Story by Pete Robbins - Photos by Mark Jeffreys  

Norman, OK - Jason Williamson’s sophomore season on the Elite Series trail had some notable highlights, along with some struggles, but in the end he settled quite close to where he had ended up the year before. His 46th place finish in the Angler of the Year race was two spots worse than he’d finished in 2007. 

So why does he think he’s turned a corner in his quest to become a top-flight major leaguer?

The reasons are several, but they boil down to one basic premise: He doesn’t need to be a “check chaser” anymore.

That may have been a tough realization to reach, especially after he saw his dreams of a Classic berth float away when he finished 68th at Oneida. “You always want to aim high and have high goals,” he said. “Of course my first goal was to make the Classic. But my secondary goal was to be in the top fifty in the Angler of the Year race, and I had little goals along the way.”

So while the overall paycheck and end-of-the-year position didn’t change by much, he feels that he’s turned a corner, particularly when it comes to attitude.

“You look at the Skeet Reeses and the Kevin VanDams, when they go into the season, they have no worries,” he said. “They’re not thinking about the light bill or the phone bill. But things have changed since they were coming up. Even five years ago it didn’t cost what it costs now. Skeet told me he didn’t make the Classic his first two years. Jeff Kriet told me the same thing. But now it costs eighty to ninety thousand dollars a year.”

Thus, for the young angler, particularly one without major financial backing, there’s a race to establish his on-the-water and promotional skills before the money runs out.

“I’ve been in that position since I made the Elites,” Williamson said. “I’m just a hometown little country guy who has had to scrape from everywhere I can. I’ve scraped, begged and borrowed just to get to where I am. I don’t want to have to throw in the towel.”

Changes in Attitude
He admitted that his precarious financial situation made him one of “the group of guys who are check chasers” but that he’d rather be part of “the group that can swing for the fence every time.” 

“It makes a difference to know that your entry fees are paid for, that if things don’t go well right off the bat, you don’t have to back up and pull the spinning rod out,” he said. “That causes you to fish differently.”

He said that power fishing with big baits is his strength, and while he couldn’t chase that bite at every event, when he was able to do so it paid off in a big way. Home run tactics led to consecutive top twelve finishes at Falcon (8th) and Amistad (5th).

“I knew that I had to swing for the fence and target big fish the whole time,” he said. “That meant putting everything else away. It was more about my mindset than about particular baits or colors. I stuck with my strengths the whole time.”

Notably, he persevered despite a terrible practice at Amistad. “My biggest fish (in practice) was only about four pounds and I only had a couple of those,” he said. “If you had told me then that I’d be leading the tournament after two days, I would have told you that you were crazy. But I hung in there with it and when it didn’t work well I just kept covering new water. It’s hard to do that anywhere you go.”

“Sometimes you just put too much pressure on yourself to do well,” he said. “I don’t have an excuse to why I didn’t win, but sometimes when you fish lakes you know well you go into the tournament with a closed mind. Maybe I tried to force the fish to bite a certain way.” He also noted that he tail-hooked a six pounder off a bed and had to release it. 

But in the end, he was philosophical and modest about those stumbles. “I just turned 28,” he said. “I’m not an expert any way around. I was never in the ballgame to make a top ten at either of those tournaments, but I lost fish at both of them that would have put me in the top fifty.”

Future Fishing
After his dismal showings in South Carolina, Williamson snuck back inside the Classic bubble after Wheeler, where he finished 22nd, to move up to 31st in the AOY standings. But other than that he vacillated between 39th and 44th, until finally settling in at 46th at the end of the season. He hadn’t been that low in the standings since the period between Kissimmee and Falcon, back in March, but despite the drop he’s excited for 2009, and a lot of that has to do with the mindset he developed in Texas and some new financial opportunities.

While Williamson was unable to comment on the status of either prior or potential future sponsorship deals, he was able to say that 2009 will be the first season in which he won’t be worrying about check chasing. 

“My sponsor dollars are getting bigger and bigger every year. It’ll be the first year where I have no pressure to come up with my entry fees and costs,” he said, implying that they’re already accounted for. 

“I look forward to starting on Amistad,” he said. “I’ve never been to Dardanelle, Pickwick or Bay de Noc, but you’ve got to catch them whether it’s someone’s backyard pond or Falcon.”

While he made no guarantees, he wants to break out of that mid-40s position and work his way toward the top of the AOY ladder: “I want to be in that top ten,” he said. “I fished the Opens one year and made the Elites. I was leading the Northerns with one event left to go. I was in the top five or six in the Southerns all year. In the BFLs and the Strens, I was always used to being near the top. Now I’ve paid my dues here and I want to get back up there. I just need to keep working harder to make better decisions on the water.”