2012 thus far has been a little tough on me compared to other years as it pertains to tournament fishing. I really do believe, sometimes you learn more in adversity then success, so you should be able to glean more from bad tournaments then the one’s you win. While I do have a win this year, many of my other tournament finishes have been way out of check cashing position, which for the most part is not what I am used to.
I am specifically bummed about a big money team tournament series that I have been fishing with a good buddy. We had high expectations for this tournament circuit as we both have solid track records in tournament fishing on our own. With those expectation have come disappointment, as we have found ourselves in the bottom 20% of the field through three tournaments. I have spent a fair amount of mental and drive time home from these tournaments analyzing what went wrong.
In the end, I believe it has been a little bad luck mixed with a whole lot of wrong decisions, not sure they have always been terrible decisions, but they ended up not being the right decisions. In each event, we had practiced and found areas that produced top 5 to winning stringers for other teams. In all three tournaments, we either waited too long to fish these areas, did not dedicate enough time or did not adjust our presentations well enough to catch them. Part of not making the right decisions has been not having the appropriate time dedicated for practice.
Clearly your plan only has to be off by a little to have a large negative impact on your success and the margins between good and bad are getting thinner every year as bass fishing grows and technology gets better for finding and researching information about fishing.
FISH ON!
The good news is, I still have three big events left this year to turn it around when the stakes are the largest. Here is to better decisions and getting my swagger back!
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- burnharo - Aug 23, 2012 at 12:21 AM
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Good luck Rich
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- Bassin' Insider - Aug 24, 2012 at 6:10 PM
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Thanks!
