Niggemeyer's Season Has Come Full-Circle

The 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series season has been somewhat of a merry-go-round ride for James Niggemeyer, and now he's back where he started – sort of.

The third-year pro from Texas began the campaign with aspirations of qualifying for his second Bassmaster Classic. Then a strong run of early-season finishes put him in Top-12 points contention and he shifted his focus to making the two-event postseason.

But then came a major bomb at Kentucky Lake, which occurred because the postseason was at the forefront of his mind. Now, with one event left, all dreams of Alabama in September have been dashed and his only objective is to stay within the Classic cutoff.

"The Classic has absolutely been weighing on me, especially during this long break we've had," he said. "It's been on my mind almost daily. At Oneida I obviously want to do the best I can, but everything else is secondary to qualifying for the Classic."

He's 31st in the Toyota Tundra Angler of the Year (AOY) race, which gives him at least six spots worth of cushion for Oneida (the Top 37 will gain Classic berths, and that number could go higher if there are double-qualifiers from the Bassmaster Opens). But his position wouldn't be nearly as precarious if not for the 98th-place finish at Kentucky Lake.

"I've really tried to forget about that event, but it's hard to do. I should've just tried to make the best of what I had there, but I tried to force the issue and it wasn't there for me."

Off on the Right Foot

Niggemeyer made the 2007 Classic via the Opens and then turned in a respectable 44th-place finish in the points in his rookie campaign. But he backslid to 75th in 2008 as he made just four Top-50 cuts in 11 starts.

He got off to a blazing start this year, with finishes of 15th or better in three of the first four events. He's made five checks in seven outings, and the Kentucky Lake fiasco stands as the only true black mark on his ledger.

He entered that tournament at No. 12 in the points and caught a 12-10 bag on day 1, which left him tied for 80th place. He tried to make up a bunch of ground by abandoning his areas on day 2 and going on a hunt for bigger fish, and he ended up zeroing.

He caught 40 or 50 fish that day, but none met the 15-inch minimum-length requirement.

"A bunch of guys caught 20-pound bags the first day and that wasn't the kind of quality I'd found (during practice)," he said. "I chose to push really hard and I tried to force something that I didn't have, and it ended up hurting me. Those 20 or 30 extra points would've been huge, and I definitely made a poor choice and lost sight of my goal.

"I wasn't dialed into the right deal, and I went running around looking for it. It didn't work out."

He fell to 29th in the AOY chase, and then surrendered two more spots with a 50th at the Mississippi River. But if he cashes his sixth check of the year at Oneida – or even comes close – he'll punch his ticket for Alabama's Lay Lake next February.

Some Groundwork Laid

Oneida is a bit of a conundrum for Niggemeyer at this point. He's visited the New York lake just once (for last year's Elite event) and loved everything about it. But he finished 91st in the tournament.

"The way it lays out, I really liked it the first time I saw it and I'm looking forward to going back," he said. "I felt like I was on the right kind of fish to do well there, but I came in with only three the first day. I caught a limit the next day, but the quality had disappeared.

"A few ounces in either direction is just huge there and you have to make sure you get all of your quality bites into the boat – if you lose one or two, it changes your whole day. You know there's going to be a lot of fish weighed, but the final weigh-in doesn't always tell the real story about how the tournament went."

He spent a few days with his family at Oneida in the immediate wake of the Mississippi River event last month and got more familiar with its intricacies.

"I spent quite a bit of time on the water and caught both largemouths and smallmouths, and it was well worth my time. I learned some things not only about how the lake lays out, but how the fish relate to the cover and the structure.

"There are no guarantees, but at least when I go back I'll be coming off a good experience there, which I didn't have before. That'll be a confidence-booster."

Notable

> Even if Niggemeyer bombs again at Oneida, his Classic hopes won't be dashed. He won the Central Open at Toledo Bend in March – the only event that's been contested on that circuit so far – and thus leads that points race. The remaining tournament are at Sam Rayburn (Sept. 3-5) and the Atchafalaya Basin (Nov. 5-7).

> He's been doing a considerable amount of fishing at Lake Fork and other local venues during the break. "There's enough places around here that somewhere you can find something that's a little bit like where you're going, even if the bite's not the best right now," he said.

> He started the year at No. 125 in the BassFan World Rankings and is currently 97th.