By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Heading into the 2016 season, it appeared as if Ramie Colson Jr. had achieved some real consistency as an FLW Tour pro. He'd qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup in consecutive seasons for the first time in his 11-year career and had put together three straight campaigns during which he finished no lower than 42nd in the Angler of the Year (AOY) race. And on top of that, he was the runner-up to Brad Knight in the 2015 Cup at Lake Ouachita.
The 49-year-old Kentuckian couldn't sustain that momentum this year, though. His 148th-place finish in the season opener at Lake Okeechobee was his first triple-digit placement in 3 years, but two more would follow before the schedule had played out.
When it was over, he sat at No. 101 on the points list – his lowest position since 2010, when he fished only four of the six events. He has no ready explanation for his drop-off in performance.
"It was just one of those years," he said last week. "I could find pretty good fish in practice, and then I'd go back to them during the days of competition and my co-anglers could do a pretty good job of catching them, but I just couldn't get it going.
"There wasn't a lot of lost fish – it was more about changing conditions and changing patterns. It seemed like the pattern I was on, it was either too early or too late. The fish were moving on me."
Talking Didn't Help
Colson's road roommate is Andy Morgan, the three-time Tour AOY who, in terms of money finishes, might be the most consistent angler in the game. As always, they shared a lot of information on the evenings of practice and competition days, but just like the quality fish he found in the days leading up to tournaments, Colson was unable to capitalize.
"We communicate a lot and he offers a lot of advice for me, just like I do for him when we go to Kentucky Lake (Colson's home water)," he said. "We'd shoot the breeze about everything and talk about what we'd done during the day, but not even that helped me this year.
"All the places we went, I was confident at each one of them. It didn't have anything to do with the schedule – it was just a general (failure to) catch them on my part."
A payday of nearly $21,000 for finishing 2nd in the FLW Series Central Division event on his home lake took some of the financial sting out of the campaign, as that was nearly as much as he'd pocketed over the six Tour events combined. Now he's antsy for the new season to start in February so he can get a shot at redemption at the top level.
"I've never had the feeling like, 'Oh, I did terrible and I just want to quit.' A year like this just makes me want to work harder for the next one."
Sympathy From the Back Seat
Things were so bad for Colson at Okeechobee this year that he couldn't even keep pace with the guy he was sharing his boat with.
"I'd catch a 12-incher and he'd catch a 3- or 4-pounder," he said. "After he got his limit he just sat down. I asked him what he was doing and he said, 'I don't want you to feel bad.'
"I had to tell him to keep fishing – what was going on wasn't his fault. He ended up catching 16 or 17 pounds behind me."
He'll be back in Florida next year for an event at the Harris Chain. It's a venue he's never visited, but he plans to make a scouting trip there this offseason.
"I generally like Florida because you can fish just about any way you like. I don't punch (mats) a lot, but I like to get in one area and beat it out. I had a Top-10 at Toho (in 2015), but catching an 11-pounder went a long way toward that."
There are two derbies ahead of that one on the schedule – Lake Guntersville and Lake Travis (near Austin, Texas). He has a bit of trepidation about the Travis stop, as his first excursion there wasn't all that pleasant (he finished 119th in a Tour event in 2007).
"I don't want to say I'm not looking forward to it, but I don't know what to expect," he said. "The last time we were there it was a rare occasion when a bad cold front came through and we were fishing with ice on our lines.
"Clark Wendlandt lives there and he says it's a good lake, but we just had bad conditions last time that hopefully we won't have again. Who'd have thought you'd go to Austin, Texas and have to pull out a float n' fly to catch fish?"
