Despite Early Success, Meyer Still Driven To Learn

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Cody Meyer remembers the drive from California to Pittsburgh prior to the 2009 Forrest Wood Cup. Being from the West Coast and having not previously fished a Tour event, let alone one of the sport’s premier tournaments, he wasn’t sure what to expect from the fishery or the competition.

“I remember thinking how awesome it was that I was going out there to fish,” he recalled, “but I had no idea how I would match up against these guys.”

Turns out he matched up pretty well as he finished 3rd. Heading into the Cup, he was on the fence about fishing the Tour and leaving behind the comfort zone of the Western fisheries he’d dominated for a couple years. His finish at the Cup made it an easy decision for him. He wasn’t overmatched by any stretch.

The $75,000 payday helped him bankroll the 2010 Tour Majors and he finished 43rd in points. He followed that up with a 15th-place finish a year ago and his swift rise through the ranks has continued through this season. He has four Top-40 finishes under his belt this year and currently sits 4th in the Angler of the Year (AOY) points with two Majors remaining.

“I’m feeling really good,” he said. “It’s been a really good season. I feel like I haven’t had a standout tournament, but I’ve been very consistent, which pays the bills for sure. I’m going into Kentucky (Lake) with some confidence and I really want to make the Forrest Wood Cup and go back to Lake Lanier.”

Fast Learner

If a poll were taken to determine the top pro anglers under the age of 30, Meyer’s name would almost certainly be on the countdown, if not near the top. As one of the top young sticks in the game today, the Jackall pro from Auburn, Calif., has applied what he learned out west and is building upon that in an effort to become as versatile as possible.

By his own admission, he’s even ahead of the pace he thought he’d be on at this point of his career.

“Honestly, I am,” he said. “I’ve loved fishing since I was a kid and always dreamed of going on tour and doing this, but part of you thinks you’ll never get the chance to do it. There’s just so much to learn and these guys are so good that I expected it to take a lot longer to be doing this well. I’ll definitely take it. I still have a lot to learn and hopefully some things to look forward to.”

Speaking of learning experiences, he recalls his first time in a ledge-fishing tournament back in 2010 at the Lake Guntersville Tour Major.

“I had no idea at all and I couldn’t even catch fish on a ledge so I fished shallow and did pretty bad,” he said, referring to his 89th-place showing.

With Lake Pickwick and Kentucky Lake -- both famous for their Tennessee River ledges -- situated back-to-back on the 2011 schedule, he knew he had to step up his game in order to compete. He knew his only shot at contending for a check was to get offshore and locate packs of fish, and that’s what he did.

“Last year, the whole difference for me was having the (Lowrance) DownScan and StructureScan and spending most of my practice idling around and locating schools of fish,” he said.

That approach netted him a 25th at Kentucky Lake and he followed it up with a 16th at Pickwick. Still, he has room to improve.

“I don’t feel real great about it, but I feel like maybe I have a chance to catch them,” he said. “You just don’t know. It’s hard for me to know what’s the right of school of fish. Do I leave fish if I’m only catching 2-pounders and go try to find big ones? I have a lot to learn with that.”

Unfinished Business

Dating back to last season, Meyer is in the midst of seven straight finishes in the money, including a 7th-place result at last year’s Cup at Lake Ouachita. His attributes his remarkable consistency to his Western roots, which allowed him to learn several different techniques.

“You can go to Clear Lake and flip grass and throw a topwater,” he said. “Then, you can drive an hour north and fish 70 feet of water with 4-pound line. Being versatile from fishing the West Coast helps a lot. I would also say one of the biggest things for me has been the Lowrance fish-finders. They take all of the guesswork out of it. Having the Navionics chip and the mapping, you can go to these sweet spots, whereas before if you weren’t a local and lived there for 20 years, you wouldn’t have known about some of these places.

“In the past, I’ve done a lot of running around and tried to fish the whole lake in 3 days of practice. This year, it’s been more about doing a lot of research and trying to find the most productive areas of the lake from years past and then buckling down and spending my whole practice trying to learn those areas inside and out.”

With two events left before the field for this year’s Cup is determined, Meyer knows he needs to have another solid showing at Kentucky Lake next week before getting acclimated to Lake Champlain, site of the final Major on the schedule. If he’s able to secure another Cup berth, it’ll mean another trip to Lake Lanier, where he finished 2nd to Kevin Hawk at the 2010 Cup.

“Lake Lanier is a really cool place,” he said. “It fishes just like where I grew up fishing for spotted bass with the exception of brushpiles. I definitely want to get back and with what I learned (in 2010), I could go out there and maybe have a chance at it again.

“I’m not even there yet. Hopefully, I can get back there. (In 2010), I learned a ton about how those fish were relating to the brushpiles. One day they were in the brushpiles and the next day they were way off of them and suspended.”

Notable

> Regarding the AOY race – he trails leader David Dudley by 19 points – and whether it’s weighing on his mind with two events left, Meyer said, “I thought about it the other day, but I have a lot of work to do. I’m taking it one tournament at a time and trying to be consistent and stay in the money. I know if I have two really good tournaments, there’s a chance, but right now I’m happy where I’m at and to have a shot at it. I always have the mentality that if it’s meant to be, it’ll happen for me.”