By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Russell Cecil has won more than $450,000 through FLW’s triple-A Series circuit and the Texas Tournament Trail when it was under the FLW umbrella. He has five victories in FLW events, including three Series wins, all of which occurred at either Sam Rayburn Reservoir or Toledo Bend Reservoir in east Texas. In 62 career FLW tournaments, he's been a top-10 finisher in 22 of them, which translates to a stout .355 batting average.

After a third straight (and sixth career) top-5 finish in the Southwestern FLW Series points standings in 2017, he figured now’s the time to see how he stacks up against a higher level of competition.

The 45-year-old native of Willis, Texas, is preparing for his move to the FLW Tour in 2018, where he’ll be a rookie alongside friend and team tournament partner Todd Castledine (click here to read about Castledine’s move to the Tour). From his perspective, Cecil considered his and Castledine’s Tour entry a “package deal” because of their familiarity with each other and ability to travel together and share information.

‘I didn’t want to try to find someone to travel with,” Cecil said. “There’s a comfort level and familiarity with him that takes times to build.”

This is a move Cecil could’ve made previously, but the timing wasn’t right for him to fully commit to it.

“From a family standpoint, my daughter is going to be in college and I’m at point in my life where she’s out there trying to make her own way now,” he said. “Secondly, in our business, it’s probably a good time. I won’t fish any more than I have been, but it’s a few bigger events and obviously more travel. Third, the regional opportunities aren’t as good as they have been in a while.”

He pointed to FLW’s decision a few years ago to rename the Texas Division of the FLW Series to the Southwestern Division, thereby shifting some of the tournaments out of his home state and lessening whatever upper hand he may have had.

“Now, they’re all spread out so it makes sense to go fish for more money,” he added. “The Texas Tournament Trail and Bass Champs are still around. When the Platinum (team) trail was around, Todd and I won a lot of money in that deal. There are still a lot of good regional opportunities, but they’re not as good as it was before.”

He said his final reason for wanting to move up to FLW’s top circuit is simply about tackling a new challenge.

“I’ve always wanted to do it and I’m not getting younger so if I want to do it, I might as well do it now,” he said. “It seems like everything goes by faster these days.”

Helping Hand

Another part of Cecil’s motivation to join the Tour is the fact that Castledine is making the move as well. The two have a long history on the water together and the trust they’ve built figures to only help their transition.

“With Todd I have a travel partner and I have someone I trust and have a long history with,” Cecil said “There’s nowhere in the world that we’d be more likely to tread on each other than at Rayburn and we’ve never had problems there.

“It’s helpful to have someone you trust. From egos to income, it’s hard to have someone you can trust and I’ve never had a problem with him. We share pretty specific information and we help each other maintain confidence.”

Another element that has Cecil upbeat about his rookie year is the schedule, most of which is going to unfold during his favorite seasons.

“I consider my strengths to be summer and spawn and pre-spawn fishing,” he said. “I’m more comfortable fishing for schools where as in the fall, you tend to have scattered fishing and junk patterns. I want it to be more logical and pattern-based. So much of the schedule is around the pre-spawn, post-spawn and summer, and that gives me confidence because those are what I consider my strengths.

“I’m looking forward to seeing new venues. To me, Rayburn is like a new place a lot of times because you’ll have short cycles of two or three years. There have been times where Todd got on some winning ways in the winter there and caught mega bags but over years it’s changed due to the limited grass. Now, there’s a lot of grass and the water level changes a lot there so having that background will help us approach new places.”

Nervous and Excited

For Cecil, the prospect of moving up a level in competition has him eager to get started, but he’s also a bit nervous about how he’ll fare at lakes he’s never seen before, like Lake St. Clair or Smith Lake.

He’s watched other anglers from east Texas – he mentioned Keith Combs and Todd Faircloth – work their way up through the ranks and are now considered among the top pros on the Elite Series. He hopes he can follow a similar path.

“If you don’t get excited when you go, it’s not doing anything for you,” Cecil said. “It’s the same as what motivates people in business. It’s the fear of failure and the nervous anticipation and wanting to measure yourself against new competition. It’s all those things.

“It’ll be a learning experience for sure regardless of how (Todd and I) do. It will make us both better. We’ve been around long enough and we’ve been out and experienced enough here and there, but you have to keep challenging yourself to keep getting better. The only way to do that is to go against bigger, stiffer competition.”

Notable

As far as goal-setting goes for the upcoming season, Cecil hasn’t given them much thought yet.

“I expect to have some tough tournaments,” he said. “There are a lot of new places, but I want to make some Top 10s. That’s my goal. Overall, making the Cup is a big goal. I’m less concerned about a bad finish because I’m going into it with the mentality that I can shake that off. It’s easier said than done, but that’s how I look at it. People don’t remember bad finishes. They remember good finishes and who wins.”