By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

”Momentum? Momentum is the next day's starting pitcher.” – Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver

The 2015 season is off and running for Mike McClelland and he hasn’t even competed in an Elite Series event yet. That will change this week as the season kicks off in southeast Texas at the Sabine River, a shallow-water venue where he finished 11th in the 2013 season opener.

Surely, a similar result this week will suit him just fine and dovetail nicely with the 8th-place finish he posted at last month’s Bassmaster Classic and the 13th-place showing he turned in at the Ross Barnett Reservoir Central Open last week. Despite the tricky weather conditions that he encountered at both the Classic and Ross Barnett, he managed to put himself in the right position to capitalize on the fish that were in their pre-spawn transition.

He was among nine Elite Series pros to post a money (Top-40) finish at Ross Barnett in advance of the Sabine River so it’ll be interesting to see who can carry the momentum over to the tidal fishery that straddles the Texas-Louisiana border. Eleven other Elite Series pros failed to cash a check in Mississippi and will be looking to bounce back this week.

For McClelland, who started strong and held the day-1 lead at Ross Barnett, he’ll be looking to add another building block to his impressive start.

“It’s always a big momentum-builder through course of the year if you have the chance to lead an event,” he said. “Especially at this time of year, there are certain lakes and times of then year when it’s cool to go out and do well, and any time you stay in check with what the fish are doing this time of year, no matter where in the country, it feels good.

“It hasn’t been that long since the Classic so I wanted to stay in tune with the fish.”

Didn’t Overthink It

McClelland said he was a bit ashamed to admit he wasn’t in much of a hurry to launch his boat at daybreak during practice at Ross Barnett. That’s because he knew the conditions were about to change and the fish tended to bite a little better once it warmed up later in the day.

“We knew the water was warming so we didn’t get in a hurry to get on the water any of the days,” he said. “I don’t think we launched before 9 a.m. because we knew later in the day, the fish started to tell you what they were going to be doing.

“One of the keys when you talk about the number of Elites that did well in the event was recognizing it was going to change dramatically, especially on the two days right before the tournament. Typically, the guys who fish Opens spend too much time practicing. Those guys who showed up the Thursday and Friday of the previous week when it was cold and the fish weren’t biting, a lot of those guys were defeated by the time they started to bite. One thing we’ve learned as Elite pros is how quickly the fish can change when water temperatures change.

“That’s the reason it’s so important to be on the water, but not necessarily at the lakes you’re competing at, though,” he continued. “Those days of practice guys try to take advantage of for the Opens can be detrimental. That’s why I try not to practice more for an Open than I do for an Elite Series event.”

Memory Lane

Also helping McClelland’s cause was he came to Ross Barnett with a fair amount of confidence stemming from two strong finishes there nearly 20 years ago – he won the 1996 Mississippi Central Invitational and took 2nd two years later in the same event.

“It’s definitely a place I do like to fish,” he said. “Any time you go to a body of water where you’ve had results like that, you tend to go into it with a positive attitude.”

He shared information with Jeff Kriet in practice and the two were able to figure out a few nuances that made a difference in the tournament.

“We worked well together,” McClelland said. “We’d talk about patterns and where we were getting bit and we figured out that you had to slow down. You had to find an area not with just stems, but there had to be stumps mixed in as well. We just covered a lot of water in practice and put together a game plan and pattern. I might’ve had a better finish than he did, but I know he had opportunities to have big bites.”

The key element for McClelland was very similar to the presentation used by tournament winner Gene Bishop.

“One of the biggest keys to my success was an 8-inch Big Bite Baits lizard,” he said. “I didn’t know it until Sunday that the winner threw a lizard also. Typically, when you’re fishing a lizard you slow down because it doesn’t have the bulk and movement of other soft plastics. You just have to slow down. That was the key and the fish were really congregating in specific areas when you found them.”

His 23-05 stringer on day 1 put him at the top of the leaderboard, but the wind kicked up on day 2 and additional rain brought about some changes that McClelland wasn’t expecting. He managed just two keepers for 3-13 on day 2 and missed the Top-12 cut by 2 ounces.

“I have no regrets other than just going fishing on day 2,” he said. “I didn’t recognize the area I was in had a drain that was 200 yards ahead of me and it was just pushing muddy water out into the area where I caught them before. I couldn’t tell until the skies brightened. Looking back, I should’ve moved around more.”

Notable

> McClelland will likely be considered a threat at both of the other Central Opens this year, but he’ll have to wait until mid-September (Ft. Gibson Lake) and the first week of October (Table Rock Lake) for them.

“Gibson is actually a really good lake, but the pressure will get to it,” he said. “The fact that it’s just after Labor Day may help as it might keep some of the pressure knocked down from all the recreational traffic.

“Table Rock is just another tournament on my schedule. Everybody tries to say it’s my home lake and while I grew up there, I don’t fish it as much as I used to. My advantage there is that I’ve stayed in tune with what fish do at certain times of the year. I feel confident fishing that lake that time of year. It’s one of those deals that when I go to Table Rock, I go there with confidence and that’s not to say I’m guaranteed to make the Top 12, but I’m disappointed when I don’t.”