Tai Au Repeatedly Looks Forward to Fresh Starts

Posted by Pete Robbins on Sep 28th 2020

GYCB pro dominated out west, now heading east

By Pete Robbins

*all photos courtesy of FLWFishing.com

Fresh off of a superlative campaign on the FLW Toyota Series Western Division, which featured bookend wins to start and end the season, Arizona pro Tai Au says he’s ready to take on the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit in 2021, and while he expects there to be some speed bumps along the way, he’s not afraid to get knocked down once or twice.

Tai Au at the FLW Series Clear Lake Event

“Fishing saved my life,” he said. “It’s my therapy.” Indeed, the soon-to-be 38 year-old angler “lost everything” as the result of the last recession, and has built a family and rebuilt an insurance business in the wake of that disaster. He knows what rebooting is all about. The decision to leave his comfort zone on the left side of the country wasn’t taken lightly, but he feels that he’d kick himself down the road if he didn’t push the limits.

“You work so hard to get where you’re at, just to start over again,” he explained. “It’s important to me to have something in life to grind for, but I want to teach my [5- and 7-year-old] children that it’s OK to have a dream, and it’s ok to start over from the bottom.”

While most of the eastern waters and much of the field may be new to him, Au severely undersells what he’s accomplished so far. “Starting from the bottom” has been a mantra for him over the last seven years, as he’s attacked each rung of the ladder and eventually conquered it, earning AOY titles at just about every level, and on just about every circuit, that he’s fished.

Student of the Game

Au credits his rapid ascent and lofty goals to the fact that he’s a student of the game.

“Every time I go out there I learn a little bit more,” he said. “I’m not particularly good at one thing, but I’m ok at everything. What I’ve been working on over the years is my mechanics. When I make a mistake, it’s usually a hard-learned mistake.”

What he has increasingly taught himself – both out of need and out of a realization that it works, is not to be stubborn, and to embrace the Iaconelli-borne notion of “fishing the moment.”

“I work a lot to support my family,” Au said. “And I fish a lot of local team tournaments, which means that I never get to practice.” Indeed, earlier in his career he sometimes faltered when he was able to get out and scout before tournaments began. He recalled one event at the California Delta where he caught 32 pounds on a wake bait on one day of practice and 30 pounds the next day. When a front rolled through, he “tried to be a hero” and learned “never to go strictly off practice.”

Clear Lake Comeback

His recent Clear Lake victory was the culmination of his increasing resilience and ability to adjust. He rose from 13th after the first day to 4th after Day Two, to winning by over 5 pounds when the scales closed on Day Three. Not only did he rely on an evolving selection of lures, but he also overcame some extremely unlikely adversity on Day Two. He only had three fish at 10am, and was starting to get a little frustrated., when an unexpected near-disaster hit

“On my first cast after that, I lost my favorite crankbait,” he said. “Then my rods got tangled up, then a big bug got on my cheek and crawled into my eyeball, underneath my eyelid.” After removing the insect, and pouring water where it had been, the eye still swelled up, and led to further dismay. He ran back to an earlier spot, let his Lucky Craft LV 500 sink to the bottom, and “jerked it up as hard as I could out of frustration.” On the third cast, he caught a 4-pounder, and subsequently upgraded multiple times.

After a Day Two where he made lemonade out of lemons, Day Three was Au’s time for everything to go right. Despite weekend pressure and pleasure boat traffic, he had over 19 pounds in the first hour and at that point he “tasted blood.” A 7-pounder brought him up to 23 pounds, and another 5 sealed the deal. Even when a five-plus spit his bait late in the day, it didn’t faze him.

“On the third day I went out there to have some fun,” he said. “But I didn’t know I’d have that much fun.”

Tour Dreams

Having experienced financial ruin once before, Au doesn’t want to live it again, but he doesn’t fear it like some others might. He said that if it was just his well being on the line, he might be willing to cash out his 401K and the equity in his house. “I don’t mind eating ramen every day,” he said half-seriously. But with young children, he “can’t gamble.”

Accordingly, he’ll keep his job selling insurance for Liberty Mutual, and while he said it’ll hard to leave the family behind when he hits the road, in actuality it won’t amount to much more than he’s already away.

“I’m already gone eight weeks a year,” he said. “I’m still going to be able to see them.” He will leave his boat and truck in the east at times and fly home to minimize the separation. Additional factors making his decision to take the leap easier include the fact that FLW has reduced the overall number of events, and therefore reduced the initial financial outlay. Au has a sizeable stable of sponsors for a regional pro and appreciates the manner in which they’ve “stepped up to help me make my dreams a reality.”

Still, the dreams in front of him come with a lot of road miles, and a lot of new waters to fish. He’s yet to make a cast on any of the 2021 tournament venues, and indeed the only time he’s fished east of Lake Fork was at the 2014 EverStart championship on Alabama’s Wheeler Lake. In that event he had “a slight anxiety attack” during practice, overwhelmed by the amount of water in front of him. He shut his motor down, pulled out a map, and pressed the reset button. That ultimately led to a finish only one spot out of the Forrest Wood Cup, right behind fellow GYCB pro Roy Hawk. Starting over, and learning as he goes, have been Au’s trademarks ever since.

Yamamoto Connection

Au has been affiliated officially with Yamamoto since 2016 and has come to rely on certain GYCB products:

“I’m known as a Senko wizard,” he said, and indeed the simple lure, wacky rigged shallow or Neko rigged with a 3/32 ounce weight, has been his most consistent money-winner. He likes green pumpkin, watermelon red and baby bass for most applications.
When flipping, he’s a huge fan of the Flappin’ Hog, but when he competes at “big fish factories,” he also employs the Cowboy.
When it comes time to slow down, he goes old school and pulls out the Hula Grub.

Notable

Au is sponsored by Yamamoto, Bass Cat Boats, Lowrance, Lucas Oil Marine Products, Signature Gate Systems and Welding Company, A&M Graphics, Spartan Infrastructure, G-Funk Baits, Mercury Outboards, General Tire, Costa del Mar, Gill Fishing, Keitech USA, Lowrance, Daiwa Corporation USA and Fitzgerald Rods.
He picked up his new Bass Cat Puma Hybrid right before the Clear Lake event and is now batting 1.000 in it – a victory every time he’s launched it.
He attributed part of his Clear Lake win to adjusting to sunlight conditions. It wasn’t cloudy in practice, but smoke from the ongoing wildfires created the same impact as overcast skies.
He said the fish in his key area would school by size. When he’d catch one 2-pounder, others in that same class would follow. Same with 3-pounders. When he caught a 7 there on Day Three he knew that he was on the fish to win.
He said that despite tough fishing on many Arizona waters, they have the variety in terms of cover and techniques, to produce versatile anglers. “The only thing we don’t have is the tide.”