Lee Livesay

isn’t fishing an Elite Series tournament, he’s guiding clients on his home waters: Lake Fork, Texas, one of the planet’s premier big-bass destinations. Given the hours he’s spent on this trophy fishery, it’s safe to say nobody knows it better than Livesay, which for my money made him a pretty safe bet to win the Elite held there in April 2021. What kind of pressure does a guide face when he enters a tournament on his home lake? “There are always plenty of people pulling for me to win, but also a lot of folks hoping I’ll fail,” Livesay said. “That puts me under twice the pressure. If you’re a guide on the lake, there’s an expectation that you’re going to win, which of course won’t happen every time. In reality, if it’s a local or regional tournament on Fork, I’ve probably fished with most of my competition before, so they already know many of my spots.” Most experienced anglers will tell you that “fishing history” is not wise, but how can Livesay avoid it when he knows virtually every square inch of the lake? “Knowing too many good spots can be worse than hitting the lake cold. At the May 2019 Elite on Lake Fork, I fished scores of spots where I’d caught giant bass in the past and didn’t even make the cut. My mind was racing over thousands of places that I told myself I needed to hit, when