When a new season begins, all anglers set goals and daydream about the possibilities that a clean slate offers. Goals may differ, but qualifying for the tour championship is the single most important base accomplishment we all hold as our standard for a successful season.
In my first two seasons on the MLF Pro Circuit, I was high enough in the points standings going into the final event where I felt I was at little risk of not making the TITLE Championship. This year, however, I found myself on the bubble for a berth going into the final event on the St. Lawrence River.
Out of My Wheelhouse
With so much on the line, I wanted to make sure I was at my best as far as preparation heading up to New York. Since this was to be my first time visiting the SLR, I did a lot of research, with an emphasis on figuring out how to best utilize my two short days of practice.
I’ll be the first to admit that I am at my best when I’m targeting largemouth, but through all my research, it became glaringly apparent that smallmouth were going to be king.
Knowing that small-jaws would dominate the event, I spent the first, and most of my second day of practice, exclusively trying to break the brown-fish code, without much success.
Whether my lack of experience with Great Lakes smallmouth was the reason for the lack of success or the fish were just in a funk, out of desperation, or possibly just boredom,I put down my Ned rigs and dropshots and pulled out a ChatterBait and went looking for some largemouth water.
It didn’t take long to realize that the largemouth were more than willing to obliterate the green-pumpkin Jackhammer I was haphazardly casting around.
After the fleeting two days of practice, and with very little confidence in the smallmouth bite, I went all-in on my largemouth pattern. Though I was confident I would catch a lot of fish, I was not optimistic about my chances of catching the right quality to make the day-2 cut, which I felt was necessary to qualify for the championship.
Long Drive for Green Fish
On the first day of the event, thanks to a 75-mile run,I had plenty of time to chew on the fact that I felt like I was fighting a losing battle by focusing on green fish.
However, once I finally got to my areas, I started to realize that win, lose, or draw, I was in my element and the largemouth were very easy to catch, so any negative feelings about my chosen pattern quickly disappeared.
Before I knew it, I had knocked all the paint off of my 1/2-ounce ChatterBait from constantly battling aggressive largemouth, and they were still eating it! By the time I had to leave for my long trek back to Massena, I had a hair over 16 pounds in the livewell. To end the day, I added a bonus smallie to my bag as I was heading back to the weigh-in.
As I was checking in, despite having a blast all day, I thought that my 16 1/2-pound sack was going to put me way deep in the standings. Fortunately, the fishing turned out to be as tough as I thought it was, and I ended up the first day right around the Top-50 cut line.
With the knowledge that the St. Lawrence wasn’t fishing at its best, I started to feel that my largemouth pattern might indeed take me the distance.
The Pivot
Day 2 posed some new challenges. The wind was significantly stronger, which made the long ride to the Clayton area difficult, to say the least.
Aside from the weather, I also faced the fact that I didn't feel like any of the areas I fished the day before would reload. I was able to find some likely new areas with my Navionics app the night before, but I was nonetheless concerned that I was quickly running out of productive water.
My first stop was in a completely new area and I immediately started catching fish, but the average size was much smaller. Though I was concerned about the quality I was catching, I was excited that I was getting bit so quickly. Unfortunately, I must’ve landed on a particularly productive stretch of docks because after my initial flurry, I had a long dry spell.
I ended up catching a limit and culling multiple times, but around 10:30 I had a mediocre limit and I had run out of areas.
At this point I decided to scrap my largemouth pattern, pulled out some spinning rods, and bee-lined it down river back toward Massena.
I had found one area in the Waddington vicinity during practice where I had caught multiple smallmouth, and I was confident that not only could I catch some fish there, but it was my best shot at upgrading my bag by more than mere ounces.
Turns out, my gamble wound up paying off. With only a couple hours of fishing time, I was able to dial in the smallmouth bite and caught several fish, including two quality smallies that culled me up a half-pound each. However, as time passed, I was feeling my chances of qualifying for the TITLE slipping away.
Once I turned in my float to the check-in official, I was certain that my season was over and that I would miss my championship berth by several places thanks to my 13 1/2-pound limit. However, once I started talking to the other anglers, I realized that fishing had been extremely tough for everyone – even more so than the day before.
Turns out, my small limit only dropped me down about 10 spots, which was enough for a paycheck. But was it enough to make the championship?
For the next two nights I drove my wife Katie crazy by crunching numbers and trying to figure out where I would land in the points. Fortunately, when the dust settled, I ended up in 47th, which was too close for comfort, but within the cut.
Just Enough Good
Once I found out that I had barely squeezed into the championship cut, I was relieved. It was not lost on me how close I came to not qualifying for my third straight championship on the Pro Circuit.
The 2021 season has been the most volatile of my Pro Circuit career by far, with half of my finishes being well below the check cut.
To be honest, I knew as soon as I saw the schedule last fall that I would be facing some of my biggest challenges yet, with so many unfamiliar fisheries. I knew that this would likely be a year of learning, but I was secretly hoping that my education wouldn’t come at the expense of a TITLE berth.
Fortunately, I was able to make just enough good decisions throughout my season to overcome those challenges, and now I find myself preparing to hit the road for Wisconsin for another chance at a championship title.
Life is good!
(Miles "Sonar" Burghoff is an MLF Pro Circuit competitor and the co-host of the TV series "Sweetwater." To visit his website, click here. You can also visit him on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (SonarFishing) and Instagram (@sonarfishing).
