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How'd you like to finish 10th in the Elite points? Pretty dang good for sure, and that's where Stets ended up this season. But he also didn't have any top 10s, which is a little unusual for him: He had 3 in '22 but ended up 21st in the points.
Did you think you could end up in the top 10 in the points without a single top 10 finish? Interesting deal, here's 5 with the dude who done it.
1. You had a good year, kinda hanging in there solidly – like a big bass waiting under the school for some dying shad or something. 😁 Do you think you had a good year or do you think you could've done better?
> "It's kind of weird position to be in when...every tournament to most guy's standards is successful. And that's what my year was, successful...qualified for the Classic, top 10 in AOY, made every top 50 cut.
> "But there's nothing to look back on, like man that was such a great tournament. I didn't have a top 10 – I think I was only in the top 10 for 1 day over the entire 9 events. I've had years that were mediocre and had 2-3 top 10s. This year I couldn't get over the hump...couldn't put it together all 4 days to make a day 4 cut. So it was one of the weirdest positions to be in.
> "If you offered it to me again next year, yeah I'd probably take it, But at some point you do want to win again. Do I want to keep fishing the same and be consistent? The answer is yes. But I want to be up there with a chance of winning one of these again.
> "I guess the best way of putting it is I never had a bad tournament but I never had a great tournament."
2. You've done well in the past with finesse-type baits. Was that the case for you this year as well?
> "Yes it definitely was. I'm always a 'get bites now, worry about the size later' kinda guy I want to get as many bites as I can in a day.
> "...one [tournament] in particular – Seminole – I was catching some finesse-fishing but had 1-2 key fish with a braided line, big bait, big hook kinda deal. Usually when I think about my season it's 1-2 key fish caught finesse fishing while I do other stuff. This year, most of the fish I weighed in came on a spinning rod. So when I had couple key fish not on a spinning rod, those stand out to me.
> "Like at St Clair – the first keeper I caught on day 1 was on a crankbait, reeling as fast as I could. It was the biggest fish I weighed.... So this year was a flip-flop for me. I'm just getting more comfortable getting bites on a spinning rod no matter the conditions or circumstances.
> "I've said it a million times...just keep it simple."
3. Will you be using Great Lakes Finesse baits more next year?
> "Yes. That stuff doesn't just work for smallmouths.
> "There's stuff coming, in the works. I'm excited for the new offerings coming from GLF."
[He didn't want to give up any deets on the new stuff.]
4. Did you use forward-facing sonar much this year?
> "Yes, I use it a lot. I'm one of the original forward-sonar users. I've had it since basically day 1.
> "Am I the best with it? Probably not. Can I depend on it to catch me fish? Absolutely. is it a big part of the reason my last 2-3 years have been good? Absolutely."
[In 2023 he went back to Lowrance.]
5. Do you think electronics should be limited in some way, like the number of transducers or whatever?
> "I'm one of the lucky ones. When I started, color graphs were just coming in [the Lowrance LMS series]. I remember putting one of those on my boat. ...I don't consider myself one of the old-school guys, but I got to see the transition of the technology and the way we came to this point.
> "...I'm a firm believer we are past the point of stopping technology. You can't leave your tournament circuit the way it is and start changing rules on sonars, in my opinion. You would almost have to start a new circuit – like, Hey this is going to be the old school, find them with buoy markers and line them up on the bank with trees. That kind of thing.
> "You can't go backwards in technology because every company in our industry is advancing in their tech more and more.
> "The devil's advocate answer to that is I do feel like competitors running 4-5 forward sonars on their boat is overkill for sure But is it a tournament organization's responsibility to limit that, or is it...the angler and what they what they want to run on their boat."
Bonus Q: Are you working on any new techniques in the off-season?
> "Yes, but I am definitely not the guy that jumps on every new technique bandwagon that comes out. I know what works. Yes there's times where I'm like, Dang I didn't know anything about that and if I'd known I could've caught more here or there. But at the end of the day...are they gonna be mainstays.
> "I know techniques that work that I need to get better at. But at the end of the day I'm willing to take a risk making a top 10 and not winning vs I'm using this new technique whether I catch them or not [hero or zero]. Some guys choose to fish a style that is gonna make them have some tough tournaments [and also some really good ones].
> "I've been a finesse, slow shakey head, slow Carolina rig, football head fisherman for a long time. But the last 2-3 years I've really tried to get better at cranking, throwing moving baits, swimbaits, that sort of thing.
> "Yes FFS has progressed to where if you don't throw moving baits you're missing opportunities. But at the end of the day, I wanted to get better with moving baits – that style of fishing. That's one thing I work on a lot. I go to the lake and figure out how to get bites quick – maximize my time, catch a couple key fish, move on....
> "The Classic at Hartwell was a prime example of that [he finished 3rd]. I caught a lot of fish on moving baits, bus still stayed true to what I liked to do, which is finesse fishing. The final day I caught 20 lbs and the majority were finesse fishing with a spinning rod. But I caught a lot leading up to that on moving baits."
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