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Bella Vista, Ark. – Mike McClelland may have fallen just short in his quest to earn the 2008 Elite Series Angler of the Year title, but he achieved a feat that neither AOY Kevin VanDam nor 2nd place finisher Todd Faircloth could muster – he finished the marathon without missing a step, earning 11 checks in 11 events, the only pro on tour to do so.
It’s a batting average that can be tied, but never beaten.
“Beyond Angler of the Year, this is probably another one of the milestones that you shoot for and that’s special,” McClelland said. “That’s not to say that it won’t be achieved again. I’m sure it will. Just that it’s a tough feat to fish 11 tournaments from coast to coast in completely different environments. Finishing 3rd is huge, but this is pretty big too.”
Day Three Woes
While the BASS points system is extremely top heavy, rewarding ultra-high finishes at a rate disproportionate to that at which it rewards slightly lower results, McClelland’s four top twelve finishes may not be the most impressive part of his 2008 resume. Reading between the lines, it’s possible to say that his finishes at Falcon, Wheeler, Old Hickory and Erie (42nd, 43rd, 42nd and 47th, respectively) are even more laudable. When things are going right, an angler finds a way to get on the right side of 50th. When he’s zigging instead of sagging, that’s when the 52nd and 55th place finishes show up, but no check comes with them.
But McClelland claims not to be overly excited by the 40-something finishes that some other anglers would give their casting arms for.
“That’s the thing that’s really frustrating for me,” he explained. “At every one of those tournaments I cost myself a chance to finish much higher. I’d slip up on day three. In those four events, that’s when I dropped the ball for Angler of the Year.”
“In a couple of them, I gambled more than I should have,” he continued. “And in a couple I stopped doing what I had been doing (the first two days). It was those day threes that made it so I had no opportunity to give Kevin and Todd a run for Angler of the Year.”
He said that Erie in particular stands out as an obvious missed opportunity. “I want to say that I was up in the 30s, maybe even the upper 20s, after two days, but after the second day I became a little lax. I went to one or two places instead of going to more. I didn’t give myself enough options.”
Good Times
Despite McClelland’s self-flagellation over his four worst finishes of 2008, the really good outweighed the merely decent. Within his 11 top fifty finishes, he had four top twelves, including a win at the Harris Chain and a 4th place at Kentucky Lake.
While the win at Harris Chain was as bittersweet as a $100,000 payday can ever be, due to Brian Snowden’s heartbreaking stumble, McClelland believes that it was one of the keys to his season.
“Getting off to that start gave me momentum,” he said. “Florida has been tough on me over the years. Secondly, it gave me some financial stability and an opportunity to fish differently. In the past, I had to draw checks. This year I could swing for the fences.”
Rather than being an empty platitude, McClelland’s home run mentality had a definite shape and meaningful results. The most important element was his lure choices.
“You can go out on tour and throw a shakey head or a Carolina Rig and fish to stay competitive,” he said. “But I really started last year fishing a bunch of the bigger swimbaits, from the Storm to Osprey to the Money Minnow. In a lot of top twelve finishes I’d put five in the box early then pick up the swimbait and know I was only going to get one or two or three bites, but they were likely to be big bites. Same with fishing a ½-ounce or ¾-ounce football head with a big brush hog trailer.”
He cited the Amistad tournament, where he finished fourth, as a prime example of this approach: “Every morning I caught two or more on a swimbait and then I’d finish my limit with a jig and a Carolina Rig.”
He still does not believe he’s a swimbait expert, but he said he’s “starting to get a grasp of it” and won’t hesitate to pull it out “on a lake where there’s a potential to catch bigger fish.”
AOY Up and Downs
The win at the Harris Chain meant that he started the year in first place in the AOY race. He fell as low as 6th after Falcon, but never again dipped below 4th.
The consistency and the end result stand in marked contrast to his four previous campaigns – in 2004 through 2007 he finished 32nd, 68th, 22nd and 30th, respectively. Three of those were good, but did not approach the near-residential status in the top five that he achieved this year.
He had a chance to move up to second after Faircloth stumbled at Oneida, but he fell seven spots short of what he needed to make the leap.
“I knew that once Kevin made the cut I couldn’t finish first,” he said. “The only way I had a shot is if both of them finished around 80th and I had a top twelve. As far as second, once I made the top twelve I knew I had to finish fourth or better. I knew that the smallmouth that I caught the first and third days would not be enough. I had to fish for largemouths like I did when I caught 17 pounds on the second day. It didn’t work out but I don’t have any regrets.”
While he was disappointed not to reach the pinnacle of the sport, his stellar season, along with his three Elite Series wins, provide him with the impetus to make another run at the title.
“It gives me more drive,” he said. “In the past I always got started off in a hole, but now I know what it’s like to compete (for AOY) all year. As long as I can maintain my strong finishes, I hope to be back there again.”
Contributing Factors
As he stated above, McClelland’s six-figure earnings in 2008 gave him the ability to swing for the fences when appropriate, and he expects that will carry over into 2009.
“I feel like I have tried to be smart with my money,” he said. “I’ve set up some self-employment retirement plans and that gives me some security. Going into next year I’ll have the financial security to take care of my family and that gives you a different outlook.”
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Another element of McClelland’s success that is not always credited is his partnership with fellow pro Jeff
Kriet. He cited his win at the Harris Chain as a perfect example of the benefits of such an arrangement.
“At Florida this year, we didn’t go in just looking to make a check,” McClelland said. “Jeff, after the second day of practice, he basically said that one of us had a chance to win it. He was around the fish and it didn’t work out for him. But to have somebody on the trail who you can work with and share information, that’s just extremely helpful.”
A final factor that didn’t necessarily contribute to McClelland’s success, but definitely benefited from it, was the decision by BASS to allow anglers to fish out of their own boats all four days of competition.
“I’ve made top twelves in the past, but this was a big difference. Just the comfort level in your own boat, and being in your own boat to promote your sponsors, that’s a big deal.” |
His deal with Tahoe smokeless tobacco, which was structured on a tournament-by-tournament a la carte basis starting late in the season, is a prime example of the leverage provided by having his boat all four days.
“The Tahoe deal was set up around performance,” McClelland said. “I was compensated according to the number of days I fished. It’s a very cool way to structure opportunities.”
“I really believe that the sport of bass fishing has been rewritten with the evolution of the Elite Series.”
Conclusion
Having experienced a firsthand taste of an AOY race, McClelland believes that award is truly the test of the best.
“In my opinion, that is the world championship,” he said.
So does that mean he’d prefer the 2009 AOY title over the 2009 Bassmaster Classic trophy?
“At this minute, it’s the Classic, because that’s next on my schedule. But after the Classic, it’ll go back to being the Angler of the Year.”
He didn’t mean to belittle the Classic title – “I’ve dreamed about that since I started fishing and I still dream of winning it,” he said – but still believes that the AOY is a tougher crown to earn. |
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“It’s only one tournament,’ he said. “I know how to win one tournament. But to be consistent over 11 events from coast to coast, in this day and age, that’s the more coveted title.”
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