In practice, Swindle said that he did not even look for bed fish. He spent all his time the first two days fishing with a Fire Tiger colored Lucky Craft Flat CB MR, and an LVR D-10 in Chrome Blue. He fished around the outside edge of the Kissimmee Grass and Eel Grass in Big Lake Harris. Although he found fish using this pattern he did not feel that he was getting enough bites to do well in the tournament.

On the third day of practice, Swindle changed tactics, and went to flipping a worm into the pockets on the edge of the Kissimmee Grass. " I went back to the same areas that I found with the Lucky Craft crank baits and just slowed down and flipped all the pockets," he commented on his last day of practice. At this same time Swindle started to come down with a very serious sinus infection that plagued him all the way through the tournament. "I felt horrible, I couldn't sleep, and I just did not have any energy," said Swindle of his illness.

The first day of the tournament saw Gerald weigh in a small limit that put him in 69th place. Day two was a little better. Gerald came in with another limit that moved him into 59th in the final standings. "I wish I could have done better, but I felt so bad that I am happy that I finished as well as I did," Swindle commented on his performance.

The next Citgo Bass Master Tour event will take Swindle into his own back yard, Smith Lake in North Central Alabama, where he is one of the favorites and expected to do well. "I'm excited. I know it will be a tough tournament but I think that my local knowledge of the lake might really help me."

In practice Swindle focused on two main patterns, a finesse worm fished in 25-35 feet of water, and a Lucky Craft Staysee 90 fished along steep main lake banks. He caught fish each day of practice on the finesse worm and a jig, but never seemed to get the Staysee bite to go, even though he tried it each day of practice. He was not happy about his practice and figured he would have to adjust each days fishing based on the weather conditions, which really ended up paying off for him.

Day two of the tournament saw the water turn dirty as a result of the torrential rains. Swindles knowledge of the lake told him to go fish the runoff drains where the water was clearer. When he got to his first spot he managed to catch two keepers in just ten minutes on a Lucky Craft Fat CB BDS 3 in Fire Tiger. "I thought I might have it wired," said Swindle, "but I still had to scramble and fish a lot more drains to get any more keepers." He ended up getting one more keeper on the crank bait and one more keeper on a jig. Swindles four fish string weighed 12-01, which gave him a total of 14-07 and vaulted him up in the standings to 8th place, behind day two leader Lee Bailey who had a two day total of 18-08.

Weather conditions were still changing on day three, with snow in the forecast. Swindle went back to his deep finesse worm pattern in the morning, and managed to get one keeper to bite. In the afternoon he picked up a Lucky Craft Flat CB MR in Mad Craw and went back to the drains. He managed to catch two more keeper bass on back-to-back casts and then caught nothing but short fish for the remainder of the day. When the day 3 weigh in was over Gerald was in 5th place with 22-06, behind new leader Charlie Weyer who had a three-day total of 24-10. Swindle had made the cut and was fishing in the Super Six, on the fourth and final day of the tournament.

Day four of the tournament saw even colder air temperatures hit the area but the skies were sunny for the first time in six days. Swindle went back to his worm pattern because of the slick and sunny conditions and managed to catch 12 fish but all were too short to keep. In the end Gerald did not weigh a fish on the final day, but his three-day total of 22-06 was still enough to leave him in 5th place, behind winner Charlie Weyer who ended up with a total weight of 32-10.

"I fished harder, and tried harder than I ever have before. I guess a win just wasn't in the cards for me," Swindle said of his finish at Smith Lake. On the plus side, however, Swindle is in sixth place in the coveted Angler of the Year Race, behind teammates Kelly Jordan, in third, and Marty Stone in fourth.

"I was excited to go to Guntersville. It's one of the best lake in the country, and I consider it one of my home lakes," said Gerald Swindle. "I expected the fishing at Guntersville to be wide open. This lake is full of big fish."

After three days of practice for the Citgo Bass Masters Tour Event on Lake Guntersville in North East Alabama, Gerald had changed his expectations. "Practice was tough for me, I just couldn't get the bites I needed." Swindle fished both a Pointer 100 and a LVR D-7 lipless crankbait in practice. Most of the fish Swindle caught were on the LVR D-7. "Practice was slow. I was only catching two to four fish per day." When the practice period ended, Swindle knew he was going to have to work hard to get five bites a day during the tournament.

Day one of the tournament saw Swindle weigh in five bass that weighed 17-08. "I was only able to land five of the ten bites I had today, and they were all in the same spot. I wish I could have landed some of the fish that I lost. A couple of them were real big and would have helped my final weight. I simply didn't execute well on day one." Swindle's weight put him in 29th, behind day one leader Kevin VanDam who weighed in 26-03.

Day two brought with it colder temperatures and slower fishing. Swindle went back to his good area from day one and never got a bite. "About noon I decided to just go fishing. I tied on a Mad Craw colored Lucky Craft Fat CB BDS 3 crankbait and started moving around." Gerald ended up with three keeper bass that weighed in at 11-12 and put him in 36th place overall behind day two leader Mike Iaconelli.

"All the fish I caught in the tournament were relating to grass beds in two to four feet of water. The fish ended up being a lot shallower than I expected them to be. If the water had been four or five degrees warmer it would have been a record-breaking tournament. I just never got dialed in good this week. I didn't fish well. On this tour you have to fish effectively all the time. What really makes me mad though was that I didn't get on to the jerkbait bite. Overall I feel good about doing as well as I did considering I wasn't on a real solid pattern.

Gerald Swindle had never seen Table Rock Lake before he arrived to fish the Citgo Bass Masters Tour event. "All I knew was it was a deep clear lake like Smith Lake which I grew up on. I really think my experiences on Smith helped a lot here," said Swindle. "I expected to find great Spotted bass fishing in deep clear water using finesse baits, like a drop shot or small Texas rigged worm. I also thought that there might be a good jerkbait bite."

"During three days of practice I only caught three keepers, so I guess you could say practice sucked for me. When we went to the registration meeting it started pouring rain. We ended up getting about four-inches. I knew that this would dirty up the water in the backs of the coves and that the rainwater would be a little warmer. The next morning, which was the start of the tournament, I totally re-rigged all my rods. I told my roommate Marty Stone that since my practice was so bad and conditions had just totally changed, I was going to fish my way. I decided to just go junk fishing. Junk fishing is where you rig ten rods with ten different baits and just go fish everything you see that looks good. Junk fishing is my favorite way to fish. I knew that if I just concentrated on the areas where the water had some color, I could probably catch a few fish," said Swindle. "Basically practice didn't help me much at all here."

At the end of day two Gerald said, "I just went junkin around again. With the exception of one spot, everything I fished today was all-new. I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off. I had to use my GPS to get in again. I was running around fishing stuff that looked right and not paying attention to where I was. I ended up the day fishing 40 miles up the river. I am just fished as hard as I could." Gerald's day two limit weighed 15-08. This weight gave him a two-day total of 27-02 and put him in seventh place, safely inside the cut to twelve.

"The first fish I caught on day three was huge, I knew it would be close to seven pounds. Then I went about three hours without a bite. I moved to another area and found four more fish willing to bite. I really felt fortunate. I only had five bites today and I got them all. I still hadn't fished anything that I had ever seen before. I constantly looked for new water," said Swindle of day three. Gerald's day three weight was 17-13 and moved him into third place behind leader Roland Martin. Swindle's big fish weighed 7-03 and won big fish for the day. "I absolutely couldn't believe that I had made the cut to six and was going on to fish the last day of the tournament." When Swindle was asked if he thought he could win he said, "I don't know. I could zero. Good Lord, I could zero. I'm still fishing by the seat of my pants. I'm just running around. The bites are getting tougher to get. I just don't know."

Day four was a little tougher for Swindle. "I caught seven fish, but only four were keepers. I got one keeper first thing in the morning. I was pumped. I had several boats following me around all morning, but by noon when I hadn't caught another fish they all left. When I moved to the next pocket I ended up catching six more. The only problem was only three were keepers. Those spectator boats should have stayed around, it got really fun for a little while." Gerald's fish on day four weighed 10-07 and kept him in third behind tournament winner Mark Davis.

"There was sight fishing going on but they were hard to catch. My expectations weren't anything like what I found when I got there. I had to get there and then try to unscramble my mind and say all right they are not doing what I expected. I realized that I was going to have to fish slowly, but I really wanted to fish active and fast. I was dying to get away from the coldwater slow fishing deal," said Swindle. "Practice was slow. I spent a lot of time just looking. I mean looking for fish on beds. I got three to four bites per day fishing but it was just plain slow. Going into the tournament I was planning on sight fishing, then I said the heck with it. I'm going to just go fishing and resort to sight fishing if I have to," Gerald said of practice.

"On day two I decided to start in the area I flipped on day one and had found some bedding fish. I caught two, but all the bigger fish that I saw the day before were gone. I went to another area and was able to fill out my limit fishing a crankbait. They were all small fish though." Swindles day two limit weighed 9-15 and put him in 38th place for the tournament. But, more importantly, it put him into the lead in the Angler of the Year points race.

"Winning Angler of the Year has always been a dream of mine, but right know I don't really want to think about it. If you dwell on something like that it can make you fish different. I just want to keep doing things the way I always do. Just swing for the fence at every tournament."

Greg Hackney and Gerald Swindle were neck and neck in the point's race for Angler of the Year. Swindle finished the tournament tied for 39th place with Ron Shuffield, but Greg Hackney made the cut to twelve and went on to fish on day three. Gerald would have to spend day three on the sidelines waiting to see how Hackney's day went. The race was Hackney's to win or lose. He would have to finish eighth or better to beat Swindle in the Angler of the Year race. As the weigh-in progressed Swindle got more and more anxious. Day three saw the fishing get better on the lake, and the weights being posted were impressive. " Waiting for Hackney to weigh-in was like being in a boxing match with my hands tied behind my back," said Swindle. "I thought that I might throw up. I was as nervous as I have ever been. I mean, I had my whole family there and my fiance there. I really didn't want to lose, but I had to just sit there and wait, it was grueling."

As Hackney's day three weight of 13-02 was weighed in Gerald's tension grew. In the end Hackney's weight put him in ninth place. Gerald Swindle was now officially the 2004 Citgo Bass Masters Angler of the Year! "When they announced that I had won, it was like a thousand pound weight was taken off my shoulders," Swindle said of winning.

"If someone would have told me at the beginning of the season that I would win the Angler of the Year (AOY) title, I would have laughed in their face. The person who wins AOY is the best of the best for that year. I have always wanted to win AOY, but it's so hard to do. To win AOY, you have to have the perfect season. I mean nothing can go wrong. Your equipment has to always be ready, and you have to make the right decisions all season long," said Swindle.

"Before the Tour even started this year, I was fired up. I spent the off-season getting into shape and thinking about every tournament that was coming up. I didn't fish the FLW Tour this year, which let me focus all my energy on the B.A.S.S. Tour. The Tour schedule also fit me well. I was excited to fish all the lakes we were going to," said Swindle.

"Winning Angler of the Year is still very overwhelming. Even with all the press coverage and publicity, I still can't believe I won. It's really all quite humbling. I'm really just a kid at heart that loves to fish. I already can't wait to start fishing the Elite 50's."

When asked about how winning Angler of the Year would affect his career Swindle said, "I'm really not sure. I mean; short term the money is great. Long term I don't know. I just want to earn the respect of all my fellow competitors."

"If I had to give someone advice, I would tell them: Never give up on your dreams. Winning never comes easy. This makes up for all those times when you fished in brutal conditions or were sick and didn't want to leave the motel room."

"Four years ago when I was laying in a hospital bed recovering from major back surgery, I told myself that if I get up again, I would make it count. Since then I have been totally focused on my goals and my career. I'm going to go for it again next year. I plan on spending the off-season working to improve the weak spots in my game, so that I can come back even stronger next year," said Swindle. "When it's your time, it's your time."

When asked about the upcoming Citgo Bass Masters Classic Gerald said, "Wyle is a lake that fits me. I can't wait to go. I am just going to swing for the fence like I always do. I guess we will find out how I do at the final weigh-in."