Post by IlliniDoug on Oct 18, 2006 20:53:43 GMT -5
My last post about my BFL Regional win got me inspired to write a bit about some of the things I've learned this year. The biggest lesson has been about the mental side of fishing and in particular, my mindset for fishing as a co-angler. (WARNING: Extra Long Post)
I fished the co-angler side of the BFL Great Lake division this year and started out REALLY bad. My first tournament was somewhat of a new experience for me. Sure I've fished from the back of the boat before, but most of the time it was in a buddy tournament or an ABA tournament where I was basically the only college guy fishing against myself! This time I had to perform and compete against over a hundred other co-anglers. The night before the tournament my tackle was somewhat disorganized and I spent a lot of time getting everything ready and "just so". The thought of having to out fish the other co-anglers (especially Rob
) got me quite uptight and nervous all day. I kept thinking about what my boater was doing and how I didn't really like the water we were fishing. The desire to succeed in the tournament impeded my ability to just clear my head and fish thoroughly. Of course I blanked that first tournament, and during dinner and droving home I thought of excuses for why I hadn't caught fish, not realizing that I was my fault for not just shutting up (the voices in my head) and fishing!
Tournament 2 was pretty much more of the same, but this time I did manage one keeper. I had the same negative thoughts about how I couldn't catch fish behind my boater and the nervousness about succeeding.
I fished Tournament number 3 with much of the same general nerves, but a quick morning keeper helped settle me down and I ended up catching a limit by the end of the day! I did have success at the tournament, but still finished a considerable distance from the money even with my limit of fish. This was the turning point for my season.
After that tournament, I was somewhat discouraged. I had been spending multiple hours each night before tournament days "preparing" and "fished hard" all day ("fished hard" = mentally beat myself up all day about having to catch fish). The only results I was getting were: blank/one fish/limit that wasn't good enough.
I had some sort of moment of clarity going into the 4th tournament. Something changed and I no longer wasted physical and mental energy on things that did not contribute the execution of the fishing tactics that I was most confident in. The night before the tournament, I retied of couple of rods standing outside my truck in the parking lot of my hotel, and that was it for tackle prep. I didn't spend hours with all my stuff laid out on a hotel bed trying to think of some new thing I could do to catch 'em tomorrow. I knew there were a couple of baits that I really was going to want to throw and I just got those ready and went to bed. I met my boater in the morning and I just went fishing.
I concentrated on presenting my bait (the couple of baits I had the most confidence in) in the best manner possible and tried to cover as much of the water that was given to me in the most thorough way possible. I didn't waste mental energy on thinking about catching fish, I just spent that energy on fishing and the catching followed. The thing I kept saying to myself was "the fish will come" and it really kept me focused on fishing. Early in the morning I had a vicious strike where I actually saw the fish. You guys know how I set the hook and seeing that fish kill my bait like that increased my "whacking" power considerable and I broke him off. It was definitely a solid keeper (may have been a 3), but I simply shrugged it off and I actually remember thinking "wow that was pretty cool how he whacked that thing" and sort of smiled even after just losing a fish!!
"The fish will come" kept calming sounding in my head when my toad got smashed and I had my first keeper on. I got him to the boat and just put him in the well. No admiration of the pretty fish or a quick eyeball weight estimate, I just knew I need to move forward to catch fish number two. I kept calmly fishing the rest of the day and when I caught fish number two and three I also quickly put them into the well with out thinking about their size or what my weight was because I needed to look forward to the next fish right away. I didn't end up catching anymore keepers so the day ended with three fish. When I went to retrieve my fish from the well to weigh-in, i pulled out one "just a keeper" and two 3+ pound fish! I was so calm and focus on fishing when I caught them that I didn't even realize how good these fish were when I caught them. Well they were actually good enough to WIN the whole tournament, and BINGO: something I changed had worked! A mental change that is.
What I did was identify and eliminate waste from my tournament day, both mentally and physically. By not thinking about "catching fish" but just thinking about "FISHING for fish" I was much more successful. To me thinking about "catching fish" is saying things like, "I need to catch a fish in the next hour if I'm going to have a chance" or "If i don't catch a fish today I won't get Regional points." Thinking about "fishing for fish" to me means things like "I need to put my bait next to EVERY stump that comes within pitching distance of this boat" and "the gurgly legs on my Ribbit toad get me warm and fuzzy inside ;D." I think there is a fundamental difference between the two and to me, thinking about catching is a waste of mental energy. "The fish will come" when you are focused on "fishing" and not "catching".
This is the mental approach I took when I set out to catch fish in the final qualifier and the Regional, and I think it safe to say that it certainly isn't hindering my tournament success!
I only fished a few baits at the Regional and really didn't have that much off the water tackle prep to do because I was focused on what I wanted to fish and what I was comfortable and had confidence in. I was pretty loose and didn't let my nerves get to me much at all. You may not believe this, but I was actually quite calm and relaxed the night before the final tournament day where I was going to be fishing against 5 other guys for a brand new Ranger boat
. I was even pretty calm throughout the entire tournament day (4 lber went into the livewell with out even a glance at him!). What made me the complete opposite of calm was being on the "Hot Seat" while the last three co-anglers weighed in to try to knock me out!
I do want to add one final note about the mental outlook I have described. I believe this is a GREAT way to fish as a co-angler, but may need a bit of adaptation when fishing as a boater (which I don't have much experience with). As a co-angler you have no contribution to where the boat goes so all you have to do is fish. The only decisions to make are which baits to throw and how to present them. As a boater there are more things to control like the spots you fish and boat positioning. If a boater blocks out everything around him and just focuses on fishing he might not make a decision to move when he should, position the boat a little differently, etc.
I hope this made a least a little bit of sense and did someone more good than harm, mentally that is...
I fished the co-angler side of the BFL Great Lake division this year and started out REALLY bad. My first tournament was somewhat of a new experience for me. Sure I've fished from the back of the boat before, but most of the time it was in a buddy tournament or an ABA tournament where I was basically the only college guy fishing against myself! This time I had to perform and compete against over a hundred other co-anglers. The night before the tournament my tackle was somewhat disorganized and I spent a lot of time getting everything ready and "just so". The thought of having to out fish the other co-anglers (especially Rob
) got me quite uptight and nervous all day. I kept thinking about what my boater was doing and how I didn't really like the water we were fishing. The desire to succeed in the tournament impeded my ability to just clear my head and fish thoroughly. Of course I blanked that first tournament, and during dinner and droving home I thought of excuses for why I hadn't caught fish, not realizing that I was my fault for not just shutting up (the voices in my head) and fishing!Tournament 2 was pretty much more of the same, but this time I did manage one keeper. I had the same negative thoughts about how I couldn't catch fish behind my boater and the nervousness about succeeding.
I fished Tournament number 3 with much of the same general nerves, but a quick morning keeper helped settle me down and I ended up catching a limit by the end of the day! I did have success at the tournament, but still finished a considerable distance from the money even with my limit of fish. This was the turning point for my season.
After that tournament, I was somewhat discouraged. I had been spending multiple hours each night before tournament days "preparing" and "fished hard" all day ("fished hard" = mentally beat myself up all day about having to catch fish). The only results I was getting were: blank/one fish/limit that wasn't good enough.
I had some sort of moment of clarity going into the 4th tournament. Something changed and I no longer wasted physical and mental energy on things that did not contribute the execution of the fishing tactics that I was most confident in. The night before the tournament, I retied of couple of rods standing outside my truck in the parking lot of my hotel, and that was it for tackle prep. I didn't spend hours with all my stuff laid out on a hotel bed trying to think of some new thing I could do to catch 'em tomorrow. I knew there were a couple of baits that I really was going to want to throw and I just got those ready and went to bed. I met my boater in the morning and I just went fishing.
I concentrated on presenting my bait (the couple of baits I had the most confidence in) in the best manner possible and tried to cover as much of the water that was given to me in the most thorough way possible. I didn't waste mental energy on thinking about catching fish, I just spent that energy on fishing and the catching followed. The thing I kept saying to myself was "the fish will come" and it really kept me focused on fishing. Early in the morning I had a vicious strike where I actually saw the fish. You guys know how I set the hook and seeing that fish kill my bait like that increased my "whacking" power considerable and I broke him off. It was definitely a solid keeper (may have been a 3), but I simply shrugged it off and I actually remember thinking "wow that was pretty cool how he whacked that thing" and sort of smiled even after just losing a fish!!
"The fish will come" kept calming sounding in my head when my toad got smashed and I had my first keeper on. I got him to the boat and just put him in the well. No admiration of the pretty fish or a quick eyeball weight estimate, I just knew I need to move forward to catch fish number two. I kept calmly fishing the rest of the day and when I caught fish number two and three I also quickly put them into the well with out thinking about their size or what my weight was because I needed to look forward to the next fish right away. I didn't end up catching anymore keepers so the day ended with three fish. When I went to retrieve my fish from the well to weigh-in, i pulled out one "just a keeper" and two 3+ pound fish! I was so calm and focus on fishing when I caught them that I didn't even realize how good these fish were when I caught them. Well they were actually good enough to WIN the whole tournament, and BINGO: something I changed had worked! A mental change that is.
What I did was identify and eliminate waste from my tournament day, both mentally and physically. By not thinking about "catching fish" but just thinking about "FISHING for fish" I was much more successful. To me thinking about "catching fish" is saying things like, "I need to catch a fish in the next hour if I'm going to have a chance" or "If i don't catch a fish today I won't get Regional points." Thinking about "fishing for fish" to me means things like "I need to put my bait next to EVERY stump that comes within pitching distance of this boat" and "the gurgly legs on my Ribbit toad get me warm and fuzzy inside ;D." I think there is a fundamental difference between the two and to me, thinking about catching is a waste of mental energy. "The fish will come" when you are focused on "fishing" and not "catching".
This is the mental approach I took when I set out to catch fish in the final qualifier and the Regional, and I think it safe to say that it certainly isn't hindering my tournament success!
I only fished a few baits at the Regional and really didn't have that much off the water tackle prep to do because I was focused on what I wanted to fish and what I was comfortable and had confidence in. I was pretty loose and didn't let my nerves get to me much at all. You may not believe this, but I was actually quite calm and relaxed the night before the final tournament day where I was going to be fishing against 5 other guys for a brand new Ranger boat
. I was even pretty calm throughout the entire tournament day (4 lber went into the livewell with out even a glance at him!). What made me the complete opposite of calm was being on the "Hot Seat" while the last three co-anglers weighed in to try to knock me out! I do want to add one final note about the mental outlook I have described. I believe this is a GREAT way to fish as a co-angler, but may need a bit of adaptation when fishing as a boater (which I don't have much experience with). As a co-angler you have no contribution to where the boat goes so all you have to do is fish. The only decisions to make are which baits to throw and how to present them. As a boater there are more things to control like the spots you fish and boat positioning. If a boater blocks out everything around him and just focuses on fishing he might not make a decision to move when he should, position the boat a little differently, etc.
I hope this made a least a little bit of sense and did someone more good than harm, mentally that is...
