By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
The year was 2001, August to be exact. The venue was the Louisiana Delta. The event was the Bassmaster Classic. It was Pete Ponds' first taste of bass fishing's signature event and he finished 31st in a 45-angler field.
He hasn't been back to the Classic since and it's driving him nuts.
"It's been too long," the easy-going Mississippian said earlier this week after returning home from a scouting trip to Lake St. Clair, site of the Elite Series season finale in 4 weeks.
Since the Elite Series launched in 2006, Ponds has not sniffed a Classic berth. His average finish in the Angler of the Year standings has been 77th with his best outcome coming in 2010 when he was 62nd.
Through six events this year, he's 32nd in Toyota Tundra B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year (AOY) points, but he's wedged in a group of anglers where 50 points separates 20th from 48th. Every ounce over the last two tournaments is going to be exceptionally valuable, considering he's 27 points behind Gerald Swindle in 20th. The same margin represents the gap back to 50th, currently occupied by Shaw Grigsby.
He's cashed checks in five events so far, matching the number of money finishes from the last 2 years combined and he matched his career-best finish with a 3rd-place result at West Point Lake in May. His confidence appears to be at the right level and he feels strongly that he'll be able to finish inside the Classic cutoff.
"I feel a strong yes, absolutely," he said. "That's probably the way I need to say that. I don't want to show weakness at all. It means a whole lot to me personally. Not because of my sponsors. It just means a lot to me. It's a goal I set and I should be able to achieve it and I'm going to do it.
"Up north, it's going to be a matter of catching the bigger fish. It's not about catching a lot of fish. You'll have to push yourself to move out and go against the grain and just catch big ones. That's what's going to make the difference between making it and not making it."
More Prep Than Usual
Ponds admits in previous seasons he hasn't put a lot of emphasis on scouting trips to future tournament venues. This year, though, being in contention for a Classic berth, he didn't want to have regrets later.
"For me, making the Classic will certainly help my feelings. It's just going to be a great reward," he said. "I've pushed toward it all year long and put a lot of effort into it. Normally, at this point of the season I don't go pre-fish. I'd not been to the St. Lawrence or St. Clair before. I had no choice but to go up there so I've spent a lot of time away from my family."
He spent 4 days at the St. Lawrence River after the Mississippi River Elite Series just to get a feel for the geography. It's a vast fishery that will present anglers with opportunities to fish the river or run to the vast waters of Lake Ontario. The fishing, he says, is going to be a lot different once the calendar flips to August.
"Those fish were on the beds then, but it did give me some ideas about how it lays out and where the boat ramp is and all those little things that people don't think about," he said. "Some people are going to run to Lake Ontario and some people are going to go down to where they're familiar like where tournaments have gone out of before. Some people are going to stay there so I think it'll be a fairly spread out venue.
"The problem is going to be we're all probably going to be fishing the same technique and we're all going to probably be fishing for smallmouth so therefore it's going to fish kind of small in the areas that we're in, which is going to result in us all catching the same size fish."
Last week, he put in some time at St. Clair and the Detroit River before heading home to recharge and rest. Now, he's hoping to put the knowledge to good use when he comes back.
"In these next two tournaments, it's going to be about figuring out how to catch the bigger ones," he said. "I have done real good up north and I have done real bad up north. I'm trying to erase those in my mind where I haven't done as well like Oneida last year. That probably hurt my feelings worse than any other tournament I can remember because I never found the fish. The one little bitty school that I did find, there were two other anglers there and we fought over it and I lost that battle because I didn't catch them good enough to stay there and I let them have it.
Ponds had a brush with victory earlier this year at West Point Lake.
"I just try to remember the positives. A couple years ago on Oneida, I almost made the Top 12 there. It can go either way. Those tournaments are decided by ounces. You just have to be very careful not to get stuck on small fish."
Alabama Bummer
Ponds opened the year with four straight money finishes for the first time in his Elite Series career and capped the first half of the season with a 3rd-place showing at West Point. That had him up to 13th in AOY points and riding a wave of confidence.
"It was certainly a confidence builder," he said of his effort at West Point. "I felt like if the sun hadn't have come out (on day 4), I'd have won that tournament. Skeet (Reese) was smart enough to go look for bed fish, but I felt like I really had a good shot at winning that event. It helps your confidence and you look out there at all the other anglers and you know that you beat most of them. It makes you feel like you belong which is what it takes in this deal. These guys are like vultures. If you show even the smallest lack of confidence, you're done."
He was not lacking for confidence the following week at the Alabama River, which will be remembered for the harrowing boat rides some anglers had as they tried to take advantage of high-water conditions.
Unfortunately for Ponds, what he thought was going to be a rock-solid tournament pattern fizzled out fast and he wound up 96th, a swing of 93 spots in the span of a week.
"I can't do anything but laugh when I think about the Alabama River," he said. "I was catching 18 pounds a day in practice. I had the best practice that I've ever had. I was so confident that I came in early on the last day of practice. I was like, 'I know what I'm doing.'
"When I went out there for the tournament, it absolutely blew my mind that I couldn't find the fish. They'd moved. I think a lot of it was due to fishing pressure because the guys that were running up into the swift water were all right there. It just threw me for a loop."
He'd flipped a jig all practice and it triggered bites from multiple 5-pound spotted bass. He stuck with it on day 1 of competition, but had only a 5-pound limit to show for it. He stuck with the jig on day 2 before picking up a dropshot to catch some better fish.
"I left there scratching my head and I still don't understand where those fish went. I still don't get it," he added. "I knew that the guys were running up into the swift water and I didn't have a problem with that, but I was catching enough down where I was to do well.
"When you catch a 5-pound spotted bass, you think you're doing pretty good and I wasn't just catching one – it was a bunch. It is a humbling sport."
