McCAGHREN KEYING ON CONSISTENCY

Story by Matt Pangrac - Photos by Mark Jeffreys, Matt Pangrac and Dave Rush

Mayflower, AR – The Bassmaster Central Open this week on Texas’ Lake Lewisville will mark the start of the 2012 season for Arkansas pro Billy McCaghren. A notoriously finicky fishery located outside Dallas, Mark Tucker won last year’s Lewisville Bassmaster Open with nearly 46-pounds, but it took less than 19-pounds to finish inside the Top 10. 

After a 111th place finish at Lewisville in 2011, McCaghren is searching for a drastically different result. “Right now, my hopes aren’t very high,” he admitted after two full days of practice. “At least I’ve caught just enough to make me think that I can catch a few fish.  My plan coming down here was to go ahead and try to win the tournament and get the Classic qualification out of the way,” he said with a chuckle.  “That’s still the plan, but I forgot just how tough this lake can be.

“The conditions are quite a bit different from last year,” continued McCaghren. “The lake is about a foot-and-a-half lower, it’s muddy, and the water temperature is in the low 50s.”

Cold, muddy water doesn’t typically translate into a wide open slugfest, and McCaghren said that although the weights at Lewisville could possibly be heavier across the board than they were in 2011, boating a limit will most likely lead to a finish near the top of the leader board. 

“From what I’ve seen, you’ll be pretty high in the standings if you can just catch a limit each day,” he explained.  “One of the reasons why it’s so tough is that the lake is fishing really small.  If you find a good school of fish and don’t get there first, it may take half the day before you can get on the spot.”

Eyes on Florida
After the Lewisville Open, McCaghren’s focus will shift to Florida for the start of his fourth season as an Elite Series pro.  In 2011, The Sunshine State proved to be both a struggle and a pleasant surprise for McCaghren, who admittedly had very limited sight fishing experience.

After opening the season with a disappointing 75th place finish on the Harris Chain in 2011, McCaghren made the final day of competition at the Elite Series stop the following week on the St. Johns River, relying strictly on sight fishing to finish in 12th place.  “That tournament was only the second time in my life that I’d ever fully committed to sight fishing in a tournament. I guess that it worked out pretty well,” he said. 

Knowing that sight fishing will most likely be the dominant pattern once again when the Elite Series season kicks off in mid March on the St. Johns River, McCaghren has made a point to brush up on some sight fishing basics.  “I’ve actually read a lot of articles about sight fishing,” he explained.  “It’s one of those tactics that you really can’t learn about unless you’re actually on the water.” 

McCaghren said that for him, the most difficult part of sight fishing comes down to identifying productive areas. “The biggest thing that I have to work on is figuring out where I need to be looking in order to find the best concentrations of spawning fish.  Fortunately, I was able to find a few really good areas last year at the St. Johns.”

Busy at Home
While many Elite Series pros have made pre-practice scouting trips to Florida over the past several months in order to get a feel for both the St. Johns River and Lake Okeechobee (the second stop on the 2012 Elite Series trail), McCaghren will be entering the Florida swing without any pre-practice under his belt.  For the first time in his Elite Series career, McCaghren was unable to fit in a scouting trip to any of the new fisheries on the 2012 schedule. 

With a new baby at home and a full-time job, the Lewisville Open marks the first time that McCaghren has been able to bass fish in 2012.  “I usually take some time off in January and visit some of the lakes that are on the upcoming schedule to get some practice in,” he explained.  “This year, things got really busy and I just wasn’t able to do that.” 

Still, McCaghren will have experience on at least half of the lakes on the 2012 Elite Series schedule, with Lake Okeechobee in Florida, Douglas Lake in Tennessee, and the Mississippi River in Wisconsin as the only fisheries that he’s never seen before.    

Fishing for Consistency
After qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic and winning the Rookie Of the Year title in 2009, McCaghren finished 59th in the TTAOY standings in 2010 and 51st in the TTAOY standings in 2011.  Even though his overall performance in 2011 placed him higher in the standings than in 2010, McCaghren wasn’t pleased with how the year turned out. 

“Out of my first three years, last year was the worst one that I’ve had as far as locating bass,” he explained. “I was really disappointed with my lack of consistency.  I’ve always taken pride in my ability to stay in the hunt, and last year, it seemed like I just wasn’t able to find the fish.  I think that I just started to push a little too hard.”

Entering his fourth year as an Elite Series pro, McCaghren said that he’s still trying to grasp the concept that he’s no longer one of the new guys. “I still feel like I’m learning every tournament,” he explained.  “I’ve fished all my life, but I haven’t fished for a living all my life.  Even now, I come home and work so I feel like I’m way behind compared to guys who fish every day.  The longer you fish, the quicker you pick up on things.

“You’d think that some of the established guys would eventually learn just about everything, but they just keep getting better every single year,” he continued. “Then, the new guys who are coming in are incredibly talented.  After I made it through my first year, I had this notion that it would get a little easier, but it hasn’t.”

Part of McCaghren’s desire to consistently cash checks in 2012 stems from the fact that the 2013 Bassmaster Classic is scheduled for Grand Lake in Oklahoma, less than four hours from his Arkansas home.   Having fished in one Classic, he’d like nothing more than to make Grand Lake the second Classic of his career.      

“I don’t have a ton of experience on Grand, but it’s one of the lakes that I fished regularly when I first started traveling for tournaments,” he explained.  “It would be really cool to be able to go back there and fish in the Classic.”