In June, Gerald Swindle was at the lowest point of his bass fishing career. He had just experienced his worst season on both circuits, and was having doubts about his future in professional bass fishing.

"It was time for a real gut check," Swindle said. "The level at which I was performing last year was not only a big letdown for me, but I felt it was huge letdown for my sponsors and that really hurts. When I sign with a sponsor, I make a promise to that company that I will represent them to the best of my ability and fish to the best of my ability. I had to look myself in the mirror in June and say, 'You're not getting the job done.'"

So when the season ended this year and other pros took a break from fishing, Swindle never unhooked his boat. He started his "off-season" by fishing every day.

"I made a commitment to myself to perform at the level I know I am capable of, no matter how hard I had to push myself," he said. "I got up every morning and went to the lake and fished. For no reason -- no tournaments -- just to fish, to find myself on the water again. It was hot, sticky and nasty. It was a brutal few weeks. Every day was a real gut check."

Swindle traveled between Guntersville, Logan Martin and Smith Lake. He would spend an entire day on one technique, such as left-handed pitching. He did a 2-week tour of duty at Logan Martin fishing strictly offshore.

Physical Fitness Part of Program

After a month of intense fishing, he incorporated physical conditioning into his program. He committed to a strict regimen of running and working out 4 days a week. He also paid special attention to his diet and eating habits.

By late summer he'd settled on a daily routine of an early morning run, a trip to the gym, lunch, an afternoon tackle work session, dinner and then to the lake for some night fishing.

"I started fishing tournaments again in August," Swindle said. "I fished small night tournaments three times a week. I was fishing tournaments that had maybe 11 or 12 boats, but I fished them like I was in the BASSMASTERS Classic."

His fishing rhythms started to return. The heavy self-doubt that had enveloped him for more than a year finally began to lift, and that familiar self-confidence returned.

Fishing Feels Good Again

Two weeks before departing for the FLW Championship, Swindle began winning again. He won sizeable daytime event on Logan Martin, and the next week he won the Anderson Boats Fishing Classic on Smith Lake, the world's largest night-fishing event.

His intensive summer efforts netted results at the FLW Championship on Louisiana's Cross Lake. He fished a flawless tournament and missed winning the $260,000 top prize by just 5 ounces.

After the championship, he said he could see how far off-course his fishing had drifted during his slump.

"It's weird how you see the water in a slump and how you see the water out of a slump," he said. "In a slump, nothing looks good. You have an excuse for everything: 'Everybody's fished that,' or 'they're just not biting yet.'

"Out of a slump, everything looks good. You feel like you can make the fish bite. You attack the lake instead of waiting for something to happen."

Most of all, Swindle said that being on the water feels good again. His ability to read and evaluate water has returned.

"I've learned to trust my gut feelings again and that feels good. In a slump, it's like I was out there just going through the motions and not thinking about what I was doing. When you ignore those little instincts, you start missing the key moves, your brain quits working and you're just casting for 8 hours a day."

Still Training

Even with his improvements, he said his training sessions are far from over. Second place at the FLW Championship was an improvement, but he feels he still has a lot of work to do before the tour seasons kick off in January.

As part of that work Swindle is going to Florida to fish Lake Toho before the BASSMASTER season openers on the Harris Chain and Okeechobee.

"For the last several years I've jumped from a deer stand into a bass boat to start the season," he said. "I can't do that this year. I want to go down to Florida and fish somewhere a few days to get in the rhythm before the green flag drops."