Why do I suck in Tournaments

[RHuff]

 

I don’t get it.. I do my homework.. find fish practicing.. catch fish on non-derby days.. then when tournament time shows up it’s like the fish vanish and i’m grinding for 2 or 3 bites while everyone else fishing similar techniques in similar areas of the lake are turning in limits..  frustrated right now..

[Woody B]

You're probably "different" during the tournament.  I suspect you're in a hurry even if you don't realize it.   You might also be making less accurate casts due to tournament "pressure".   

 

My advice, quit the tournaments.  Fish for fun.  I believe it's a shame to turn a relaxing activity into a contest.  

 

FWIW I fished one tournament.  It was ~40 years ago.  I won, almost doubling the 2nd place bag.  I didn't enjoy it though so I decided never again.  

[813basstard]

Nope. Don’t quit. Go the opposite direction. Enter every tournament you can with or without a partner. Pre fish or not pre fish. Been there or not. Just go. Tournaments will start to feel practice and you do well in practice. Bingo

[TnRiver46]

I don’t enter them because I’m never catching the winning fish. I’ve been known to catch a 4-5 lb smallie from time to time, maybe even two of them in an outing. But never 5! I think if I got 5 smallies over 18” I’d probably be too tickled to find the weigh in 

 

we’ve followed your reports for a long time, seems like you stay on tournament grade fish. I’m with @813basstard, keep plugging away and you will break thru 

[RHuff]

Feels like an eternity.. 

I enjoy the thrill and grind of tournament fishing just tied of not seeing the results yet..

[Logan S]

Pretty common in your first few seasons...Don't be discouraged.

 

It's import to put some perspective on it...Your first couple seasons of tournament fishing is sort of like going from only ever shooting hoops in your driveway to playing in an organized basketball league.  You can make shots in your driveway, but things are a whole lot different when you're on a full court with 9 other players around you, a bunch of rules, a clock, and you're keeping score.  It's natural to miss more often until you are more comfortable with the new setting.
 

Couple things that might help...

 

It's common to overestimate how good your practice or non-tournament days actually are.  Fish you assume are 2lbers are really only 1-8, what you assume are small keepers are really non-keepers.  Stuff like that.  It can give you a false sense of security if you're not careful.  Throw a few fish on the ruler or scale throughout the day to calibrate your expectations.

 

I would suggest you spend some time focusing on weighing in a limit, even if it's just five 12"ers and won't be competitive.  The process of getting those 5 fish is good training for time management, strategy, bait/pattern identification, and a lot of other things.  This is a 'base of the pyramid' type of skill, very important even if 5 fish for 6lbs gets you 17th place a few times....Eventually it'll be 5 fish for 11lbs and 5th place...then 5 fish for 17lbs and a win.  

 

Focus on the techniques you have the most success with, even if it's different from what dock talk says is the deal.  Most dock talk is BS anyway.  This sounds simple and obvious but you'd be surprised how often people fish outside their comfort zone because it's what they're 'supposed to do' or what everyone else was doing.  Also make sure you can separate what you are good at with what you like to do the most, because sometimes they aren't the same .  

 

Take your lumps.  Tournament fishing is a different game and you just aren't good at it yet but you will be if you keep at it.  

[gim]

I would say that if you aren't enjoying it, then maybe its not for you.  You should still be able to find enjoyment with it, even if you aren't doing very well.  There are a lot of tournament anglers that don't do very well, but they keep doing it because they enjoy everything that goes along with it, even if they never win.  This not only applies for fishing in a tournament, but for many other competitive activities too.

 

My parents fish on a state walleye circuit every season together and their goal is to break even with winnings and expenses.  They've been doing it for years and most years they accomplish their goal, so they essentially get to fish for free all season.  They put in a lot of time pre-fishing at destination lakes.

[InfantryMP]

I have only won 1 tournament in the 20 or so that I have fished. I still like going out there and competing even when I get my teeth kicked in. I am a disabled Vet, so a lot of physical competition stuff I cannot do anymore, so the tournaments for me is great to feed my competitive side. 

 

As far as how you are doing. If you take it too serious, I believe you could get tunnel vision very quickly (I had this happen to me). I did horrible for the first 7 or 8 tournament before I won. The tournament that I won, I used my strengths (Jerkbait, chatterbait, wacky worm) and dominated. Everyone else was using drop shots, spinnerbaits, and other baits who caught them decent. I also had the mindset that I just wanted to be competitive and did not care so much about the actual win.

 

I also never pre-fished or practiced. I studied mapping online, and google earth and just looked for spots that looked good, and went to fish them. After that, it was the simple stuff, docks, known rock points etc. 

[RHuff]

53 minutes ago, Logan S said:

Pretty common in your first few seasons...Don't be discouraged.

 

It's import to put some perspective on it...Your first couple seasons of tournament fishing is sort of like going from only ever shooting hoops in your driveway to playing in an organized basketball league.  You can make shots in your driveway, but things are a whole lot different when you're on a full court with 9 other players around you, a bunch of rules, a clock, and you're keeping score.  It's natural to miss more often until you are more comfortable with the new setting.
 

Couple things that might help...

 

It's common to overestimate how good your practice or non-tournament days actually are.  Fish you assume are 2lbers are really only 1-8, what you assume are small keepers are really non-keepers.  Stuff like that.  It can give you a false sense of security if you're not careful.  Throw a few fish on the ruler or scale throughout the day to calibrate your expectations.

 

I would suggest you spend some time focusing on weighing in a limit, even if it's just five 12"ers and won't be competitive.  The process of getting those 5 fish is good training for time management, strategy, bait/pattern identification, and a lot of other things.  This is a 'base of the pyramid' type of skill, very important even if 5 fish for 6lbs gets you 17th place a few times....Eventually it'll be 5 fish for 11lbs and 5th place...then 5 fish for 17lbs and a win.  

 

Focus on the techniques you have the most success with, even if it's different from what dock talk says is the deal.  Most dock talk is BS anyway.  This sounds simple and obvious but you'd be surprised how often people fish outside their comfort zone because it's what they're 'supposed to do' or what everyone else was doing.  Also make sure you can separate what you are good at with what you like to do the most, because sometimes they aren't the same .  

 

Take your lumps.  Tournament fishing is a different game and you just aren't good at it yet but you will be if you keep at it.  

 

 

Thank you for the encouragement. I will say my first season of tournaments I blanked a lot.. This is my 3rd or 4th year but I don’t think i’ve zeroed in over a year. I am turning in fish every tournament I fish just not 5 yet… I suppose it’s getting better

[WIGuide]

Have you ever considered fishing as a co-angler for a season? If I could go back to when I started, I think that would have given me a huge jump in gaining knowledge. I've figured things out to some extent, but it took a lot of falling flat on my face to do so. Be sure you're keeping an open mind when you get on the water. If you get it too engrained in your head that this is how you caught them in practice and that's how it's going to happen in the tournament you have a tendency to tune everything else out. You're almost always going to have to make adjustments and changes over the course of the day. In fact, some of my best finishes have come in tournaments did terrible prefishing. I think it's because any preconceived notion had been thrown out the window and I just had to put the pieces together on the fly. Something else that could possible help is to use a gopro or similar action camera for one even just to go back and watch yourself from a different perspective. When you aren't "in the moment" you might realize you're doing things you wouldn't notice during the tournament day. 

[RHuff]

I’ve learned that more times than not the fish are never doing what I think they should be doing.. sometimes the polar opposite 

[GaryH]

If you’re enjoying tournament fishing then Don’t give up. You’ve been giving some great advice. I’ve fished tournaments for many years and just like most sports the more you do it the game slows down and you get a better perspective. Back seating a few times could help you as could evaluating what your true strengths are. I’m not talking about techniques you like but your willingness to change with the opportunities that present themselves. Slow down and fish areas thoroughly and with confidence. Good luck and keep us posted.
 

[PABASS]

I find my self doing better when fun fishing as well, could be the body of water for me.. Ultimately it boils down to discissions, slow down, downsize, speed up , different locations, junk fishing, depth, cover, structure, offshore, shallow, SLOW DOWN, lol....  I am always going over these when I fish, just more of a rush when I tourney fish.

 

[Logan S]

4 hours ago, RHuff said:

I am turning in fish every tournament I fish just not 5 yet… I suppose it’s getting better

Sounds like it is.  Even if it doesn't feel like it, you're also gaining valuable experience both in tournament fishing in general and on the specific lakes your fishing.  It's all cumulative and pretty soon things will start clicking and getting 5 will be just something that you do.  

[Cbump]

Keep grinding. Remember it’s just you against the fish, not against the field. 

[Weedless]

Don't forget studies shown certain bass move alot (chasing bait), while other bass have smaller home range (location has yearly adequate food and shelter). 

 

If fish disappeared, they might have left chasing bait, think where did wind/current push them since you last caught them.

 

If you see the fish there and they are not biting, go to another spot and try and then come back.

 

And most importantly as others stated....SLOW DOWN. 

 

Good luck. 

[@reelChris]

On 6/15/2023 at 11:27 AM, RHuff said:

 

 

Thank you for the encouragement. I will say my first season of tournaments I blanked a lot.. This is my 3rd or 4th year but I don’t think i’ve zeroed in over a year. I am turning in fish every tournament I fish just not 5 yet… I suppose it’s getting better

 

You're about where I was until very recently.  I got into tournaments to force myself to make time for fishing, and to try out new bodies of water I wouldn't otherwise consider.  However, after a bunch of mediocre finishes I decided that I'd rather do better vs. than use tournaments to expand my fishing abilities i.e. by experimenting with new baits or techniques.  For me, this translated to:

 

1) sticking to confidence baits and highest percentage techniques; 

 

2) switching techniques, baits or locations faster than I would if I were fun fishing.  I'll give a bait 15-20 minutes to produce than I consider making a change.  No more entire mornings spent throwing topwater with only 1 or 2 keepers to show for it; and

 

3) focusing on getting a limit above all else.  If I'm on a school of tiny-but-legal bass, I'll try and get 5 of them in the live well before moving on.  There's a mental weight the lifts as soon as you get that fifth fish that is hard to describe but which definitely helps you relax and slow down; and finally:

 

4) If I'm having little success, I'll think hard about the conditions and water and lay out a plan to target high percentage spots - e.g. if nothing else is working, time to skip docks.

 

Once I get decent limit, depending on home much time is left until weigh-in, I'll either grind on with confidence techniques to cull up in weight or experiment with something new to see if I can't catch bigger fish while also learning something.  For example, I've been wanting to spend more time fishing jigs.  So, after getting a limit on a wacky worm, I tried using a jig to get a higher quality fish in the boat.  At another tournament, I caught a limit quickly in 5 feet of water, then moved deeper to see if I could find bigger fish there.  Neither attempt worked, but I only had a couple of hours invested in the new technique after I had a decent bag to bring to weigh-in.  

[Reel]

Most important : Have a plan and stick to it.  After practice, write down the spots where you saw, felt fish or caught ONE fish.  On a piece of paper, write the spots down in order, from the best to worse according to you and visit each one on tournament day.  When done go back to the first one and follow the same order. It might sound boring but most days that's how you have success.

[Texas Flood]

I know the "If it was easy, everyone would do it" cliché is overused but I think its true when it comes to fishing in a tournament. Its a grind and takes a special mindset to overcome adversity.

 

 

[PourMyOwn]

6 minutes ago, Texas Flood said:

I know the "If it was easy, everyone would do it" cliché is overused but I think its true when it comes to fishing in a tournament. Its a grind and takes a special mindset to overcome diversity.

 

 

I know you meant "overcome adversity", but what you wrote is the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've ever read. 

[Texas Flood]

2 minutes ago, PourMyOwn said:

I know you meant "overcome adversity", but what you wrote is the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've ever read. 

Oh crap! Haha, whoops.

[RHuff]

1 hour ago, Reel said:

Most important : Have a plan and stick to it.  After practice, write down the spots where you saw, felt fish or caught ONE fish.  On a piece of paper, write the spots down in order, from the best to worse according to you and visit each one on tournament day.  When done go back to the first one and follow the same order. It might sound boring but most days that's how you have success.

 

 I’ve always been under the impression to always fish what the conditions line up for that day and not chase history

[WRB]

If you do well in practice and the fish you found are being caught by your competitors and you are not indicates a pressure mind set to me. 

No one can make bass bite trying to force them into striking your lure. The pressure of trying too hard changes your focus and that changes how you present the lures you believe is working. When that happens you are your own worst enemy.

The suggestion to slow down is partially correct but not necessarily meaning fish slower but instead take a few deep breathers and calm down.

Tournament fishing success is all about catching bass and not trying to out fish your competitors at the same time.

It’s very difficult to stay focused ignoring you are in a contest but that is the key to catching the bass you found in practice.

Tom

[Reel]

12 hours ago, RHuff said:

 

 I’ve always been under the impression to always fish what the conditions line up for that day and not chase history

History is what you did three weeks ago.  Practice is what you do a couple of days or the day before the tournament.

[Logan S]

14 hours ago, RHuff said:

 

 I’ve always been under the impression to always fish what the conditions line up for that day and not chase history

That's a very overused and overgeneralized saying about tournament fishing IMO.  The 'spirit' of that saying is more about not getting so locked into your history that you ignore obvious clues in front of you (like, the conditions of the day).  There is some truth in it, knowing when to fish in the moment and ignore your history in favor of something different is one of those nuances or instincts that really only gets developed with more time on the water and more tournaments fished.  

 

BUT...

 

History really is one of the most powerful tools you have.  If you have ton of experience on a particular lake you'll have spots, areas, baits, and patterns that you know you can rely on...Sometimes as a primary thing and sometimes as a backup - But regardless, in the vast majority of cases it's a strong advantage over anglers that don't have extensive history on the lake.  

 

I would say that newer tournament anglers should almost ignore that 'advice' and actually use their history for a baseline...And should focus on actually developing their history by spending time on the lakes where they fish tournaments.  One of the most stressful parts of a tournament day is being out there struggling and having no idea what to do or where to go next....Good history will at least give you some options to try that you know have worked in the past.