Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Win validates Crews' choices
Photo courtesy of Seigo Saito
Salem's John Crews won the Bassmaster Elite Series event on the California Delta. It was Crews' first pro fishing win.
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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The Wild Life blog
Just one more cast.
It's a ritual for fishermen, and one that's extra important for tournament anglers looking for that fish that will push them over the top.
For 10 years, pro angler John Crews has been making that final cast and hoping.
And that hope finally paid off.
Heading in to Sunday's final day of the Bassmaster Elite Series season opener on the California Delta, Crews was one of four anglers who had a shot at winning the tournament.
As the fishing day waned, Crews had five bass totalling about 17 pounds in his livewell. That was good, but he needed more.
"I told the cameraman with me I was going to make two or three more pitches," said Crews, whose best finish in a big-time tournament was third place in the Florida Invitational in 2001. "On the second pitch I felt one."
Crews wrenched the bass out of the thick hydrilla mat. It was a 5-pounder, meaning he could get rid of the little pound-and-a-half bass that was hurting his weight.
"I just went crazy," said Crews, who put the fish in the livewell and rushed back to the weigh-in site in his Bass Cat boat.
The fish pushed Crews' weight to 20 pounds, 11 ounces, enough for a 1-ounce margin over runner-up Skeet Reese, a Californian who happened to grace the cover of the Parade Magazine that came in newspapers nationwide that day.
"I don't know what my heart rate was," said Crews, a 31-year-old who teared up on stage when he accepted the winner's trophy with his wife, Sonja, and their toddler Mya by his side. "But it was through the roof."
The timing for Crews' first win couldn't have been better, coming in the wake of a particularly difficult 2009 season.
Last year got off to a rough start when Crews' title sponsor, Advance Auto Parts, ended its sponsorship deal with him and two other anglers.
The season was challenging, too. For the first time in four years Crews failed to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic, finishing a disappointing 74th in the Elite Series Angler of the Year standings.
But Crews, a college graduate with a degree in business, didn't waver from his career choice.
"I learned early on that you can't question what you're doing," he said. "It was never a matter of, 'Am I going to continue to do this?'
"It was, 'How can I do this better?' "
And the answer was to trust himself and his judgment.
Too many times in the past, Crews believed, he had been on fish that could have won him a tournament. But he just couldn't fully commit and, several times, he finished oh-so-close to winning.
"Those tournaments made me realize that you have to know you're on winning fish before you win the tournament," he said.
That happened this time.
During pre-tournament practice Crews didn't find much, but he did find one area that produced a couple of good fish.
Cold water was making fishing tough for everyone, so Crews decided to stick it out in the 2-mile long slough for the duration of the event.
"I really felt like I was on the winning fish," said Crews, noting that 16 of his 18 keepers came from that section.
Crews fished hydrilla mats in 4 to 8 feet of water. He used a Reaction Innovations Beaver creature bait on a 1-ounce weight on 65-pound braided line early in the tournament.
As the event wore on he downsized to a 3-inch Gambler BB Cricket on 3/4 ounces of weight on 25-pound fluorocarbon.
And he stuck with his guns even after he failed to catch a five-fish limit on the tournament's first and third days.
A huge bag on the tournament's second day bumped Crews up to third, and a sold catch the next day kept him in fourth, within striking distance of leader Greg Hackney.
And then came the win, a $100,000 check and, most importantly, validation.
"If I'd won at one of those tournaments when I just started, I feel like I wouldn't have appreciated it as much," he said.
After the win there was little time for wild celebration.
Crews had dinner with Sonya and Mya, and his father, Bill, who makes it to most tournaments, and then drove to Clear Lake, the California lake that will host the next Elite Series tournament, which starts Thursday.
Crews said the excitement of winning won't cause him to slack off.
"I was joking during the trip out there that I didn't drive this far to not do well," he said.
He hopes that applies to two tournaments.
