By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Talking about fishing is fun again for Tracy Adams. So much so that he let a friend talk him into fishing his first crappie tournament with him on Lake Norman last week.

Maybe Adams’ friend figured with the mojo Adams has going after a 4th-place finish at the Smith Lake FLW Tour they’d be able to put a few mores slabs in the boat.

Either way, Adams is enjoying himself on and off the water, thanks in part to a great start to his first season back on the FLW Tour since 2009. He opened the year with a 39th-place finish at Lake Toho and then followed it up at Smith with his first Top-5 showing in a Tour event since winning at Lake Champlain in 2006. He’s currently 9th in points a third of the way through the season.

“It definitely builds your confidence,” he said. “Momentum always plays a big part in this sport. I just hope to keep it going. It’s good to be back.”

As hard as he tried last year, as part of a formidable crop of newcomers to the Elite Series, he couldn’t generate much in the way of momentum. He recorded two money finishes and opted to not take advantage of his exempt status for the 2015 season.

“Money was the main thing,” he said of his decision to bypass a second season on the Elite Series. “The Elites just cost so much. I loved fishing them, but the cost was so big and with the California swing this year, I knew it would be pretty expensive.”

Wanting to continue competing at the top level of the sport, he opted to jump back to FLW, where he started his pro career and enjoyed some decent success. Between 1996 and 2009, he finished in the Top-20 in points four times, won a Tour event and qualified for six Forrest Wood Cups.

“I’m just glad to be doing either one and having a bit of success this year," he said. "It feels like you’re getting something done when you get there.”

Elite Eye-Opening

Last year wasn’t all that enjoyable for the Wilkesboro, N.C., angler as he gave the Elite Series a try. He’d qualified for the 2011 Elite Series season, but declined the invitation to spend more time at home with his kids. When he qualified again through the Northern Opens in 2013, he didn’t want to pass it up a second time.

“When I qualified in 2011, I’d just got done fishing the Tour for 13 years and I didn’t know if I wanted to jump back into it again,” he said. “Plus, we’d just had two kids so I decided to pass. After I re-qualified, I made the decision to go ahead and do it.”

The high point was a 17th at BASSFest at Lake Chickamauga, where he caught a career-best 27-09 on day 3 to eclipse his combined total from days 1 and 2. That followed five straight missed cuts to start the year, including three straight results in the 80s and 90s.

“Last year was one of those years where a fish or two made a big difference,” he said. “I didn’t get them. I’d always had decent luck with FLW so I decided that would be the way to go. I was hoping for more success last year, but there’s nothing you can do. You can’t control it. Some years are going to be like that.

“It was a bad deal,” he continued. “At the St. Johns River, I was around a few fish and at Seminole, I was absolutely on nothing and it showed. That was my worst one of the year. In the other ones, I had opportunities and stuff located, but I didn’t capitalize on it, but at least I had something working.”

Familiarity A Key

Adams isn’t a big believer in the whole pre-practice scouting routine some pros follow when going to fisheries that are new to them. He lucked out this year in that he has prior tournament experience at all of the venues on the FLW Tour schedule.

“Pretty much everywhere we’re going, I’ve already been there four or five times,” he said. “That makes a big difference because at least you have something you want to go look at when you get there.”

That’s a stark contrast to last year when he’d never fished the St. Johns River, Toledo Bend or Cayuga Lake.

“A lot of the lakes last year I’d never been to or it’d been forever since I was there,” he added. “That can work to your advantage sometimes, though, because a lot of times the first time you go to a place it’s your best finish.”

He’d finished 11th at the 2013 Bassmaster Southern Open at Toho so he was hoping for a similar result to kick off this season. He caught 10-05 on day 1 and followed that up with 15-09 to wind up 39th and cash a $10,000 check. He fished mostly a Smithwick Devil’s Horse prop bait during the event and mixed in some flipping.

“I got off to a bad start on day 1 with that 10-pound limit,” he said, “but that’s typical for Toho when you don’t have a big bite. Luckily, on day 2, I got a big bite toward the end of the day and it took me out of the 80s and into the 30s.

"That’s how it’s going to be at those lakes. That one bite makes a big difference.”