In July, Jay Yelas became only the fourth angler in B.A.S.S. history to lead all three days of the BASS Masters Classic: Bo Dowden did it in 1980, Stanley Mitchell did it in 1981 and Rick Clunn did it in 1984.

(Editor's note: Thank you to the BassFans who pointed out that Yelas was not the second wire-to-wire Classic winner, but the fourth.)

Though pressure was high in the Classic, leading a tournament is a tough place to be. Often the leader one day loses the lead the next day, and even more often ends up not winning the tournament.

To get some insight on what happens there, and what's important when it comes to leading, we asked Yelas.

Leading and Fishing Defensively

Although Yelas has won five B.A.S.S. events in his career, this was the first he'd won after leading on the second-to-last day of competition. "In all my other wins I came from behind on the final day to win," he says.

"More often than not, the leader going into the final day doesn't win. I think a lot of times you have a tendency to shift gears mentally. You start fishing defensively and you're not as aggressive. You lose that momentum.

"I see it happen in golf all the time, where the leader stumbles and has his worst score of the tournament on the last day," Yelas says. "In football, the team that has 2 minutes to drive to the goal often ends up winning. But the team that has a big lead has a tendency to play conservatively.

"You change your strategy and all of a sudden you don't have the same mindset as you had. You almost always lose when you have that scenario."

Classic Was Different

At the Classic, however, Yelas was in a different position. "I had a spot, just a phenomenal spot, loaded with good fish," he says. "I was the only guy in the tournament to fish that spot.

"From time to time that happens in tournament, though it doesn't happen nearly as much as you'd think it would. I've fished close to 200 BASSMASTER tournaments, and never before had a spot so good where I could blow the tournament away there.

"Those little honey holes are nearly non-existent in this day and age," he adds. "Local fishermen are so good that it's hard to find a spot like that that will hold up for 3 days. And when you have a spot that that's good, it doesn't really matter what your mindset is. You just go up, the fish bite, you reel up and win

"It's almost like walking into something predestined. The Classic this year was so easy, it seemed almost effortless.

"All that being said, I know how rare it is and can't count on it happening next time around."

Yelas also couldn't fish defensively -- because he had nowhere else to fish. It was do or die there. "On the final day I had the opportunity to lose faith in what I was doing and scramble around, but I didn't have any other options," he says. "I had no other place to fish."

Have a Plan, Stick It Out

From his Classic win and other experiences, Yelas has learned how to keep the faith when leading a tournament. He points to an experience he had 9 years ago as a turning point.

"At an Invitational on Texoma in 1993 I was leading the tournament going into the last day," he says. "That was early in my career, and (on the last day) I could feel a mental change. I knew that I'd shifted gears mentally and wasn't where I needed to be. I hate to say it, but it's almost like I went out and choked."

That feeling was the feeling of being constrained. "You don't fish freely and follow your instincts," he says. "It's almost as if you're forcing yourself to fish the way you did before, and you're trying to recreate what happened yesterday."

And that can start a slide. "When you're in competition, you can feel when you have momentum on your side and when you don't. When you're out there grinding and things aren't going your way, it's a terrible feeling, especially when you're leading the tournament. Then you start second-guessing yourself and you lack confidence.

"What I've learned through the years is that you need to try to have a gameplan," Yelas says. "You make an educated guess, sometimes the night before, and have a thesis of what you think will happen the next day. Try to go with that instead of just getting out there and coming unglued.

"I've had that happen to me plenty of times, and have learned that sticking with that gameplan is the right thing to do. So, win or lose, you're not second- guessing yourself all day.

"At the Classic I never second-guessed myself, though a lot of that was because of the way I prepared for that tournament," he says. "I didn't want any other options. I knew that Lay Lake was full of bass from one end to the other, but I just fished that one end of the lake (in practice and in the tournament).

"So on the final day, when I didn't have a fish by 10:00, I didn't come unglued. I didn't start second-guessing myself. I knew what the gameplan was, so all I had to do was execute and let the chips fall where they may. That's the kind of confidence a guy needs going into the final day."

A Lead Is Always Better

Even so, all of the above "depends on the tournament, the lake you're fishing and what kind of fish you're on," Yelas says. "But I think it's always an advantage to be leading a tournament in that you have a lead and someone has to do better than you the next day to pass you."