Guidance

[Mac3444]

I find myself in an unusual position in my journey as an angler, particularly as a tournament angler. To provide some background, I am a 29-year-old father and husband. The world of tournament fishing only came into my awareness when I was 24, and I acquired my own boat just last year. Despite this, I have been actively participating in fishing tournaments for the past 3 years as a co angler and now as a boater.

 

One observation I've made is that a significant number of anglers who compete in these tournaments were introduced to the sport at a young age. They had the privilege of being taught and mentored by a family member or a friend. They have way more TOW and experience than me.  

But my TOW is where my problem seems to be coming from. 

I can’t identify what I’m doing right or wrong in all aspects of fishing. I use all the media resources I can get my hands on to learn as much as I can .

But yet I can’t consistently compete. 

How do I progress, when I don’t know what I’m doing right or wrong ? 

A “mentor” someone to teach me hands on? 

I don’t have a great network of anglers to ask for help from.  

 

Ultimately I need some guidance. 

[12poundbass]

It sounds like you’re doing the right thing right now. Come to places like this and read, ask questions. Surf the web and read and watch videos. You’re developing a network by being a co-angler. TOW is huge. Bundle all these things together and give it time and you’ll eventually get to where you want to be. It just takes time. 
 

Don’t worry about the ones who started way before you. There are pros on the tours who started bass fishing later in life.

[Bluebasser86]

Sounds like you're doing fine, but maybe wanting too much from yourself. It takes years on the water and lots of experience to develop the skills and intuition that is required to be regularly successful in tournament fishing. Even if you dedicate that time, it doesn't guarantee that you'll be successful either. Bass tournaments are extremely competitive and with the new technology, they're also very expensive if you want to compete at a higher level.  

 

Try not to make it too complicated for now. I've been fishing over 35 years, tournament fishing over 20, they still beat me bad some days. I've gotten better by focusing on myself instead of everything else. All the media sources you're talking about, that's a lot of extra clutter in your mind on tournament day. I find I do much better since I stopped trying to find recent fishing reports, youtube videos from the lake, and instead just look at a map and find areas where they should be based on my experience. It doesn't always work, but I feel better about it when I failed doing what I felt I should be instead of chasing someone else's bite.

[Terry_]

In 3-4 years you have probably had time to develop a few techniques that you have utmost confidence in.  One of the most important things I learned over the years is to fish your own game. Don't try to learn new stuff on tournament day. 11:00 AM with no fish in the boat is not the time to learn how to skip docks because somebody said that's where they are at. Focus on what you know on tourney days. When you fish through a spot with your confidence baits and don't get bit, you will feel much better about making the next move, and you will begin trusting your instincts. As you develop trust in other techniques, you will see the improvement you are looking for.

 

Also @12poundbass makes another and probably more important point. You are doing the right thing.  Eat, sleep, and breath bass fishing in your off time on forums and other learning platforms. It will come!

[GaryH]

1 hour ago, Vantage Tackle said:

In 3-4 years you have probably had time to develop a few techniques that you have utmost confidence in.  One of the most important things I learned over the years is to fish your own game. Don't try to learn new stuff on tournament day. 11:00 AM with no fish in the boat is not the time to learn how to skip docks because somebody said that's where they are at. Focus on what you know on tourney days. 

☝️☝️☝️☝️ great advice. This is advice that took me some time to learn.

[gim]

Maybe tournament fishing isn't for you?  I'm not saying that you won't eventually get better at it with improved results, but being that you already indicated that you have a late start on it and a family, those things will inhibit your time to fish.  Families (especially younger kids) eat up time.  A full time job, a family, a dog, and a house to attend to all eat up a lot of my time.  That's essentially lost fishing time.  Its just part of life.

 

Its such a time-intensive activity.  Constantly pre-fishing for tournaments IMO is required to be and stay competitive.  I don't have that option, especially trying to learn new waters.  Rolling into a tournament without the benefit of pre-fishing for days on end is generally a recipe for failure.  You might catch lightning in a bottle at some point but its not a pattern that would repeat itself often.

 

Other than that there's already good advice posted above.