By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Election to the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame seems to have sparked a resurgence in Tommy Biffle's competitive career.

Biffle, who turned 64 just a couple of weeks before his HOF election was announced in February, has been on a nice roll since then. After placing among the Top 30 just three times in his first 21 outings since the inception of the MLF Bass Pro Tour in 2019, he's now logged consecutive finishes in the 20s in the last two regular-season events.

Always a man of few words, his own summation of his turnaround was anything but complex.

"It's probably just that the places we've been to have suited my style of fishing," he said. "I'm not fishing any different than I always have.

"I'm thinking I'm going to catch them again (this week) at Lake of the Ozarks."

Long Run not in the Cards

Ozarks is a venue that Biffle says he's always liked, but he hasn't competed there in perhaps 25 years. In past events under the five-fish limit format, his strategy was to make a long run (an hour or more) up the Osage River.

Such a journey isn't practical in a catch-all-you-can BPT tournament, so he'll have to come up with another game plan.

"I'll stay around there closer to the (Public Beach No. 2) area and the mid-lake," he said. "There's a lot of fish in there and they should be almost right on the bank. It's always been a good lake for a jig, a topwater and a buzzbait. It might not be quite warm enough for a buzzbait, or then again it might be."

Foiled in Opener

The season-opening event held on three different bodies of water in Louisiana has been the only one this year in which Biffle has not advanced past the initial cut. The Oklahoman said he was the victim of some bad luck in that one.

"It was kind of a flipping deal, but it was a struggle for me," he said. "I fished the second day (Group B in the Qualifying Round) and I found out from a boat official that I started within 10 feet of where (Stephen) Browning did the day before when he caught 20 pounds. I fished the exact same banks and the same trees.

"I wondered why I wasn't getting bit, but it turned out I was a day late. I never saw him up there in practice, but fishing the second day in these things, you don't know who's been there before you."

His success thus far in 2022 has come throwing a jig, his own Gene Larew Biffle Bug on a HardHead jighead, a ChatterBait and a spinnerbait. He doesn't foresee changing that program at Ozarks.

He really hopes the tournament doesn't turn into a sight-fest for actively spawning fish.

"If I see one and it doesn't swim off, I can usually catch it, but I'm not sure I can see them or find them as well as a lot of these guys can," he said. "Guys who are good at it can just find them and find them. I'd prefer them wanting to get up there (to the beds) instead of being there."

More than half of the regular season (four of seven events) will be complete when the Ozarks tournament concludes. Biffle is currently 29th in the Angler of the Year race – well inside the cutoff (Top 40) to qualify for his first REDCREST Championship.

He ended up 62nd on last year's final list and didn't qualify for REDCREST 2022, which took place last month on Grand Lake near his home in Wagoner, Okla.

"It hurt my feelings bad not to make this last one," he said. "I really thought I would make it, but I had a crappy tournament (in the 2021 finale at Lake St. Clair, where he was 77th) and it killed me.

"There was a lot of stuff you couldn't fish because it was in Canada (and was off limits due to COVID-19 restrictions). I had one point where I caught four 4-pounders on four throws up there in one of the rivers. Tim Horton came by and he said he thought I was in Canada – he had a different (mapping) chip.

"I got up there (on his first competition day) and I asked my boat official to look at it," he continued. "He got his phone out and said as far as he could tell, I was 10 to 15 feet across the line and he had to go by what his phone said. I told him, 'Yep, that's what I was afraid of.'''