The Secret To Winning With Gerald Swindle
The
Secret To Winning With Gerald Swindle
More Smith Lake Tournament
Editor's Note: Thirty-four-year-old Gerald Swindle
of Hayden, Alabama, this year's BASS Angler of the Year,
has lived the American dream in the last 12 years. As
a $12,000-a-year carpenter, Swindle dreamed of earning
a living as a professional bass fisherman. This year,
Swindle already has earned more than $1/2-million in
his chosen sport. If he stays on track, he may earn
$1 million before December 31, 2004.
"I decided on the second day of the Smith Lake
tournament that I was going to forget about deep-water
patter, go out on the lake, look at the conditions and
fish the way I felt like I should fish to catch bass,"
Gerald Swindle says. "I just decided to do what
I knew how to do each day I was on the water and would
let the chips fall where they would." On the second
day of the tournament, Swindle went out on the lake
and read the water and weather conditions before he
decided how he'd fish.
The night before the second day of the tournament, a
heavy rain had fallen at Smith Lake. Swindle figured
that the bass would hold where dirty water ran into
clear water. He began fishing all the pockets and coves
he would find where new water came into the lake. Relying
on a crankbait and a jig, Swindle caught 12 pounds of
bass on the second day of the tournament and moved from
the bottom 50 to 8th place and finally finished the
tournament 5th place.
According to Swindle, "I realized at that tournament
that if I was going to do well in tournaments I had
to rely more on my instincts each day I went out on
the water and rely less on a set game plan that I planned
to fish every day of the tournament. I learned I could
consistently catch more and bigger bass when I fished
with my feelings than when I fished with a game plan.
I also learned that I was better off not to even tie
lures on my line until I arrived at a lake and weather
conditions I saw at that moment. When I started using
this strategy that I'd learned the value of at Smith
Lake, my bass fishing made a dramatic turn for the better."
Today Swindle remembers the exact spot on the lake
when he started fishing
with his intuition rather than with his conscious mind.
"I was running down the lake with my boat at full
throttle, headed to a spot where I felt certain there
should be a big school of bass. But I looked over at
the bank and saw a runoff that was bringing rushing
water onto the lake. A voice inside me said, 'Pull over
that rushing water and fish there!' However, my conscious
mind was saying, 'Forget that rushing water, and go
to the place you know the bass should be.' But for some
unknown reason, I turned my boat and went toward the
rushing water. I jumped up on the casting deck. The
first cast I made I caught a nice largemouth, and on
the next cast I caught another good largemouth. Right
then, I made the decision that I would trust my instincts
and fish the moment, not the game plan. At that very
moment, when I made that decision, I decided to use
that philosophy of fishing throughout the rest of the
year. And, I truly believe that that decision at that
time, is what enabled me to win the BASS Angler-of-the-Year
title this season."
With a 58th-place finish in Florida, and a 5th-place
finish at Smith Lake,
Swindle made the top five in the race for Angler of
the Year. However, never did seriously think about the
possibility of being Angler of the Year at the end of
the Smith Lake tournament. I just thought to myself,
'Well, Gerald, you have redeemed yourself a little bit
from that lousy finish you had in Florida. Let's see
if you can keep the momentum going."
NEXT WEEK: THE SECRET TO WINNING WITH GERALD SWINDLE-PART
II
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