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| FishTails |
An interview with 2000 Bassmaster Classic Champion Woo
Daves
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| 2000 BASS Masters Classic Champion and Angler of the Year Woo Daves
recently appeared in Huntington as part of the Bassmaster University. He sat down with us Saturday morning for
an interview with WVBF Web Site Administrator Jim Matuga. |
JM: How do you approach pre-practice for a tournament? What are
the major things you want to accomplish and what kind of information are you looking for?
WD: When I'm pre-practicing,
mainly I'm looking for the type of water that I like to fish first. If a guy likes to fish bluff banks, he might
look for that. Grass, shallow water, stumps, muddy water, clear water, whatever. Then you have to look at the time
of the year second. In the spring, the fish are going to be in the warmest water. In the summer, they'll be in
the coolest water. Basically, you want to look for something that's going to work for your style of fishing. Any
lake you fish is going to have seven or eight working patterns on it most every time you go there.
JM: Say for instance you find a pattern in pre-practice and when
you arrive for the tournament you find that the fish aren't where you found them during practice. What do you do
then?
WD: If I caught
fish say, in the back of a creek, and there was no major change, maybe a little cold front or something, I know
those fish didn't leave that creek and swim all the way to the dam. They're still there somewhere. You got to start
changing presentations. Slowing down, fishing deeper, fishing shallower. If the water got colder , the fish might
have went a little deeper. If it warmed up, they might have moved up shallower. If I have an area that has fish
in it, I think it's better to stay there and try to figure out how to catch them, than running all around the lake
looking for the greener grass.
JM: What is your "go-to" bait?
WD: Worm…lizard…any
kind of plastic bait. It's mostly the technique more than the lure. I've caught all my big stringers in a tournament
on a spinnerbait.
JM: You had a
tremendous year in 2000. You won the Bassmaster Classic, Angler of the year, what do you feel your strengths are
as a tournament angler?
WD: Number one
is I've got good plastics fishing techniques. I think you need to learn to do that before you do anything. It helps
you in all other styles of fishing. It helps you to concentrate and have confidence in yourself. When things get
tough, a person can go to a worm and finish out a limit of fish. The second thing I'm noted for is…Rick Clunn said
I was the best "Junk Fisherman" that he knew, because I might do a lot of different things in a day.
I might catch fish on topwater, spinnerbait, buzbait, crankbait, all in one day. I try to let the situation dictate
what lure I'm going to use. If you're going down a bank and there's only one boat dock, that's where the fish is
going to be. So I'm going to fish harder around that area and try different tactics to get something going.
JM: Do you have
any weaknesses?
WD: Well, I'm
getting older…I don't have as much energy. But you can go with brains over brawn sometimes. It's like a quarterback
in the NFL. The old ones aren't near as mobile as the young ones. But the old ones tend to beat the young ones.
I've got to put my experience to work instead of my physical attributes.
JM: Do you think
that there is any special reason that two of your major tourmanent victories including the Bass Masters Classic
have occurred in Illinois?
WD: Well, that's
a strange thing. I caught all smallmouth in one and all largemouth in the other. I basically fished the river system
in southern Illinois and the lake in Northern Illinios. In the Classic, I made the decision to fish for smallmouth.
I didn't feel I could win with largemouth. I fished in twelve feet of water and the fish were suspended six feet
deep. The bass were suspended there on a wall about a mile off shore.
JM: How much has
the business side of professional bass fishing changed since you decided to bake this your career?
WD: When I fished
my first Classic in 1975, there were probably 200 people in attendance. And over 100 of them were my friends of
mine because it was only a 3 or 4 hour drive from my house. The last five or six Classics have had 30,000 people
there. When I started, entry fees were $300. Now they're $2,000. There's a lot more young fishermen coming into
the sport now. B.A.S.S. has done an outstanding job of promoting bass fishing and they've built it up to where
a young guy can see a future now of making a living bass fishing. There's fishermen who make over $100,000 a year
now.
JM: How did you
develop the marketing sense that you have?
WD: When I was
young…I worked for a fishing tackle rep firm working in tackle stores. Talking about the products, making sure
the pegs were full, the shelves were clean. I'd dust everything off. The competitor's shelves would be all dusty,
but my area was well-stocked and clean…I'd gained a lot of shelf space for these companies. Plus, I always took
the feeling of "It wasn't what the sponsor could do for me, it was what I could do for the sponsor."
That's the biggest mistake a lot of younger fishermen make. They write a letter in: "I'm the greatest fisherman
in Paint Creek West Virginia. Nobody can fish as good as I can. Gimme Something." (Laughs) I've read millions
of letters like that. Those immediately go in the trash can. (Laughs)
JM: Is working
the show circuit more fun since you won the Classic and are now the world champion?
WD: Yeah. I've
been around so long. And I've got a catchy name, most people know me anyway. But the Classic has brought more notoriety
to it. I consider myself the "poor man's fishing success." I had to work a lot of jobs to get to this
level and make ends meet. A lot of people and fishermen look up to me who know my record and know what I've done
over the years. When I do these seminars, I expect the folks in there to learn more from me than anybody else.
And I expect them to respect me more for what I told them.
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