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Norman,
OK - John Crews was getting used to the good life. Four straight appearances in the Bassmaster Classic will do that to a young angler. But the 2008 Elite Series season is one he’d just as soon forget. After making it to the big dance every year since 2005, he ended his most recent campaign in 71st place in the Angler of the Year race.
He said that he never took a berth in the Classic for granted, but it’s definitely a milestone that he uses to gauge the state of his career.
“It’s always a goal I set for myself,” he said. “But more than that I want to finish higher than I did previously in the Angler of the Year race. I always want to do better than I’ve ever done. If you keep that up, eventually you’ll contend for Angler of the Year.”
When pressed, he couldn’t name a highlight in a season that produced four money finishes (none better than 30th) and zero Sunday appearances. In contrast, in 2008 he earned six regular season checks, two of them for top twelve finishes (4th at Clarks Hill and 8th at Smith Mountain), plus a 12th place finish in the major at Oneida. That resulted in a much different 33rd place finish. In 2006, the inaugural season of the Elite Series, he did even better, with seven checks, four of them in the top 12, plus an 11th at the Major at Eagle Mountain. He ended up 19th overall. A few more quality finishes or one or two fewer bombs – he finished 96th at Falcon, 101st at Wheeler and 88th at Kentucky Lake – and he could be getting ready for the Red River right now.
He characterized his season’s-worst effort at Wheeler as particularly baffling. “There was a really strong shallow bite going on,” he said. “I had two really good practice days doing that, then spent one day out deep and I couldn’t get it going out there. I knew that if I could just luck into one or two quality fish each day I could really do well, but they all turned into little ones. That bite got completely turned off so I went out deep and caught a bunch of little fish on a ten-inch worm and a big crankbait, but all I could catch were little ones while everyone around me was catching bigger ones.”
At its inception, the season didn’t seem like it would turn out so poorly. After a personal-best 16th place finish in the Classic at Hartwell, he turned in two consecutive money performances at the Harris Chain and Kissimmee. When the tour left Florida for Texas, he sat in 30th place overall. But then the wheels fell off. He followed up the dismal 96th at Falcon with a 73rd at Amistad and headed to South Carolina in 69th in the AOY race. He’d never even sniff Classic qualification again, failing to rise above 55th the rest of the year.
The Falcon and Amistad struggles may have been due to a tactical error: “I was around a ton of fish in Texas,” he said. “But they were all two and three pounders. I needed to focus on big fish. That was my downfall.”
“If you want to hear something that sums up how my year went, this is pretty typical,” he continued. “I fished two days at Falcon and finished way down. But I had caught a few big ones in practice, just nothing ever panned out in the tournament. The day after the tournament I stayed around and got out around 10 o’clock in the morning. I had a spot that I thought was just OK. I went there and on my first cast with a jig it didn’t even hit the bottom. I set the hook and landed an 8-04. The potential was there. I’ve done it before. It’s just a matter of things going your way and I couldn’t break out.”
While he said that he lost more fish than in a typical year, he still feels that his overall execution was at a high level, so he won’t be spending the offseason retooling his techniques or his tackle box.
“I can’t get too discouraged because I’m still fishing well,” he explained. He was on the water last week to tape a television program with Mike Iaconelli and the week before found him at Pickwick for the PAA Corporate Cup. While he’s mostly concerned with spending time with his family, he seems to find himself on the lake with a fair amount of regularity. “I don’t have any events between now and January, but I’m always on the water testing lures,” he explained.
Crews is also spending a good portion of his day in service to the PAA, for whom he is spearheading the “Payday Program,” and effort to get weekend anglers involved in the organization’s mission. It is at times an all-consuming affair, since they seek to include “as many trails at as many levels as possible.”
Consistent with the PAA’s mission, he continues to work diligently to shore up his own sponsor portfolio for 2009 and beyond. As of the publication of this article, the future of several previous deals was still being ironed out and several potential new deals were being explored. Among the younger pros, he has one of the most impressive stables of sponsors, but he also knows that for some of those writing the checks, you’re only as good as your last tournament – or your next tournament, for that matter.
| “It’s been interesting to watch,” he explained. “The economy is down and a lot of the bigger companies are hurting. But within each industry, there are always some smaller and mid-sized companies that have positioned themselves so that they remain competitive. If you’re associated with the ones that are doing OK, you can be doing well. I’ve got a mix of both of them. I never quit looking for potential new sponsors. I’m in negotiations with a few of them and there are a few of my deals I just don’t know about.”
He hopes to have those deals hammered out by February, when the Classic rolls around. While he’ll be in the unusual and uncomfortable position of being a spectator to the competition, he’ll also be gearing up for the 2009 season. Are there any particular events that have him excited? |
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“I don’t get too jacked up or too bummed about any single event,” he replied. “I’ve been that way from the start. It helps with my consistency.”
And the consistency that he showed in the years prior to 2008 is what he needs to get back.
“Ten guys make the top ten in every event. It’s the same for everybody.”
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