Story by Hunter Sales | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
Professional fishing is a rollercoaster of highs and lows, from the tournaments that you are in contention to win to the weeks when you have no idea where you missed the boat. I’ve always believed that the key to a long, successful career is figuring out how to avoid bombing events even when you’re not in your comfort zone.
In a perfect world, you would still find a way to sneak out a check on these weeks, but it is crucial to gain some points towards a year-end championship. On Santee Cooper, after Day 2, I was in 79th place with a two-day total of 20 pounds and 12 ounces. I was able to keep my head in it and grind out 22-10 on the final day to finish the event in 52nd place. In this week’s article, we’ll talk about the importance of and challenges with salvaging an event.
Last year, I wrapped up the season with a 12th place finish in the Progressive AOY race. This included two top 10s, a 17th, a 29th, a 34th, and a 72nd. I was around 115 points (1 point per position) from both the AOY title and the championship qualification cut line. This averages out to about 20 places per event. Knowing that the difference between an AOY-caliber season and missing the championship was a mere 20 places at each event shows just how crucial it can be to maximize your points from the first event through the last event.
The biggest challenge with pulling off a Day 3 rally bag is keeping your mind focused on the task at hand. It’s easy to let frustration from the previous days creep into your mind … or worse, chalk the event up as being over and start looking to the next one. It was a bit easier to stay focused at Santee Cooper, a place where 30-pound bags were being caught each day. The question looming in my head each morning at takeoff was whether to focus on the area that I had found in practice and the first two days of the event or call an audible and start from scratch. I opted for a combination of the two during all three days of this event. I spent 2-3 hours during each day fishing my primary area and the rest of the time searching for more productive water.
There have been times in my career when I threw practice out the window completely and started from scratch during Day 1 of the tournament. Occasionally, this has worked well and led to unexpectedly solid finishes. I think back to Saginaw Bay last year where I fished about 50 miles from anywhere I had practiced and ended up 29th.
At other times this approach can lead to really, really poor showings. My general rule of thumb is to be quicker to pull the plug on practice in summer or fall events as opposed to pre-spawn tournaments. In the spring, as long as you’re catching males there’s a chance that females will show up. In these situations, I’m a bit slower to fish new water. At Santee Cooper, I did catch a seven-pounder and six-pounder on the third day in the same area that I had caught two-pound class fish all week. Sometimes, you just need that wave of females to show up!
While I’m not happy with my showing at Santee Cooper, I am chalking it up to lessons learned, points salvaged, and looking forward to the next event at Lake Norman. I certainly did what I needed to do to keep all of my goals for 2025 intact. I’ll be heading up to Lake Norman this weekend to pre-practice prior to the off-limits period.
Thanks for keeping up with me!
Hunter Sales – Angler Profile
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