The action was red-hot, and Luke Estel was sure he’d do well in an upcoming tournament. The Illinois pro was practicing for a top-level event on Florida’s Lake Okeechobee last year, and he was catching bass on a variety of baits.
“It seemed like I caught fish on everything I threw,” he recalls. “It didn’t matter.”
During the first day of competition, however, Estel couldn’t buy a bass. Not only did he fail to bring a single fish to the scales, but he was wondering what went wrong and what he might be able to do to dig himself out of such a deep hole. He found the answer in a new attitude and a completely different bait. Instead of sticking with the lures that worked during practice, he switched to a 4-inch Carolina-rigged finesse worm. He ended up jumping ahead of dozens of other anglers and actually cashed a check, something he wasn’t sure he would do after that first day.
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