Just a small snippet of my recent tournament adventures.
Up until very recently (the past 2 months to be exact) I have been an annual "donater" in both of the small tournament organizations that I fish in. I'd use the same techniques as all the other guys out on the water, fish the same areas that should hold fish etc etc. Sometimes I'd land a nice fish or two, but would fall short of a limit, or I'd have a limit and not have any big bites. I was starting to think that I would never be able to put it all together on a tournament day (even if I can normally do alright on any regular day of fishing). Combine this with my lack of confidence at most endeavors on a daily basis...yeah, not really a winning combination.
My normal co-angler couldn't go to one of the tournaments, and I was asked if I wanted to be a co-angler for someone else who also was short a partner. These are small tournaments, so you can fish with anyone at any particular event, not a regulated partner required for the duration of the season. I agreed, figuring to give my old boat a break, not to mention saving my back from trolling motor duties for a day.
The new boater and I got along well and had a decent day of fishing. I busted my a** to the best of my ability, trying to get fish in the boat as hard as I ever had. We ended up finishing third - the lowest spot that still made pay-out that particular day. It was my first time cashing in a tournament.
About two weeks later (back with my normal partner) - we fished another tournament at a private pond and just lit the fish up - suddenly fishing felt easy, I wasn't really thinking about what if X or Y, I was just doing. Every cast I was confident there would be a fish on - going so far as to call a few hook-ups before they actually happened. Not that I was feeling cocky or anything of the sort, but on some casts it just...felt right - if that makes sense. Like I knew before the bait hit the water. We finished the tournament without incident (always a good thing) and ended up winning - I couldn't have been more pumped. Finally it had all come together.
Last weekend..it happened again - my partner and I didn't quite slay the bass like the previous tournament, but we caught a limit and managed to cull 3 times - lucking out as we only caught 9 bass all day, and we won for the second straight time.
During this small win streak, I've done nothing different than I normally do, EXCEPT - I believed I would catch fish. I don't know if this somehow subconsciously made me fish harder, faster, more efficiently or something...but I am certain of one thing - winning made me happy at first...but now I'm bloodthirsty. I don't want to go back to being a "donator" as they used to call us...these few wins have become a catalyst for me. I've always valued soaking up as much information and experience as possible - but now I feel like it is time to shift into high gear, because I want to keep on winning.
A few small wins does not a good fisherman make, but hopefully I can continue to hone and improve my skills, and shake any doubt that perhaps all of this was just a fluke. Plus it is kind of nice to see some of those smug grins that used to greet me, turn into more pensive stares when I carry my bag of fish up to the scale. Only time will tell, but I've got new motivation for once, which is refreshing.
tl:dr; I managed to win a couple small tourneys; Confidence is some strange fishing enigma that I might have glimpsed briefly; I hope to keep improving.
Thanks for reading this meandering post.
