Off the rails.................

[ww2farmer]

This is kinda what happens when you don't take the timeout as RichF described in his thread below

Except this is an entire month or so of being spun out.

My tournament season started off fantastic. Multiple wins, with multiple partners, another high finish with a solid bag during a time in which I usually only do OK, and another money finish during a tuff bite grind fest in early Sept.

Then somehow, grease got on the tracks.

I have bombed............BOMBED..........as in lower middle of the pack type finishes, the last 3 out of 4 tournaments I have been in.

And that brings me to this weekend...........the lowest of lows

I held my annual two day classic for everyone who won/cashed in any of my various tournaments through out the year. My partner and I have never won this tournament, BUT, we have cashed in it 3 years in a row........with three straight 2nd place finishes.

I had a bad feeling about this one. My home lake is not fishing to my strengths right now, and even out fun fishing, i am struggling big time to just get bit, let alone do anything in a tournament. I am not exactly a one trick pony either, I can slug it out on the bank in the slop with the best of them, or I can fish deep offshore, and everything in between and catch fish and feel comfortable and confident in doing so..........but man have I been sucking lately

So that brings us to Sat. AM..................first thing I get.................a text message from my partner at 5:45 am saying he can't make it. Then I proceed to go out and chase my tail in deep water for the first four hours looking for smallmouth................and finding only a few short fish. Plan B..........look for largemouth. First one I catch, a 5.44lber, good start...................but it was one of only two fish I would catch the rest of the day. I wound up in 2nd to last place on day one with 7lbs and change, and the 5.44 wasn't even good enough for lunker, as someone else had a 5.82.

So going into day 2, my partner calls  and asks what he should do. I tell him just forget it and stay home, I blew it yesterday, and the only thing I have a shot at on day 2 is the daily lunker. 

I said screw the smallmouth, as not a ton of them were brought in yesterday, and most of the ones that were, were small. I decided to just go hog hunting for a big largemouth and see if I could get one that would at least challange for lunker............and I did.............4+ hours into the tournament. It was the first bite I got and was a nice upper 4, low 5lb class fish. Go to put it in my livewell, and the pump would not pump. It worked fine yesterday...........and all season for that matter. So I bucket some water into the livewell for the bass, while I start pulling fuses..............all fuses good, switch lights up...............Crap..........must be the pump cartridge, or a bad ground or something. I end up throwing the fish back, putting the boat on the trailer, and calling it a day. I left the scales, and prize money with another team who helps me out, and left humbled and embarassed by my performance this weekend. As of right now I am ready to winterize the boat and just take a "timeout" until next spring. I am spun out something awful, and I might light that boat on fire if I have another poor day of fishing this year.

BTW: have power, and good ground at the pump, it IS the cartridge that is burned out................I'll fix it this winter.

[Subaqua Adinterim]

Hey, life has it's ups and downs; hopefully things will pick up for you.  In the meantime, nothing wrong with just going out and relaxing and enjoying the day as you fish.  The fall colors around your lake must be spectacular right now - take a look around and count your blessings.

I wish I could have a small percentage of the success that you have over the course of the season; I'm not envious, I just admire your ability and follow your posts to get information to help me get better at catching bass.  Hopefully you will keep fishing and posting your reports, as I look forward to reading them.

 

 

[roadwarrior]

That is a tough story. Whether you decide to push through or take a break, next spring will be game on.

 

[Bluebasser86]

I did not have a very good tournament season this entire year. Still managed to win a few, and ended up 1st for the year, but that was more because we fished almost all of them than our performance, and we still barely managed that. I've been focusing more on fun fishing lately, even fly fishing for bluegills just to enjoy my time on the water. It's cleared my head and got me excited about tournaments again. Sometimes just have to hit the reset button. How we choose to do that varies. 

[RichF]

I've definitely had those days before.  I just made the trip up to NNY again this last weekend to fish and just about everything went wrong.  Massive cold front blew through and killed the bite on a lake I ALWAYS have fun on in October.  I'm talking easy 18 to 20lb bags and 40+ bites a day.  Managed only 6 bites!  To top it off, my motor alarm starting going off.  Couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on.  Seemed like it was overheating even though water was running through the engine and spittin.  Super frustrating since I had planned on fishing a tournament the next day (which I decided to do anyway).  Could only run at 25-30 sec intervals before the alarm would sound off.  I'd shut her down and troll around until it cooled.  Made for a tough day mentally in addition to the tough bite from the cold front.  Managed 5 keeper bites and dumped one.  Finished 3rd.

I definitely wanted to throw in the towel a couple hrs in but stuck with it.  Glad I did.  By the end of the day my motor was miraculously back to normal and I got to see my father kick all our butts and finish with the win. 

Keep your head up and definitely don't put the boat away just yet!  The best is yet to come up in NY.