You talk to many casual anglers or those that do not fish, and when you tell them of your angling successes, they often scoff and tell you how fishing is all luck. I will not deny there is a certain element of luck to all angling and even yes, tournament angling.
In my opinion, luck is a small factor, probably less then 5%, when it comes to fishing success day in and day out. Anglers like Kevin VanDam and David Dudley are not the leading money winners in tournament bass fishing and compared to Tiger Woods because they get lucky almost every tournament. It’s because they are darn good at finding and catching bass. In tournament fishing, Luck is where preparation meets opportunity. For instance, if you never put yourself in the location where the fish are, you never have the chance for luck to even occur or play a factor.
Fishing is much like Real Estate, its all about location, location, location! You can have the best gear, best lures, but you will not catch much in a pond with no fish. A good example of luck would be you and your partner fishing identical jigs on the same line pound test, you pitch to a stump and catch a 3lb bass; he pitches in there next and catches an 8lb bass. It was dumb luck that you caught the nice keeper, but he caught the big bass of the day. It was not luck that you prepared for the situation, decided that jig was the correct presentation and decided to fish that area and type of cover.
You will never convince many people you meet otherwise on this luck thing, but you can take pride in knowing that there is a lot of skill and knowledge in what you do on the water. Also, remember the more preparation you put in advance of next your fishing trip will increase your odds to bottle that lightning and let it strike when the opportunity presents itself!
Tight Lines,
Rich
www.RichLindgren.com
http://bassinblog.richlindgren.com
