There might be times when Randy Howell could still pass for a college kid, but he's been a tour pro for 16 years now. And he says he's finally attained a level of maturity as an angler that allows him to completely trust his instincts.
The 35-year-old Alabamian had one of his best seasons ever this year, logging eight placements of 30th or better en route to finishing 8th in the Bassmaster Elite Series Angler of the Year (AOY) race. He exhibited the type of consistency that's required to achieve his career-long goal of winning the AOY.
"I'm hoping to have the same kind of year next year, but maybe go after a few more Top 10s and give myself a chance to win," he said. "It's real important to get those Top 10s because the points system rewards those more than anything, and a lot of places we went this year, I was just one good fish from achieving that.
"The one thing I really wanted to do this year was eliminate the bad events, and I was pretty much able to do that. I didn't have any (mechanical) breakdowns and my equipment was good, and that always helps. I just focused on catching a limit every day and being consistent."
Out on His Own
A big part of Howell's maturation process has been the realization that his best results come from figuring things out on his own. He's a talkative sort by nature and speaks frequently with a lot of fellow pros, but rarely tries to glean fishing information from those conversations.
He's found that he's not adept at following advice and is better off just going with his intuition when he's on the water.
"Some guys use help to their advantage, and there's nothing wrong with that," he said. "But my problem is I can't seem to make good use of it unless it's something really obvious, and you seldom get help like that because it's just not that easy anymore.
"I've done it long enough now that I know a lot of times I do better in tournaments when I don't have the fish figured out (from practice). I need to try to fish more on gut instincts rather than the knowledge I've gained over the last several days, and I got more confidence in doing that this year.
"There were at least four times out of 11 tournaments this year when I had a bad practice," he continued, "but I ended up with a finish in the teens or 20s by fishing by the seat of my pants. That's just the way I fish best."
His best finish of the year was a 3rd at Old Hickory – an event that was relocated from the Mississippi River in Iowa on just a couple of weeks notice due to severe flooding. Few anglers had a set gameplan going in, and all of the uncertainty worked to his advantage.
He cruised around and fished any type of shallow structure he could find, changing things up each day until he found something that worked.
Howell went against the grain at Old Hickory, and that move resulted in a lot of quality fish.
"A lot of guys were saying they were more unprepared for that tournament than any we'd ever had. The textbooks and all the stuff on the Internet said a deep-water ledge bite is what you should be looking for, but I went with my instincts right off the bat and just started fishing shallow stuff that looked good.
"That finish was a big confidence boost."
Friendly Inspiration
As for his AOY goal, Howell drew inspiration from good friend Todd Faircloth's valiant run at the award this year. The Texan carried the lead into the final event before finally surrendering it to the relenless Kevin VanDam (now a four-time AOY winner).
"Todd showed that if you can get on a roll with good decisions, you can be right there in the hunt," he said. "Then if you can beat VanDam at the end, you might get it.
"And when you see somebody like Kevin accomplishing what he has and winning all the things he's won, it's just amazing. They used to say that our sport was the one that couldn't be dominated, but he's proven it can be done.
"Everybody knows he's going to catch them and he's the guy you have to beat, and that motivates me to work harder. You have to be up to that challenge if you're going to have a chance of winning it."
Notable
> Howell said the 10-08 brute he caught at Amistad ran a close second to his Old Hickory finish as the highlight of his season. "It was the biggest bass I've ever caught in my life. I caught it on a jerkbait with 10-pound line and it only had one hook in its mouth. Its head was bigger than mine."
> He'll spend 4 or 5 days at Louisiana's Red River early next month to pre-practice for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic. "I haven't been there in 7 years and I never made a Top 10 there, but I've always liked it," he said of the venue. "Jumping around to visible stuff is what I like to do, and shallow flipping and cranking are my favorite ways to fish. If they don't get the floods up north of there, it should be a good Classic."
