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This Q&A is by the BB's Brett "breaks rods" Jolley.
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Caleb Hudson flat-out showed up in his rookie season, putting together a heck of a year and walking away with Elite Series Rookie of the Year honors and a top 10 in the AOY points. We caught up with him to get the juice on how he got all that done.
1. I read where you said coming into your first Elite season, your goal was basically "don't suck." At what point did that change from trying not to suck to making an ROY or even an AOY run?
> "It never really changed. My goal every time is just stay consistent and don't suck. That's really my goal every tournament. I try to go out there and catch a decent bag.
> "If I run across some fish to do a little bit better than that – awesome. But my goal every time is just figure out how to catch fish so I'm not dead last."
2. What's your mindset in practice and going into a tournament to stay on fish to "not suck"?
> "Moving quickly. I'm a herring guy, so I'm pretty used to moving quickly. I just cover as much water as possible, and then if I get into an area where I find some fish, I'll start to slow down or expand on what I found. But moving quickly for sure."
3. Your Bassmaster profile says your strength is finesse. What's your approach that sets you apart in the finesse game?
> "A lot of guys will pull up on a school and throw something like a big worm in there first. They'll catch 1 or 2, then they'll throw their dropshot in there and catch one more.
> "I tend to start with a more finesse approach from the get-go. I'll throw a dropshot, shakey head or smaller stuff to catch more-pressured fish, which is a big issue nowadays with fishing pressure."
What's your go-to finesse bait?
> "Definitely a dropshot. It could be a [Zoom] Trick Worm, Roboworm – depends on the fishery.
> "If I'm somewhere with a little bit bigger fish, like 4-lbers, I'll throw something like a Trick Worm. It's a little bit bigger but still finesse, especially for largemouth.
> "If I'm at a place that has a lot of 2-lbers, I'll throw something like a Roboworm. That's kind of my approach."
4. When you're scoping, do you interact differently with fish that are on a target – like a stump or grass clump – compared to fish that are floating around or roaming through an area?
> "Definitely. If you've got one roaming out in the middle, he's obviously a more pelagic fish. He's searching for something moving, most likely shad or something like that, so he's going to be more of a fish to throw a minnow at.
> "If you've got one sitting really shallow on the bank, he's going to be more likely to bite something like a jig. It goes with the forage."
What about offshore fish that are on targets, like a brushpile, stump or clump of grass? Do you still classify that as a pelagic fish?
> "No, that's more of a structure fish. I'm not just a minnow guy. I'm still kind of a [power-finesse] guy. In that situation, I'd typically throw something like a jig, finesse worm or dropshot...."
5. For the 2027 season, what's a technique you see yourself needing to hone in on or get better at?
> "Probably flipping. There's probably going to be a lot of flipping next season, and that's something I haven't done a lot of in my life."
6. What are some out-of-place baits you used this season that made a difference for you? Stuff people might say you're not supposed to throw at that time.
> "The first one that comes to mind is throwing a minnow on the Arkansas River when everybody was catching them flipping, spinnerbaiting and stuff like that.
> "I caught a few on a squarebill and stuff there as well, but catching them on a minnow on the Arkansas River was probably the craziest thing."
Was there a certain minnow that really worked for you in that tournament?
> "Yeah, I was throwing a new Zoom minnow called the Rock N Roll Minnow."
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