It had been a tough few weeks leading up to the CFT (Canadian Fishing Tour) two day tournament on Lake Ontario, here in Canada.
I had discovered a small army of largemouth bass under two trees and decided to hang my hat on them, staying there for the next few weeks, supplying me with enough fish to win this tournament. Sadly when I went there the week prior, they had vanished!
Finding fish, losing fish, finding them again, and then needing to find more fish, in case they disappear on me again during the tournament is part and parcel of the tournament “game”!
To try and get to the root of this emotional rollercoaster, I began reflecting on the past and what had happened to get me where I am today and why.
After many years club fishing in New York and then onto the Redman (BFL), Bassmasters, Foxwoods and the ABC circuits in America, you would have thought that events such as the Canadian CFT would be “business as usual”, but it was just not the case.
Truth is I don’t think I have ever not had the pre tournament jitters since 1997, when this crazy world of bass fishing entered my life at the professional level.
The start of my “downfall” was having convinced myself during 2002/2003 season that while I may be getting older, I was now so much wiser! I was sure that my game plans were solid and I had plenty of self confidence to go around, not only for myself, but also my non boater partner each day. However nothing could have been further from the truth. It is amazing how the fisherman’s brain, can convince its owner that bass were drawn to my lures like a magnet and that I could do no wrong!
I do admit that during the latter part of 2003, I found the mystical “Zone” that some anglers talk about, but had not come my way until that season . This is a very special place and I know a few who have found it, but like me, lost it again just as quickly.
It is difficult to explain, but it is almost like having a sixth sense. So much so that I could predict a fish location and how it would bite, before I even cast my line into the water.
Finding the “Zone” is one thing, keeping it however, is an entirely different matter!
I took almost all of 2004 off from fishing. Personal health and changes in my life had taken me from the US (where I had lived and worked for almost 20 years), to Canada. Here I began my life over again and almost had to re-invent myself and my mind set, for fishing.
I have searched to locate my “Zone” here in Canada, but I have not found it yet. I have to admit that I envy the Rick Clunns and Kevin Van Dams of this world, who can remain in the
zone for months, sometimes years, with their tenacity and the uncanny ability to locate fish in places, where you and I would may not even give the same location a second glance!
So what do we mere mortal anglers do when this situation comes along? How do we cope knowing that such a place exists and even worse for those of us who have seen the magic, but somehow lost it on the drive home!
Yogi Berra the great Yankee player/manager once said of baseball that 90% of the game is 100% mental. When I first heard it, I laughed at the comment as many others did, but on reflection, the man was a genius!
If you cannot get you head around the seasonal changes, the water conditions and the natural food source that your target species forage on, how can you expect to catch fish on a consistent basis? Like baseball, football or hockey, if you do not know your adversary, how do you expect to win the game?
Similar to reading a book, a fishing location tells a different story to different people. For example, I can fish a particular location with a worm and hook up with five 2 lb. fish for the day without too much effort. They may not be the winning weight, but I have achieved the goal of the day. Now another angler could pull into that same spot 10 minutes after I leave, not even knowing I had been there and cast a jig into the same location, pull out five 3 lb. fish and have the winning weight.
So my question is why could he do that and not me?
Basically, that angler looked at the location in a totally different way than I did. We both knew the fish would bite, but my mistake would have been to target the entire group, rather than the larger fish that lurked a little deeper, or required a presentation of more substance. Sounds simple eh? All you have to do is understand the environment in which your fish lives and keep your mind in the “Zone”.
Tight Lines!
Charles “The Bass Doctor” Stuart.
Copyright (c) Charles Graham MacLeod-Stuart. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts
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