A chip and a chair. That’s the old saying in poker; that anyone can win once the cards are dealt. But it’s never applied to bass fishing.
In bass fishing, it’s all about experience. Skill sets are earned through thousands of hours on the water, criss-crossing the nation and learning the intricacies of the major fisheries. Heck, it’s said that Florida alone is a 10-year learning curve.
Nah, in tournament bass fishing, it takes hard-earned grit to have a shot at winning. Rookies are just fishing to survive.
I used to believe that.
Today, however, rookie anglers are proving that they can, in fact, win, and not for the reasons we immediately think of. Jake Lawrence is our latest case in point, as he took down Godzilla in what Sports Illustrated called the most dramatic finish in BPT history (didn’t we just have one of those?).
Lawrence is, of course, a BPT rookie, but his late rally to beat Jacob Wheeler shouldn’t have come as a surprise. Lawrence may be a rookie to top-level competition, but he’s no first-timer in the ways of reservoir bass.
Though it’s been over a decade, Lawrence came out of college fishing, the same way we’re seeing others charge onto the scene. Drew Gill, Logan Parks, Easton Fothergill; all are products of the same.
Statistically, the world’s top anglers are getting younger. Drew Gill may not have been exaggerating when he said “10 years down the road, we’re going to have kids with their parents dropping them in in the morning because they won’t have a driver’s license.”
It could happen.
Initially the skeptics will credit technology. But let’s look at the most recent rookie win as an example. At Lake Nickajack, Jake Lawrence employed four primary patterns: mid-level cranking, FFS scoping with finesse worms, skipping docks and throwing a buzzbait.
I challenge any skeptic to somehow group those tactics together. They define diversity.
So what ’s making these kids so good? How is it that – even during their rookie campaigns – the newest anglers can look at Jacob Wheeler or Cory Johnston as targets?
Confidence has a lot to do with it. And some of that comes in the celebrated victories of past phenoms. Brandon Palaniuk, Jordan Lee and, yes, Jacob Wheeler all hit the scene at an unusually early age. Wheeler was the youngest to ever crest the million-dollar mark, the youngest to win FLW’s championship event.
But more than that, this youth empowerment is simply a sign of the times. We see it in athletics all around. Today, middle-school kids are on travel soccer teams. Grade-schoolers play hockey. Competitive cheer is a billion-dollar industry. Competition is everywhere.
John Daly’s kid would bury me on the golf course; no one is surprised. But his buddies are probably just as good. So why should it surprise us that 21-year olds are also good at tournament bass fishing?
Perhaps the reason lies in our initial set-up. For years, we were led to believe that experience was the best ally in bass angling. Heck, early on, tournament pros hired professional guides to take them out on new lakes. Why? Because the guides had experience. This was a winning practice for some time.
Later, as “help” became less accepted, the best were still the most seasoned. I mean, how do you beat guys like Denny Brauer or Larry Nixon; they’ve seen it all? Eventually one guy did, but he was accepted as supernatural.
But then a major shift occurred in bass fishing. Following culture, kids began competing earlier. The onset and expansion of high school and college fishing coincided perfectly. More people began to take bass fishing seriously. And more examples of successful young pros gave other kids a bar to reach for.
Today, a bunch of the best pros are just out of college, or even high school. Soon we’’ll see more skip higher education for a shot at the big leagues. Parents will further justify investments in the future of their kids through boats and motors, rather than tuition and books. Just wait, it’s coming.
Here, technology may truly be credited, but not the way we assume. Are the young anglers of today better with gadgets like FFS? Of course. But the real secret lies in their ability to process information faster than any human beings on earth. Anyone can see it. They have faster processing software from years of development.
It’s likely the best young guns in the past did as well. VanDam was noted to be the fastest angler on the water during his prime. Wheeler continues to operate at a pace well above 90 percent of the field.
Today, however, there are more anglers coming into the sport at that level of operation. They turn their internal machines on in the morning before their depthfinders.
And, when you’re 20 years old, those machines have fully charged batteries.
(Joe Balog is the often-outspoken owner of Millennium Promotions, Inc., an agency operating in the fishing and hunting industries. A former Bassmaster Open and EverStart Championship winner, he's best known for his big-water innovations and hardcore fishing style. He's a popular seminar speaker, product designer and author, and is considered one of the most influential smallmouth fishermen of modern times.)
