By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor
Making the decision to join the Bassmaster Elite Series in 2018 ranks among the hardest calls Wesley Strader has ever been faced with.
He said it felt like he was disowning family after informing FLW Tour tournament director Bill Taylor that he’d chosen to compete on the Elite Series next year, ending (for now) a successful 21-year run as an FLW Tour angler.
“I’ve been at FLW for 20 years and have had a great career,” Strader said recently. “It was the hardest decision I’ve made. It’s like leaving one job and going to another company. There were a lot of emotions involved.”
Ultimately, the Spring City, Tenn., native will join a growing list of accomplished anglers who’ve swapped circuits in favor of the Elite Series in recent years. Shinichi Fukae is another longtime FLW Tour angler who will also make his Elite Series debut in 2018.
Strader competed in two divisions of the Bassmaster Opens this year with his primary motivation being to win one and collect the Bassmaster Classic berth that goes to each Open champion. Winding up with an Elite Series invitation just sort of happened.
Smart money would’ve been on Strader being a factor in the Southern Opens, especially with TVA impoundment Lake Chickamauga on the schedule, but it was up north where he punched his Elite Series ticket. After posting a runner-up finish at Oneida Lake, he was 17th at the James River and then finished 22nd at Douglas Lake to claim the Northern Opens Angler of the Year award.
“I was just trying to make it back to the Classic and this just happened to happen,” he said. “I was one of those guys that it never dawned on me about qualifying. I was not fishing the Opens to make money.”
In Strader, the Elite Series gains one of the most consistent performers of this era with more than $1.5 million in career earnings with FLW. He’s qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup 17 times, including the last nine in a row. He has amassed eight top-10 finishes in FLW Tour events since the start of 2015. In 21 seasons, he finished outside the top 50 in Angler of the Year points only three times and not once since 2008. In 2015, his peers voted him as the most underrated angler on either circuit as part of the BassFan Pro Angler Survey.
He sees the move not as a defection from FLW, but as a chance to measure himself against a different group of competitors, many of whom he calls friends and has already competed against in the past.
“I know where I came from and I won’t forget where I came from,” Strader said. “Sometimes you just need change in your life. You get stagnant in certain areas and you need to shake them up. I know how to bass fish. That isn’t the part of it. Maybe I need a change of scenery. I’m looking forward to seeing how they run things versus how FLW does it. I may not like it, but I might. We’ll see. I think the world of Bill Taylor and Kathy Fennel and if things don’t work out that’s where I’m going back to.”
Followed His Gut
Strader was close to earning an Elite Series invitation on two previous occasions and knowing how competitive the Opens can be, he didn’t want to let this opportunity pass him by.
“I’ve always wanted to fish B.A.S.S. and not because I think they’re better than FLW,” he said. “I just feel like FLW affords the opportunity to somebody who doesn’t have time to invest four or five years into trying to qualify for the Elites. They provide an opportunity for people to fish for a living who don’t qualify for the Elites or don’t want to.”
The deciding factor for Strader came when B.A.S.S. announced that Lake Travis near Austin, Texas, would be the venue for the 2018 Toyota Texas Fest Elite Series. Hellas Construction, which specializes in design and construction of athletic facilities, has been Strader’s title sponsor for several seasons, and its headquarters are in Austin.
Prior to the Texas Fest announcement, though, he was uncertain on which circuit he’d compete in 2018.
“I was really on the fence about swapping,” he said. “Ever since I lost my Walmart deal with FLW, Hellas has been my title sponsor and when B.A.S.S. announced that Texas Fest would be at Travis, that’s where Hellas is based. I just felt like that everything was lining up for me to do that.”
Strader also said his recent experience as a competitor in the Major League Fishing Selects helped the decision-making process.
“It’s helped me to trust my instincts more,” he said. “I always went with my gut, but when we go to a new lake and don’t know what to bring and you’re fishing totally by your gut, it’s taught me to trust my instincts a lot more.
“I’m not getting any younger. (My wife) Stephanie and I both hate that I won’t be at FLW, but this is something I’ve always wanted to do. Everything was lining up and my gut was telling me this was the right decision.”
What to Expect
Don’t look for Strader to change his personality once he makes his Elite Series debut. He’ll still carry his east Tennessee charm and wit and will be a consistent threat to take home a paycheck.
“You have to be yourself,” he said. “I’m always going to be Wesley no matter what, whether I’m at B.A.S.S. or at the nursing home fishing in the pond.”
He did reach out to several Elite Series anglers, all of whom have fished FLW in the past, to pick their brains on different topics and things he’ll need to adjust to. The most significant change he’ll encounter is how tournament weeks are structured. FLW Tour official practice runs Sunday through Tuesday with an off day Wednesday and competition beginning on Thursday. In the Elite Series, practice runs Monday through mid-afternoon Wednesday with the tournament starting on Thursday. Gone is the off day to prep tackle and make adjustments.
“I talked to (Gerald) Swindle about that and he said, ‘You’re going to be fine,’” Strader said. “He said the hardest thing is going from those three full days to 2 1/2, but I should get into the swing of things after the first one. That day off is nice because it allows you to prepare and gives the lake a day of rest.”
He’ll also be joining the Elite Series at a time when B.A.S.S. is tightening its rules on the dissemination of information related to Elite Series venues. Strader is a fan of the beefed-up rule preventing competitors from seeking non-public information once the schedule is announced.
“The fishing part of it didn’t affect me at all, but there are a few B.A.S.S. rules I did like,” he said. “Can they police it? I don’t know, but it makes it a lot fairer. I’m not mad at anybody who wants to go fish and do their homework, but I like how they worded that rule and not allowing someone to get in your boat and show you around. I hate that we can’t talk about fishing because that’s what we do, but it’s a leveling of the playing field.”
