In his first two years on the BASSMASTER Tour, 26-year-old Todd Faircloth of Jasper, Texas finished 8th and 6th in the points standings and now finds himself ranked 6th in the world.
Whatever he's doing, it must be right. And one thing he believes is very important is to "keep an open mind about fishing."
Let the Horse Lie
When you're fishing, "don't beat a dead horse," he says. "Try different lures and techniques, and just let the bass tell you what they want."
Okay, sounds easy. But what does it mean?
"Here's an example," Faircloth says. "Last week I was at Lake of the Ozarks (for the BASSMASTER Central Open). I finished 2nd there last year, and I went into the tournament feeling like I would catch them pretty much the same way I did last year.
"Back then I was cranking rocks anywhere from 3 to 6 feet deep. This year that wasn't really working," he says. "I had one spot where I could catch them doing that, but the fish weren't really on the rock in that area. They were on wood."
Faircloth says he clued into that immediately, but still tried to produce fish from his rock areas, even during the tournament. "I tried cranking some rock, but didn't catch many (doing that) during the tournament," he says. "The last two days I caught most of my fish cranking wood."
That meant going to new spots during the tournament. "If I had more of an open mind about it and hadn't been so keyed in on the areas had I confidence in (from last year), I probably would have found something that would have helped me during the course of tournament," Faircloth says.
Improve Your Chances
Faircloth tied for 2nd at that BASSMASTER Open, just 2-03 out of the lead. "I feel that if I went into the tournament with a little more of an open mind, I would've had a lot better chance of winning," he says. "The bass weren't doing exactly what they did last year.
"Don't be narrowminded about fishing, no matter how many times you've been to a lake," he stresses. "Just because the bass were at one spot last year at the same time of year, doesn't mean they'll be at the same spot doing the same thing the next year."
