Boyd Duckett – I Moved Up But it Was Stressful

It’s a good day when you move up from 30^th place to 21^st in an Elite Series event. I’ve got no complaints. But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t stressful.

You can tell how difficult the fishing is when 16 pounds even is food for 21^st place out of more than 100 pro anglers.

It might not have been so stressful if I could’ve actually put the fish I caught into the boat.

I lost the first three fish I hooked. And that’s what made things stressful.

Fortunately I caught three more – all right around two pounds.

But let me tell you what it was like before I caught those three.

We had a fog delay, so we all had to cut two and a half hours out of our day.

I decided to stay with the game plan I said I was going to follow. I went back to a little eight-acre lake at the end of a river channel, the same one I fished yesterday.

The fish are all in about four feet of water. The lake is deep, but you’re fishing the banks. I tossed a finesse worm all day and caught swimmers. It takes a lot of patience.

Fishing today was almost the same deal as yesterday, except yesterday I was sight fishing. Not today.

When I got there I was trying to be patient, but there is some urgency because I believe I need to catch three to make the cut. Then as patient as I was, I lost the first three. I watched them jump off, and by the time the third one jumped it was almost devastating. At that point it was really hard to stay positive.

I didn’t freak out, but it was hard mentally. It started to feel like Major League Fishing, the way you feel that urgency when you’re not catching anything and you know you’ve got to get that first one in the boat.

Fortunately, I was eventually able to catch three more, and I ended up further above the cutline than I thought I’d be.

So now I’ve been to this same area two days in a row, and I hooked six fish both days. I figure if I could have put five of them in the boat today that would have been 10 pounds, and I’d have been somewhere in the top 10.

So now I’ve got a decision to make for tomorrow. I don’t feel completely comfortable staying where I am when there might be bigger fish if I make a run.

At the same time, if I stay where I’ve been fishing and get 10 pounds tomorrow, I’ll be in the 12 cut, and I’m fishing Sunday.

So I feel pretty good about this event, but I don’t feel confident right now in tomorrow’s plan. I can’t say “win or lose, this is what I’m going to do.” It’s going to take some thought.

Tomorrow will be a gut call.