By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Brett Hite has now fished 2 seasons on the Bassmaster Elite Series and he's ended up in exactly the same place after both of them – 31st on the final points list and headed to the Bassmaster Classic.
However, he's taken drastically different routes to get there.
He won the opener at Lake Seminole in 2014 and then just sort of coasted the rest of the way. He bombed in three of the first four derbies this year before staging a furious rally in the second half of the season.
"This year was kind of a roller-coaster ride," the 37-year-old Arizonan said. "It seemed like I was either knocking on the door with a chance to win, or I was dead last.
"That's usually not how I fish; I'm normally a lot more consistent."
Hard Times in Home Region
Hite suffered some mechanical issues en route to his 88th-place showing in the first regular-season event of the year at the Sabine River, but bounced back nicely with a 13th at Lake Guntersville. Many anticipated that he'd really make some hay on the western swing to the California Delta and Lake Havasu, the latter of which is in his home state, but that didn't happen.
While other Left-Coast natives such as Dean Rojas, Justin Lucas and eventual Angler of the Year Aaron Martens were mopping up points and big paychecks in those events, he logged placements of 61st at the Delta (where he said he let the super-long run from downtown Sacramento get in his head) and 107th at Havasu (where he made some poor decisions and broke off several good fish in the habitat cages that dot the lake) to plummet to 82nd in the points at the season's figurative half-way juncture.
"Havasu and the Sabine were rough ones," he said. "Then when you throw in Waddington (a 92nd at New York's St. Lawrence River), those three really kind of bit me. They weren't just bad, they were real bad.
"Still, I've been doing this long enough to know that even if you're quite a ways down in the points after the first few events, a lot of things can change. I was pretty sure things would come around and I just had to fish through the aches and pains."
Saved Best for Last
Hite started his points rally with a 3rd-place finish at Kentucky Lake – a place that's often treated him well over the past decade-plus whether he was fishing the B.A.S.S. or FLW trails. The stinker at Waddington was a temporary setback, but he notched Top-25s in both of the final two regular-season tournaments (a 24th at the Chesapeake Bay and a 9th at Lake St. Clair).
"The Chesapeake suits my strong points – a tidal fishery with grass – and I had a good tournament and caught a lot of fish and that got my confidence back up," he said. "Going into St. Clair, I figured I had to have a Top-30 or better (to get inside the Top 50 in the points and make the Angler of the Year Championship). The first day wasn't great (17-12), but then I caught two really good stringers (20-07 and 19-05)."
He's now turned a lot of his focus to the 2016 Classic at Oklahoma's Grand Lake. This year notwithstanding, he's usually at his best during the late winter/early spring, and that fact that next year's Classic has been pushed forward a couple of weeks on the calendar (to early March) doesn't bother him in the least.
"It's great for me," said the 7th-place finisher in this year's Classic at Lake Hartwell. "I love the early spring – the pre-spawn and the early spawn is when I really have the fish dialed in. Tournaments from February to April play into my wheelhouse because I can find the fish and I really understand what they're doing.
"Maybe the most exciting thing about it is it's only an 18-hour drive from my house, so it's probably the closest Classic I'll have in my career. It's a great venue that's full of 3- to 5-pound fish, and going 2 weeks later should only enhance the fishing – it should make it better."
