Story by Ken Duke | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
I’m a geek for statistics about our sport, so it’s probably not surprising that I love to take a deep dive into the stuff others may not notice at first glance.
One trend I’m seeing this year on the NPFL tournament trail is that the locals are mostly struggling. There were 13 South Carolinians at the Santee Cooper opener, but only two of them posted top 20 finishes. Corey Casey and Patrick Walters were 2nd and 6th, respectively. Yes, Skeeter Crosby was having a great derby before his disqualification, but that’s not a lot of locals near the top.
At Lake Norman, there were 20 North Carolinians in the field, including seven or eight top pros who call Norman their home water, yet just four of them finished in the top 20. K.J. Queen and David Williams were in the top 10. Shane LeHew, and Hayden Hammond were in the teens.
Most recently, at Douglas Lake in Tennessee, there were 10 anglers from the Volunteer State competing, but just two who cracked the top 20. Hunter Sales and Tavin Napier were 9th and 12th. Other outstanding Tennessee pros—pre-tournament favorites—struggled or bombed outright.
Why?
No matter how you try to explain it, you must consider the locals with lots of experience on a body of water to be favorites going into the event. Certainly, some of them will break through, avoid the distractions, and have a strong event. After all, they know the lake better than the other competitors. On balance, that has to be an advantage.
There’s always been a lot of speculation about why local favorites struggle at home but having talked with hundreds of pros in exactly that situation, I believe it boils down to just two things.
History and pressure.
The local stick launches his boat knowing hundreds of places around the lake where he has caught fish through the years or even decades. The angler who has never seen the lake before is likely to have fewer preconceived notions about where he should go and what he should try. He’s likely more open-minded and he brings new ideas to a body of water that may not have seen them before.
The tournament starts and the local makes his first run. If the bite is on right away, that’s great. He’s off to the races! But if it’s not, he starts thinking about other spots he can go to, other baits that have worked in the past, other stories he’s heard through the years. Instead of fishing what he learned in practice—just a day or two ago—he’s fishing what happened 10 years ago, under conditions that may have been quite different. He’s not giving his spot a fair shot. He’s not fishing with his usual confidence or focus. By 11 o’clock, he’s spun out and making long runs to areas he hasn’t visited in years.
I’ve watched it happen in real time, in boats following some big-name pros, including some NPFL pros.
Tournaments close to home can also put additional pressure on a pro angler. It typically comes in a couple of forms. The first is typically overrated, but the second is certainly underrated.
The overrated pressure comes from the fans and sponsors. They expect their local heroes to show out, to finish high, to win. Unless the pro internalizes that—and most don’t if they’ve been on tour for more than a couple of years—this sort of pressure is usually negligible. They mostly shrug it off.
But the second kind of pressure can drag a talented angler down, and I’ve seen it happen many times. It’s the unintentional pressure that family and friends exert on a pro fishing a local event. The bigger the event, the more damaging this pressure tends to be.
It starts when the pro’s mom and dad decide they’re going to be at the tournament. They may even want to stay at the pro’s home if it’s close enough. They want to have dinner together, eat out a few times, maybe ride along in practice or go out to launch. Pretty quickly the pro’s routine is disturbed, but he doesn’t say anything because … well, you can’t, right?
And maybe it’s not the parents. Maybe it’s a brother or sister or old fishing buddy. They’re leaning on the pro for this or that. They’re expecting more of his time and attention than he can spare. Feelings get hurt.
I know one pro who was getting calls during practice from a house guest who couldn’t figure out how to use the television remote. He fumed about it but said nothing. It did not help his performance.
Next week at Lake Eufaula, there will be 10 Oklahomans competing. Three of them were in the field when the NPFL was last here in 2023—Charlie Apperson, Darrel Robertson, and Mitchell Webb. Apperson posted the best finish of any Oklahoman in that event—11th. Robertson was 16th. Webb was 52nd.
This year, the list of Oklahomans fishing the Eufaula event is large and prestigious. It includes current and future legends like Tommy Biffle, Zack Birge, and Jason Christie.
How will they fare close to home?
