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Hughson,
CA. – Some of Ish Monroe’s friends back in California have a nickname for him that is simultaneously both complimentary and damning. “They call me 14 or 15,” he said, referring to his consistent string of money finishes that invariably seem to leave him just outside BASS’s Sunday cut. “I’m always close to that and it’s always been like that.”
For just about any other angler -- like those who earned fewer than his eight Elite Series checks this year, or those who haven’t qualified for five consecutive Bassmaster Classics – a series of high money finishes would be a welcome opportunity against difficult Elite Series competition. But for Monroe, who had seven finishes among the top 29 in his eight 2008 checks, but only one top twelve, it’s not enough.
“I’m at the point in my career where I expect more of myself,” he said. “I want to be in the top 30 in every tournament and I expect to be in the Classic every year. I want to be in the Angler of the Year race. I feel like I should be in it every year, but I haven’t broken the top ten yet.”
After a 2007 season in which he notched a personal best 15th place finish in the AOY race, Monroe finished a solid but unspectacular 31st in 2008. While he’d like to earn more top twelves in 2009, he also realizes that in order to compete for the season-long crown he’ll have to eliminate the bombs that plagued him this year. In addition to a 92nd place finish at Wheeler, he recorded matching 102nd place results at the season-opener at the Harris Chain and the late-season Old Hickory event.
Mental Game
Monroe believes that each negative outcome he experienced can be traced primarily to a mental error, rather than a failure of strategy or execution, so he’s spending the offseason retooling his approach to competition.
“Someone who served as a mentor to me, even if he doesn’t realize it, is John Murray,” he said. “He made over a million dollars from tournament fishing before Denny Brauer, Larry Nixon or Gary Klein did it, just from fishing in the west. When I moved to Phoenix, I talked to him a lot, learned a lot from him. He keeps it simple, goes fishing and has fun.”
Despite ten years as a full-time professional, Monroe admitted that he still gets “first tournament jitters,” and that weakness led to a 102nd place bomb to start the year at the Harris Chain. That put him in a deep hole right off the bat, but five consecutive checks thereafter pulled him out for good. But even in tournaments where Monroe did well in 2008, he wasn’t always having fun. For example, at Falcon he finished 28th, but as the result of a well-documented turf war with Paul Elias he got rattled and turned a prime opportunity into what he considered a less than satisfactory result.
“It was a mental error on my part,” he remembered. “He completely took my head out of it. I respect everybody out there. I don’t encroach on anyone’s water. That’s the most disrespectful thing anyone has ever done to me. But I look at it this way – it’s a karma deal. Look at the rest of his season and he bombed. I just love the sport so much it’s hard for me to disrespect another angler.”
Monroe also cited an example of another competitor’s good sportsmanship as working in his favor when he won the recent FLW Series event on the California Delta. He and fellow Elite Series pro Fred Roumbanis both found the same group of fish independently, but when Roumbanis realized that Ish had a chance to win the event, he backed off of them. Monroe made clear that Roumbanis was not obligated to do so and that his sportsmanship is the type that he has come to expect from upper tier anglers.
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But that disaster pales in comparison to Old Hickory, where he admits that nothing took him out of his game so much as his own attitude. “It was just another mental brain fart. I was so ticked off that BASS decided to go to Old Hickory. When we paid our entry fees they told us that we were going to go to the best lakes at the best times. I think Old Hickory is a mud hole. They should drain it and make it into a golf course. But that’s part of the learning curve – I should have treated it as just another event. You have to do what it takes to do well wherever they put us.”
Game Plan
Now that Monroe has recognized an occasional propensity to undermine his own talents and hard work, he has gone forward with the task of correcting those past mistakes.
“I’m working on it, watching the mistakes others have made and the ones I’ve made,” he said. “Rooming with Ike and John Crews and Byron (Velvick) has given me a lot of different perspectives to work with. With Ike, who has won the Classic and been Angler of the Year, I’ve learned about that winning thought process. With John Crews, there’s a different type of positive thought process. And Byron has shown me how to think outside of the box. You need to take all of that and filter it into something that works for you.”
Despite some of his peers’ belief that the 2009 Elite Series schedule will be “the Kevin VanDam tour of Tennessee Valley chain lakes,” Monroe has vowed not to be intimidated or taken out of his game before a tournament commences. But at the same time he takes issue with the idea that it’s possible to regularly fish conservatively and survive on the Elite Series.
“There’s no such thing as ‘swinging for the fences,’” he said. “I hate when guys say that. You do that every time you pay a $5,500 entry fee. If you’re just chasing checks, you need to quit.”
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The other adjustment that he has settled firmly upon is that he’s not going to pre-practice for the Red River Classic. In his five previous Classic appearances (2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008), his two best finishes occurred when he did not visit the venue prior to the official practice. Those were in 2006 at Toho, where he ended up 15th, and in 2007 at Lay Lake, which saw him finish 14th. In his other three appearances, he finished a subpar 54th, 42nd and 50th, respectively. He said that the lesson comes not only from his experience, but from one of his road roommates. “Natural ability is huge in this sport,” Monroe explained. “The guys who have it stay consistent. If there’s one thing that makes Ike so good, it’s that he fishes the
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He couldn’t even start to prepare in earnest if he wanted to. Most of his tackle is in his new truck back east, where it’s being tricked out by fellow pro Britt Myers. “My mental focus will be to go through all of my stuff,” Monroe added. “Being organized is all the preparation I need.”
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