Boyd Duckett – Two Thoughts on my Mind

During the short break we just had between Elite Series events, two things took a lot of my attention.

One involved good news. And that is that I’ve opened a new business in Guntersville, Alabama: Duckett Marine.

It’s a big undertaking. We’ve been open for about three weeks, and we’ve already sold 19 boats. That’s a pretty good start, especially since we’re not really finished with the property. We’ve got inventory on the lot, but we’re still kind of working around construction.

I’ll try not to make this too much of a commercial, but I’ll tell you two things about what we’re going to do with Duckett Marine.

The first is that we’re offering a pretty broad inventory. We sell Triton, Ranger, Nitro, Tracker, Sun Tracker Pontoons, Regency Pontoons, Tahoe ski boats, Mako saltwater boats. I think that’s a pretty good selection.

The second thing is that I know a successful dealership needs to have the great service department. Nobody wants to bring a boat in for service and have it sitting around in a service yard for a week. We don’t intend to let that happen. We’re going to produce good service.

Anyway, getting Duckett Marine going has required a lot of attention, so I’ve had the dealership on my mind.

The other thing that’s occupied my mind has not been so good. I’ve been trying to figure out how in the past two Elite Series tournaments I’ve gone from the twenties in angler-of-the-year standings to 54^th.

Well, let my take that back. I KNOW how I dropped to 54^th. I’ve sucked at those two events.

I caught them at both Toledo Bend and at Texoma, but I just didn’t catch them as good as everybody else – if that makes sense.

A funny thing happened at the Texoma event. I was looking at the leader board after the tournament was over and noticed that, even though I probably covered 40,000 acres of lake, I never saw any of the guys in the top 25, maybe even top 30 or more. I physically never saw them.

I came to find out that every one of them was fishing in one area, which was the Washita River.

I’ve seen times when several leaders were on one spot, or there were two or three places that were hot – and no more. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a time when all of the leaders, one to whatever the number was, were fishing the same arm of a lake. Weird.

And I missed it.

The result is that the pressure is now on. In the last three events, I need a couple of top 30’s and another one where I make the cut. That should get me back into the Classic.

It’s not time to panic, but I sure can’t have another finish in the 90’s, which is where I ended up at Texoma.

What that means is that I’m going to have to take a reasonably conservative approach now. No swinging for the fences. That won’t work. I need steady, solid bags.

I’m actually now worried about it. I kind of like fishing under pressure. It doesn’t bother me that much, and it certainly makes me focus.

The next event – Cayuga, which is in the Finger Lakes region of New York – should be fun. It’s a typical New York lake. There will probably be largemouth and smallmouth, and it could be a lot of sight fishing.

And if it’s sight fishing, I’d better see them. As I said, I need a strong finish.