A professional angler's first tour-level season is usually a major learning experience. But Billy McCaghren said he learned more in his sophomore Bassmaster Elite Series campaign than he did during his march to Rookie-of-the-Year (ROY) honors in 2009.

"This year started out okay, but about halfway through the season I got into a little bit of a slump and it just kind of snowballed downhill from there," said the 38-year-old Arkansan. "Now that I've had time to sit back and reflect a little bit, I can see that I made things a lot harder than they should've been.



"I started thinking too much instead of keeping things simple."

In '09, McCaghren edged out longtime FLW Tour stalwart Matt Herren for the Elite Series rookie honor, finishing 27th in the points. He fell precipitously this year, though, all the way to 59th (well below the 2011 Bassmaster Classic cutoff).

It's not like he struggled throughout – he cashed checks in four of the eight events. But there were no finishes among the Top 25 (he had three the previous year) and he concluded the campaign with his two worst placements (81st at Kentucky Lake and 67th at Fort Gibson).

It Starts with Practice

McCaghren thinks his primary problem this year was that he failed to adopt the right mindset going into practice for each event. He'd tasted a measure of success the prior year and became obsessed with improving upon it.

"I spend a lot of time looking for that one place where I could win a tournament instead of just taking my time and figuring out the best way to catch fish at each lake," he said. "I got caught up in thinking that there had to be one magic spot out there.

"My practices weren't as good as I would've liked and they weren't as good as last year. One of the things I've always prided myself on is being able to keep my mental focus, and I got away from that this year. I fished nearly in a panic the whole time."

He vows to be more prepared in 2011 – he'll do more homework on the venues before he hits the road and he'll force himself to refrain from going on a frantic quest for the glory hole once he arrives.

"I'm going to write that down and make myself some notes. Like any sport, so much of fishing is mental and in my case, once I started making a few bad decisions, I lost confidence in my decision-making.

"I need to try to make sure I get back to doing what got me here in the first place."

Luck wasn't on his Side

McCaghren also didn't have the best of luck this year – he said there were three occasions on which a single lost fish prevented him from making the day-2 cut.

The first occurred during the season opener at the California Delta, which was his first experience on a tidal fishery. He'd had a strong practice, but as the week progressed he discovered that his pattern was only effective on a high tide.

After a poor first day, he lost one that was 5 1/2 or 6 pounds on day 2 that had bitten a frog attached to braided line.

"It was the kind of fish you never lose," he said. "It was hooked good and coming to the boat, and then it turned and just came loose."

Another was at Fort Gibson, where he'd struggled to get on anything in practice. He was torn between fishing current on the lake or running upriver, and on his second stop on the main body he hooked one about 7 pounds on a crankbait. It jumped right at the boat, just before he could get his hands on it, and was gone.

Not only was he hindered by the loss of the fish, but that single big bite kept him on the main lake throughout his 2 competition days. When he returned home and watched coverage of the tournament on TV, he learned that several of the top finishers had gone up the river.

"One fish shouldn't have made that big of a difference any of those times," he said. "If you're on good enough fish, you can overcome it. But I was never on really strong patterns or the right schools of fish."

A Little Time Off

McCaghren plans to fish a considerable amount this winter, but he's currently taking a break to do some deer hunting and spend some quality time at home. He's also working at his family's welding business, which he does throughout the year when time allows.

He badly wants to qualify for the 2012 Classic, but he won't make such a concrete goal his main objective for the 2011 season.

"I'm going to set goals, but more than anything I just want to fish well," he said. "I want to correct some of the mistakes I made this year and get back to making the good decisions that keep your confidence up.

"Naturally I want to make the Classic, but I don't want to be so caught up in doing that that I forget about just fishing and enjoying what I'm doing. This year I wanted to get back so bad that I was thinking about the end result before I even started fishing, and that's something that's not in my control.

"I want to focus on the things I can control and let the rest take care of itself."