Nothing is more mentally challenging than fishing a tournament when fish and bites are just plain hard to come by and it doesn’t take much weight to win. You just can’t get enough bites in an area or on a certain bait to gain any confidence. Worrying about what to throw and where to go can take a lot out of you.Many of my friends and I talk about bad practice rounds being converted into good tournament performances. This happens more often than you would think. Fish change habits and routines and move daily, sometimes hourly, and sometimes they just are not feeding during practice times.
On the other hand, many times I have heard guys boasting of great practices only to be full of excuses at the end of the first competition day. Overconfidence can be as bad has having no confidence.
When you expect going in that weights are likely to be relatively low, the decision is whether to try to break out and find something that will blow the field away or to try to be consistent every day and move up the standings.
I just fished an event on South Carolina’s Clark Hill (Thurmond); it was one of those tough ones. I knew it would only take about 12 pounds a day to win, and I tried to blow it away. I just knew the big fish would be in the hydrilla, and I spent 90 percent of my practice time there and had very little success.
Even so, my confidence in the grass was such that I continued fishing it the first half-day of competition with little result. When I looked at my watch it was noon, and I had no grass fish to show for it. I didn’t let the fish tell me where they were. At that point, I overcame my stubbornness and headed up a shallow, muddy creek, where I caught seven pounds in the last couple of hours — not a bad start in an event that tough.
After weigh-in, I decided to commit myself to grinding it out in that creek. The next day was even tougher, and I only had six pounds, but I moved up into the “check” territory in the standings. On the last day, I went straight to the same creek and lost it. I was so tired of throwing at the same logs and stumps with no fish that I decided to hunt new water about 10:30. That left four hours to find something on a lake where it is common to fish 12 hours and only get a couple of bites. My partner caught a good one on a buzzbait in less than a foot of water in that creek, so I decided to fish nothing but the backs of pockets and creeks in this skinny water until I found one that had fish.
I caught a 2-pounder in the second pocket I tried, and my confidence was boosted. I ran about 10 to 15 more pockets and I was left with just 30 minutes to fish when I found a good one. My partner caught three nice fish, and I caught one, and we had to leave them biting and busting shad in order to make it back on time. My partner finished with nine pounds and won the co-angler division, and I had five pounds and finished 51st, just out of the money.
I am still upset about not catching one more fish to get me into the money. After all, I just spent $4 thousand on an entry fee and 10 days on a lake that I would not have fished just for fun.
I e-mailed one of my old college professors, who advised me to just keep growing and learning. There are so many variables involved in any outdoor sport that no one person is going to win all the time. Even the very best win only a tiny fraction of the time, but it is always fun!
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