be at registration by 5:30, so it was a risk.

"What I saw was amazing – I've never seen them crash the bank like that."

Santee Cooper marked the third consecutive sight-fishing tournament. About his maturation as a sight-fishermen, he said: "By now, I was really learning about it. I was presenting different baits, and seeing how each fish had its own personality, how you need to switch between tiny and big baits, how to switch colors – I really started to get dialed in."

He also noted that two tackle change-ups helped.

"At Amistad, I started using red Tru-Tungsten weights, and that was getting me a few extra bites.

"And I used to use amber lenses, but then Ish Monroe turned me on to a yellow lens. I'd never used yellow, but it helped me see better. So I was getting real dialed-in on sight-fishing, even down to my line. I'd been throwing 20-pound, but at Santee I started using 30-pound Berkley Sensation. I knew the size of the fish, and my overall understanding was better."

> AOY position after Santee Cooper: 5th

Event 4: Guntersville, Alabama (1st)

> Day 1: 5, 16-12
> Day 2: 5, 22-01
> Day 3: 5, 17-13
> Day 4: 5, 15-03
> Total = 20, 71-13

Guntersville marked a turning point in the Elite Series because both spawning and post-spawn fish were available. Plus, it was a big-time grass lake, and Ike loves grass.

"Anytime we get grass, it gives me extra confidence," he said. "Going into this one, I knew pattern-wise that we were on the tail-end of the spawn. At Rayburn and Santee Cooper, I had to commit to sight-fishing. But here, I split up practice.

"I spent half of practice marking beds, and the other half looking for post-spawn fish. Looking back at the tournament, it was key that I had two things going."

But also key were his on-the-water decisions. Ike's famous motto is "fish the moment," and that's what he did here. He fished what the weather gave him, and he bounced between patterns. On day 4, he changed up completely.

"I was playing the day and letting the conditions and fish tell me when to stay and go. The neatest thing was, the first day, I caught sight-fish all day long. The second day we had clouds and rain, so I went out and cranked post-spawn fish with a Berkley Frenzy.

"The third day, it was still cloudy and rainy, so I cranked again. In the afternoon, it was sunny again, so I went looking and saw a few more fish I didn't need and marked them."

About day 4, he said: "The last day for me was all about being able to fish the moment. Early, I caught a few on a crank, but the bite died. It's hard to leave a place when you're catching them to go sight-fishing again, but that's what I did. I went looking for fry-guarders with a Berkley Power Noodle."

At this point in the season, he'd achieved one of his major goals. He won an event, and the win pushed him up to 3rd in the AOY points – 40 points behind leader Dean Rojas.

"At Guntersville, everything came together for me," he said. "I was confident in my decision-making, I was using my experience, and that last day, I went and fished the Power Noodle, which I hadn't thrown at all that week.

"All the fish had moved off the beds and were guarding fry. It was kind of a sign of my maturity in the sport that, on the last day, I pulled it out of my rodlocker and threw it.

"And absolutely, AOY was starting to come to mind. It was still too early to say something about it, but I had achieved a major goal I set – to win an event – and that relieved a certain amount of pressure."

> AOY position after Guntersville: 3rd

Event 5: Clarks Hill, Georgia (12th)

> Day 1: 5, 14-10
> Day 2: 5, 10-10
> Day 3: 5, 18-02
> Day 4: 5, 9-12
> Total = 20, 53-02

Ike was stoked and atop the wave of a win when he pulled into Clarks Hill 2 weeks later. He'd fished the lake the year before and finished 5th, but that was in early March. This time, it was early May. So again, it was a spawn/post-spawn tournament.

And the key to his high finish was an unorthodox approach that involved using his boat wake to generate bites.

"Going there, I felt the best thing I could do was use the momentum of Guntersville," he said. "I tried to do the same thing – split my practice 50/50 – but I ended up finding a much better post-spawn bite.

"The key, again, was fishing the moment, and realizing what was happening. In tournaments, it's so easy to get stuck into one thing. But at Clarks I was really trying to fish instinctively."

About that boat-wake bite, here's what happened. He was catching good post-spawn fish early in the mornings on a topwater. Everybody else was too. Once the sun got high though, he struggled.

"At the end of the first day, I was fishing shoals and points. I ran up to one, but came in too hard and fast. When I came off pad, I pulled up close to the bank, and as I jumped up front to fish, the waves from my boat started to roll into the shoal.

"I got down to pick up my rod, looked, and saw the fish had started schooling. I quickly threw a Berkley Frenzy Walker and caught one. That made a lightbulb go off in my head, and the rest of the tournament, I used my boat wake on purpose to activate the schooling fish."

About his pattern discovery, and his confidence after Clarks, he said: "The little things like that were coming alive in me. What I did there, that gets back to my youth, when I just went out fishing with no pre-conceived notions. I just let the day unfold.

"I was just really aware of what was happening. Nothing's only an accident. Nothing's all luck. It was all a piece of the puzzle, and I was starting to let that stuff happen there."

> His AOY position after Clarks: 1st

– End of part 1 (of 2) –