Super User ww2farmer Posted June 16, 2012 Super User Posted June 16, 2012 I know a couple guys who use average gear, have a beat up old boat, basic electronics, and whip the pants, off most of the dudes running 21' rigs with 250 HP, and all the bells, whistles, and fancy gear money can buy. It's no fluke either, for 3-4 years now they have been doing it. I know when ever I see them pull in you have to bring your A game, or they will embarass you. They never seem to have an off day/night. Not too bad for a couple guys in a tin can boat with average Joe stuff. I expect them to beat me, I suck, but I do enjoy the fact they seem to crush most of the wannabe pros who have blown there wads on toys to be "just like KVD" Quote
evrgladesbasser Posted June 17, 2012 Posted June 17, 2012 Most pros hit their prime in their mid 30's. I'm sure knowledge and experience have nothing to do with that stat though. More likely they all got nice fish finders in their 30'S. FLW has an open tournament on Lake O. I think the entry is about $4k. If you don't have a nice boat you rent one from Rolands. Don't worry about expensive down and side imaging units, you will be fishing in 5ft or less of water. So that issue is taken out of the equation. When you win the event, you will be awarded $125k. Then you can buy a nice 20+ft ranger with a 250 and all the bells and whistles. At that point you can compete anywhere in the country because you will have a nice fish finder. There you go, a nice action plan for you. You have til February 2013 to save your money. Quote
Eric Buck Posted June 17, 2012 Author Posted June 17, 2012 WW2 Farmer these gentlemen you are talking about have they been fishing the same waters for the past 30 years? I'm sure they are very experienced on the local waters and a good fish finder would just verify what they have learned throughout the years. You take those guys on the other side of the country and they are probably not going to beat the pants off of most people. Maybe I am wrong and they are just gifted. Evrgladesbasser do you want to sponsor me? LOL! Quote
NoBassPro Posted June 17, 2012 Posted June 17, 2012 I know a couple guys who use average gear, have a beat up old boat, basic electronics, and whip the pants, off most of the dudes running 21' rigs with 250 HP, and all the bells, whistles, and fancy gear money can buy. It's no fluke either, for 3-4 years now they have been doing it. I know when ever I see them pull in you have to bring your A game, or they will embarass you. They never seem to have an off day/night. Not too bad for a couple guys in a tin can boat with average Joe stuff. I expect them to beat me, I suck, but I do enjoy the fact they seem to crush most of the wannabe pros who have blown there wads on toys to be "just like KVD" I'm not going to disagree with most of what you are saying, but for many of the major tournament locations the boat and motor are kind of a necessity. For example, I would never recommend going out on L. St Clair in a jonboat, it can get too choppy real fast. Also, when I was younger we took a few trips to Toledo Bend. My dad would rent a small boat and put a 15 horse motor on it for one of my cousins and I while he and my uncle went out in his boat. Basically, in the course of a days fishing we couldn't get far out of the creek arm we were camped on. We caught fish, but there was little way to compete against people that could get out and cover more water. As a side note, on one of those trips they had a crappiethon usa tournament going on. I don't know is they still do that or not, but the way it worked you bought a $5 ticket and could get prizes for certain things, one of which was $50 for every crappie over 2 lbs. Well, we got into some small bass real shallow and decided to work the creek channel looking for some bigger bass. Happened into a school of some the biggest crappie we'd ever seen. Go back, buy a ticket, head out for a few more hours. Ended up with a bucketful of fish that all went from 1-12 to 1-15. Guess thats what we got for trying to cheat. Quote
Super User SirSnookalot Posted June 17, 2012 Super User Posted June 17, 2012 On lake Internet the some of the fishermen are unbeatable, every other cast is a slob. The reality is that on a real lake given the use of the most sophisticated equipment that one cane have, most not only wouldn't fair well against the upper crust, the bottom level of professionals would blow them away too. Being confident is one thing, another thing to over rate yourself and under estimate one's competition. Quote
Super User ww2farmer Posted June 17, 2012 Super User Posted June 17, 2012 WW2 Farmer these gentlemen you are talking about have they been fishing the same waters for the past 30 years? I'm sure they are very experienced on the local waters and a good fish finder would just verify what they have learned throughout the years. You take those guys on the other side of the country and they are probably not going to beat the pants off of most people. Maybe I am wrong and they are just gifted. Evrgladesbasser do you want to sponsor me? LOL! No, they are younger than me and still in collage. They are just good, and the lake we fished suits there style of fishng very well. Your not getting it. It's not the equipment that makes the fisherman. They just kicked my butt, and a field of some pretty good sticks butts yesterday, no $50K dollar boat with $10K worth of electronics would have prevented it. I know another guy who does the most basic, mind-numbing thing I can think of, with cheap spinning reels, line most people think is garbage, but does it better than anyone else I know. And thats dragging a tube for smallmouth, if that bite is on, and he's doing it, he will make you look foolish. Your young, and ignorant, you'll grow out of it, if not............life will be a challange. Quote
etommy28 Posted June 17, 2012 Posted June 17, 2012 You would get 3 days of pre fishing with all the equipment to work out the kinks and get onto a pattern. I think if you have an idea of how to form a pattern you would do pretty well. Numbers would not be a problem. It would be the size of the fish that would kill us. I think our biggest problem is we get stressed out when we are not catching the numbers of quality fish because we are using big baits and we switch to our "Panic Box" and throw the typical weekend angler lures. If you could be patient and have confidence that you are on some big fish and using big fish lures I think you might do better than you expect. Set your goals obtainable. Top 50 and get out with some money. This post is funny to me, 3 days of practice on many of those fisherys is nothing, I fished the college nationals championship a few weeks back and did not do well on a lake I had never been on even though I had 3 days of practices. It goes all back to specific skills like in that situation ledge fishing, i have not idea how to ledge fish and I could not catch jack off shore but thats how the tourny was won, I was able to find fish and caught a limit each day but ended up 115 out of 200. I am normally good at breaking down water, but my point is if you dont have the skills you have no chance. Quote
Eric Buck Posted June 17, 2012 Author Posted June 17, 2012 I completely agree that you need skills. I also think that you could have the greatest skills in the world but if you go out there with a 16 ft bass tracker with a 30 HP mercury and 2 $80 depth finders and some fishing rods that you have beat up throughout the years, you will never be able to compete. Everyone has their weeknesses. The trick is to fit your strengths into the patterns that are working. Sometimes you will never be able to do that and you will just have to do te best you can. You can't win them all. Quote
NoBassPro Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 I completely agree that you need skills. I also think that you could have the greatest skills in the world but if you go out there with a 16 ft bass tracker with a 30 HP mercury and 2 $80 depth finders and some fishing rods that you have beat up throughout the years, you will never be able to compete. Everyone has their weeknesses. The trick is to fit your strengths into the patterns that are working. Sometimes you will never be able to do that and you will just have to do te best you can. You can't win them all. There's the thing. You can't win them all, and if it works like other pay to play sports, even most of the pros run at a break even rate, with their livings dependent on sponsors. So, even if you can compete with a KVD fishing, you also have to compete with his professionalism and sales ability to make it as a pro. That being said, I honestly believe most of the pros could beat a fair number of the people on here, myself included, if all they had was a zebco snoopy pole and a dugout canoe to fish from. Fishing itself I believe to be simple, its the things you can't always put words to that often make the difference. Quote
Super User ww2farmer Posted June 18, 2012 Super User Posted June 18, 2012 I completely agree that you need skills. I also think that you could have the greatest skills in the world but if you go out there with a 16 ft bass tracker with a 30 HP mercury and 2 $80 depth finders and some fishing rods that you have beat up throughout the years, you will never be able to compete. Really????....................cause you basicly described my boat, except I have $300 graphs, and only a 25HP motor. Most of my rods and reels are second hand used, and I don't buy many $15-$20 baits, yet I compete just fine. Do I win them all?.........nope, not hardly, but neither do the guys with bigger boats and better stuff. Do I have a few stinkers?......yes, every one does. But I cash my fair of checks, and am usually not too far out of the money when I don't. But, it dosen't matter what I say, you think latest/greatest/most expensive stuff ='s success, and you think guys with stuff like I use makes us some sort of a hack. Like I said in my previous post, your young and ignorant, perhaps more so then I first thought, but hopefully you learn. Quote
evrgladesbasser Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 Really????....................cause you basicly described my boat, except I have $300 graphs, and only a 25HP motor. Most of my rods and reels are second hand used, and I don't buy many $15-$20 baits, yet I compete just fine. Do I win them all?.........nope, not hardly, but neither do the guys with bigger boats and better stuff. Do I have a few stinkers?......yes, every one does. But I cash my fair of checks, and am usually not too far out of the money when I don't. But, it dosen't matter what I say, you think latest/greatest/most expensive stuff ='s success, and you think guys with stuff like I use makes us some sort of a hack. Like I said in my previous post, your young and ignorant, perhaps more so then I first thought, but hopefully you learn. You are waisting your time and energy. Some are wise enough to learn from others. Others only learn from experience, good or bad. Quote
buzzfrog Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 experiance to me and eduction is the best, i 100% know if i could get off the shore and have any kind of a boat, i'd be better, no a pro, i fish 5 days a week in the same spots (ran out of new shore, well i could travel and would have an empty tank) , and if the bass are were i can reach i get, if not i dont, i think i am skilled enough at a couple of boat landing to catch em. I am a descent shore angler though if they aint they, they aint there,, if i had a boat i could hunt em down lol Quote
200racing Posted June 18, 2012 Posted June 18, 2012 M.L.F. really brought out those guys skills to me. no way i will ever be even remotely that good. i do think a few more years practice and the cutting edge gear i could scratch out a living in one of the the lower levels. gerald swindle if of the belief some guys get help from guides. who knows with that kind of help i might do better then i think. Quote
Eric Buck Posted June 18, 2012 Author Posted June 18, 2012 WW2Farmer you crack me up. I think you need to read the original question and stop thinking that I said I am going to be an Elite Series pro. What your not understanding is that I do not believe anyone and I mean ANYONE can compete at the Elite level if you don't have the equipment that competes with what they have. I believe out of the 8 tournaments that I could make the top 50 atleast once maybe twice if I am lucky. You seem to think that I believe that I am the next KVD and I am going to win 2 out of the 8 tournaments. Highly doubtful, but I bet I can compete. Ignorant is a strong word. I don't think you give me enough credit for what I do know or maybe I just haven't explained myself clearly enough. Bottom line is I (personal opinion) believe that it is neccessary for you to have the equipment to compete with the pros. HOWEVER you also need skill to go along with that. The original question was supposed to be if YOU had their equipment how do you think YOU(meaning with your skills) would do at the Elite level. Thanks for your response I enjoy reading your rants every time I sign in. Quote
Eric Buck Posted June 18, 2012 Author Posted June 18, 2012 Oh and by the way if you read KVD's book he will tell you in there that his most important thing that he uses to catch fish is his fishfinder because he don't have to use search baits anymore to find the fish. He might have a little trouble throwing a carolina rig on a snoopy pole in a dug out canoe on the large body of waters that they fish. Quote
bassinc1 Posted June 23, 2012 Posted June 23, 2012 One thing that hasent been brought up is their casting accuracy compaired to ours is dumbfounding. Quote
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