Scott Campbell has already achieved the primary objective he set for his rookie season on the Bassmaster Elite Series – when all of the columns are totaled, he'll come out on the black side of the financial ledger. Now, with just one tournament left, he can take his best shot at a goal that wasn't in the forefront of his mind when the season began.
The 24-year-old Missourian is 47th in the Angler of the Year (AOY) race. He needs to move up 10 places in the season finale at Florida's Lake Toho to gain the Bassmaster Classic berth he narrowly missed last year, when he wound up 4th on the Northern Tour points list.
"It'd be a fantastic way to end the season and a great way to start '08," he said. "I think having that chance will just make me work that much harder (at Toho).
"It might be one of those times when I stay out for 16 or 17 hours (on practice days) and fish from dark to dark. It could come down to finding those extra couple of fish to bump you up."
Happy with Consistency
Campbell is part of a strong class of first-year Bassmaster pros. His debut season hasn't featured the highlights that fellow rookies Derek Remitz and Casey Ashley have achieved, but he's fished solidly throughout.
He's cashed a check (Top 50) in five events and narrowly missed the money cutoff in four others. His close-but-no-cigars consist of a 54th, two 55ths and a 56th.
Because of his high finish on last year's Northern Tour, his rookie-year entry fees were cut in half (to $27,500 for the season). With the proceeds from a couple of boats he's sold this year thrown in, he's assured of finishing the year with more money than when he started.
"I'm real pleased with my consistency – having been 56th or better in nine of the 10 tournaments," he said. "I've been right there in pretty much every event and I've only had one real bomb (an 85th at Smith Mountain Lake).
"Coming in as a rookie, I figured I'd have more of those, but I've been able to catch them pretty much everywhere we've gone. That's been the most exciting thing for me."
Ability to Adapt
Campbell said he's pulled a few decent finishes out of less-than-promising situations with his willingness to make adjustments on the fly.
"For the most part, it's been a deal where Thursday dawns and I run out and know what I need to do," he said. "But sometimes when I've gotten out there, something had changed."
He cited Friday at the recent Potomac River tournament as a prime example.
"When I got to my topwater spot, the tide was slack. Going by the charts, it should have been moving, but it hadn't started yet, and I knew I only had a narrow window for catching them on top.
"So I went to a place where I'd planned to fish later in the day, but where I'd never fished first thing in the morning. I caught two 3-pounders, and that allowed me to make a check (for 45th place)."
He's proud of the fact that he's been willing to make instinctual changes that have paid off. But he said it's not always easy to chuck a gameplan that was formulated to be successful.
Campbell has been forced to make a lot of in-tournament adjustments to his patterns, and many of them have paid off.
"You have to have the guts to do it, even if you're not completely familiar with what you're going to do next. I think that's what separates even the guys out here. (Mike Iaconelli) has talked about always fishing the moment, and there really is something to it.
"It's easier for me to pick up and move now than it was earlier in the year, mainly because the more I've done it, the more it's panned out."
He said he's learned a lot during the course of the season, and he's a much better angler than he was last winter.
"It's been kind of rough because this rookie field is so strong, and some of us have gotten overshadowed by Derek and Casey. Hopefully more people will take notice that there's more than couple of rookies out here who can really fish."
Notable
> Campbell will be married on Nov. 10. He met his future wife, Kristina, on their first day of classes at Truman State University.
> He graduated from Truman State in 2005 with a degree in finance. "When tax time comes, it's nice to know what I'm doing there," he said. "And some of the core classes in marketing from the first couple of years have really helped me with sponsorships."
> He had two Elite Series Top-10 finishes as a non-boater in 2006 – he was 3rd at Grand Lake and 4th at Kentucky Lake.
> He's never fished Toho, but did compete in the 2005 ESPN Outdoors Bassmaster Weekend Series Championship at East Toho. "If you've seen one Florida lake, you've seen them all. They're big bowls with a lot of veggies."
