Story by Corey Casey | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
There’s a big difference between fishing a regular season tournament and fishing a championship. If you’ve never been in that situation it might sound like the same thing—launch the boat, go catch the biggest bass you can, weigh them in, repeat. But mentally, strategically, and emotionally, it’s a completely different animal.
The 2025 NPFL Championship is coming up on Lewis Smith Lake in Alabama February 26-28, and I’m fired up to be a part of it. Qualifiers include last season’s regular season tournament winners, the top 40 anglers from the 2025 Progressive Angler of the Year standings, and the 2025 Championship winner, Scott Hamrick. First place pays $100,000. That’s the kind of event that makes your heart race just thinking about it. And I’m super proud to say I earned my spot by finishing 18th in AOY.
That right there is the first difference between regular season events and championships: you must have a strong regular season just to qualify.
During the regular season, it’s a long grind. One bad tournament can bury you. One missed decision can cost you an entire year. When you’re chasing AOY points, you’re basically running a marathon where every tournament is a checkpoint.
In those regular season events, my goal is consistency. Period. I’m battling to have success over an entire season, not just one week. I’m trying to avoid the blowups—tournaments where everything goes wrong and you end up with a terrible finish. It’s not that I don’t want to win. Of course I want to win! If a win is possible, I’m all about it. But I’m also smart enough to know that sometimes the best tournament you can have is one where you take what the lake gives you and bring in a solid bag every day.
In the regular season, there are moments where protecting points matters. If the fish are tough and I can grind out a respectable limit doing something I’m confident in, that might be the right move. A lot of times you’re thinking …
“How do I stay in the cut?”
“How do I get a solid finish?”
“How do I avoid disaster?”
That’s regular season fishing. It’s calculated. It’s controlled. And it’s about stacking finishes.
A championship is about winning. Nothing else.
A championship isn’t about being solid. It’s not about having “a good tournament.” It’s not about catching a limit. It’s about one thing … winning. That’s it.
In a regular season event, you might be happy with a check or a top 20 finish. In a championship, that stuff doesn’t mean much. When you’re fishing against the top 40 guys for $100k, you’re not there to be comfortable. You’re there to put yourself in position to hold a trophy.
And that changes everything.
My mindset in a championship tournament is aggressive. It’s focused. It’s sharp. I’m not thinking about “how can I salvage some points.” There are no points to salvage. There’s no next tournament to fix it. This is it. A strong finish doesn’t matter if it isn’t the kind of finish that has you in contention going into the final day.
Practice is different, too.
In the regular season, practice is often about building a game plan that creates consistency. I’m trying to locate areas and patterns that will help me catch fish each day and not fall apart. It doesn’t have to be magical. It has to be dependable.
Championship practice is about something else entirely: finding the “winning deal.”
I want to know what it takes to win on that body of water at that moment in time. I want to know what kind of fish I need, where they live, and what triggers the bigger bites. You can catch keeper fish all day long and still get beat. The gap between first and fourth or fifth usually develops fast.
Occasionally, Day 1 becomes an extended day of “practice.” This is where championships really get different for me. If I go through practice and I don’t feel like I’ve found something that can win, I’m not going to play it safe just to post a solid bag on Day 1. I will go out and treat Day 1 like another practice day.
That might sound crazy, but it’s the truth. If I don’t believe I’m on the right pattern or location, fishing safe isn’t going to magically put me in contention. If I’m not careful, all that does is lock me into a finish that’s “fine” but doesn’t matter.
In that situation I’ll do something different. I’ll explore. I’ll take risks. I’ll try to unlock that pattern that catches bigger fish and actually gives me a shot. A lot of fishermen call it “swinging for the fences.” And I get that. But I like to say, “I’m just going fishing.”
When it’s championship time, that’s what it takes. You’ve got to go for it.
Smith Lake is the perfect place for that. You can’t fake it there. It’s deep, clear, and full of decisions. It can humble you quick, but it can also reward the angler who figures out the right deal at the right time. And that’s exactly why I love it for a championship.
I earned my berth with consistency all year. Now it’s time to flip the switch.
Regular season mindset: stay steady, stack finishes.
Championship mindset: put it all on the line and try to win.
And that’s exactly what I plan to do at Smith Lake.
Corey Casey – Angler Profile
