Photos by Mark Jeffreys & Matt Pangrac

“That was tough,” he said. “It just made me realize that I don’t wasn’t to be working the show. I want to be fishing the show.”

If there’s a silver lining in his disappointing year, it’s that going forward he knows that he can’t take a spot in the big dance for granted. “I respect the situation a little more now,” he explained. “I’ll prepare a little more for each tournament. At the end of the season, I may have fished too relaxed. I’m not going to let that happen again if I can help it. If I don’t make it, it won’t be because I lost a fish. I’m going to take it one fish at a time.”

Heading Home to California
Roumbanis started 2009 with two quality finishes, 44th at Amistad and 8th at Dardanelle. While he had another top twelve later in the year at Kentucky Lake, four non-money finishes in the last six events – one in the fifties, one in the sixties, one in the seventies and one in the eighties – were his undoing. He has a unique opportunity to get off to another good start, as the 2010 campaign will commence in his native California.

When the Elite Series made a trip west in 2007, Roumbanis notched two quality finishes – 21st at the Delta and 20th at Clear Lake. Similar finishes to begin 2010 would please him. “I will definitely be happy with top 20 finishes,” he said. “But I’d like at least one of them to be a top 10.” 

While he’s looking for a big hit, he’s not willing to take unnecessary chances that might jeopardize his end-of-season position. “I don’t want to take myself out of making the Classic,” he added. “It’s my nature to swing for the fences and the bite is going to be strong, but I know it’s a four-day event. I want to go hunt giant bites with a swimbait, but I know better than that.”

He had a shot at glory at the Delta in 2007, but failed to make it to the last day as the result of an untimely lost fish. “I had a big fish on Day Two, a nine pounder, but it jumped off when my co-angler grabbed the line. I really feel like I could have won that tournament.”

Cautious Optimism 
Despite his excitement at returning to his “home waters,” places where he’s fished dozens if not hundreds of tournaments over the year, Roumbanis will remain careful to avoid fishing history that does not fit with the existing conditions.

“I need to slow down and fish,” he said. At the Delta, “there are so many areas where you could win and with so much history it could hurt you if you don’t settle down. I want to get in a groove and milk it for all it’s worth.”

Of the latter tournament, he said “Clear Lake is flooded so it shouldn’t fish too small, and I have some tricks that I’ve always been able to catch fish on this time of year.” But he doubts that the second event will be as good as it was in 2007, nor does he expect the same patterns to prevail.

“It’s setting up to be awesome, but I doubt we’ll see those kind of weights again,” he said, referring to the seven anglers who tallied hundred pound plus catches, topped by Steve Kennedy’s 122-14. “Twenty-five pounds a day for three days should make the top cut. Everybody expects it’ll be won with big swimbaits, but that’s not the only way to win the tournament. Those fish get smart real quickly.”

He spent much of the fall fishing in California, working off the sting of the 2009 season and getting ready for 2010, but he said that even if he hadn’t he’d have a leg up on much of the competition. “The river still runs the same direction,” he said. “The tides don’t change. Knowing what triggers the fish to feed is my advantage. In April it wouldn’t matter as much as it does in March.”

“I want to have my strongest year ever,” he concluded.