A professional angler can't reach his full potential until he arrives at the point where he completely trusts his instincts. Russ Lane achieved that plateau in 2009, and then went out this year and put together what was easily his best tour-level season to date.

"Things started to click for me last year, and then this year just about everything went right and fell into place," he said. "I'm in a real good place mentally and physically and everything's rolling along real clean."



The 38-year-old former minor-league pitcher from Alabama concedes that he had a lot of "home games" in 2010 – he began the year with a 4th-place finish in the Bassmaster Classic at Lay Lake and concluded it with a victory in one of the two 2-day post-season events at Lake Jordan. He has a tremendous amount of experience on both of those venues.

But he performed well in other locales, too, such as the No. 8 placement he posted on short practice at Oklahoma's Ft. Gibson Lake in an event that was relocated from the Arkansas River due to flooding, and the 10th he notched 2 months ago in the star-studded Toyota Texas Bass Classic at Lake Conroe.

Now his primary objective is to win a regular-season Elite Series event, and he's confident that will happen in the near future.

"That's huge for me and I want it so bad it drives me crazy," he said. "I've been out here since the Elites started (in 2006) and I haven't gotten one yet, even though I've been in position two or three times. Every time I see somebody hold up one of those giant blue trophies, I can't help but feel a little bit jealous.

"It's something I know is going to happen, and odds are that it'll happen sooner rather than later. I don't know exactly how it'll feel, but I know it'll be good."

One Early Hiccup

There was just one instance this year in which Lane let indecision get the best of him, and it occurred in the first Elite Series event at the California Delta.

"I was in 3rd place after the first day, and then the second day I kind of pushed the area I was in and didn't get many bites," he said. "I should've abandoned it on the third day – all my experience and instincts told me I needed to get out and fish new water. But I didn't react on that and I wound up zeroing, and that cost me about 30 places.

"From that point on I made sure I trusted those instincts and the little voices in my head. When they told me to move, I moved."

He concluded the regular season with four straight finishes of 22nd or better, including a 5th at Guntersville and the 8th at Ft. Gibson. That got him into the post-season, and he was 2nd in the adjusted Angler-of-the-Year points after his victory at Jordan (a 10th at the Alabama River the following week dropped him to 7th on the final list).

"That was the highlight for me. If I had any goals for the year, it was to make the post-season and win one of those events, and it was a good feeling to win that one."

A New Endeavor

One of the bonuses that comes with success in the professional ranks is the opportunity to help design new equipment. Lane recently signed on to the Spro pro staff and is working on a signature crankbait.

"We hope to have it out by the end of the year," he said. "It's going to be really versatile – you can fish it effectively anywhere from 5 to 15 feet (deep).

"There are a lot of baits out there that I call 'Wednesday crankbaits' – they catch fish in practice, but then people are wondering what happened when the tournament comes around. This is a bait that'll have little subtle qualities that'll get pressured fish to bite. And they'll come with No. 2 Gamakatsu hooks, so you can pull them straight out of the box and put them in the boat."

The process of developing such a tool is far more involved that he'd thought.

"I've learned that it takes a while from when you start to when you get it on the shelf – it could be 6 months to a year. I've been working at it for 6 or 8 weeks, and I've found out there's a whole lot more to the design and manufacture of a hardbait than I ever realized."

Notable

> Lane is also in the process of designing two new flipping baits for Big Bite, including one that he hopes to utilize at the 2011 Bassmaster Classic. "It's for matted grass and it should come into play in New Orleans," he said. "We've narrowed it down to several (possible names), but we don't have one for it yet."

> He's was in New Orleans recently for 3 days of Classic pre-practice before the Louisiana Delta went off-limits to competitors on Monday. "I'm going to try my best not to fish a whole lot – I need to look and feel my way around," he said the day before departing. "But if I see a school of redfish come up, I can't say that I'm not going to stop and throw at them."