My Mental Game Needs WORK!

OK, here’s the deal…

When I am fishing in a tournament the smallest things can get me out of my game and make me become volatile or unstable (on the brink of a self blow-up). It can be as simple as a freakin fly buzzing around my head, to more serious things like trolling motor problems.

I do my best to remind myself that I am doing this because this is what I love (and I really do…trust me), but when things do not go as planned, for me it is really hard to keep a smile on my face and continue to say, “I’m have a blast”, even though I just lost my 3rd kicker fish of the day.

It always seems to accumulate as well. This past tournament, I was stuck on 4 fish. I had my fifth GOOD fish on and lost it 4 times . After the 2nd lost fish, I cut my lure off and tied on a new one (even thought it was the exact same thing, it just made me feel better). I then lost the 3rd. After that I reeled the bait to my rod tip and quit using the whole rig. At this point I’m getting very edgy to say the least, but still doing what I am here to do…fish. Not 5 minutes after this whole ordeal, my co-angler sticks a 3 pounder and as I go for the net I step on his life jacket laying in the hole and fall face first on the back deck. This is not the bad part. The bad part is that while reaching my hands out to break my fall, I take his scum frog hook into my middle finger PAST the barb. This is the first time I have taken a hook past the barb. A 5/0 hook to boot.

I congratulate him on his good fish and he offers to help me open my first aid kit. .

I guess what I’m getting at is that it just seams like when things are going bad and I start to get mad, things get worse and I get madder! When this was happening during our last tourney, I honestly set myself down for 2 minutes and re-grouped. I swear it wasn’t 10 cast later and I popped a nice 2 1/2 pounder (still couldn’t get any big fish to bite though ). But I was feeling great at the moment and ready to take on the world.

Tournament fishing is such a roller-coaster ride of ups and down, I can’t wait until I know how to deal with the downs because I KNOW I’ll be a MUCH better tournament fisherman then.

So far I have learned not to pound Red Bulls (or energy drinks) before a tournament because that only makes me more edgy, and also that I wish I had the calmness of those veterans out there who have fished tournaments for 20+ years…

I feel better now… .

stren for me equals= mustad triple grip treble, 3 past barbs at noon emergency room at 9pm day 2, broke off front tooth , 3 keeper bites after making cut that didnt come until after noon. bfl prarie, 4 in box, lose the 5th 3 times all over 2.5 and 1 that was 3.25-3.5(at the boat) i just have to keep telling myself it will happen on its own, now i know i am lying to myself

great post d-nort, everything you said pretty much sums me up. bfl on saturday was a bad day all around for me, started off the day by breaking the lock on my trailer and then running over my battery charger when I went to leave. By now I’m in a bad mood and running late. So I went into the tournament with a bad attitude. It seems that the phrase “when it rains, it pours” is completely true when it comes to tournaments. At 11 we had a fire in the back hatch of the boat because an aerator shorted. My motor started acting up around 1 and by then I was mentally drained. I only had 4 fish and they were all only 14 inchers, I had missed fish all day long, i was hot and sweaty, and just plain tired. Then I stuck my 5th it was 3 and my day completely turned around I wasn’t in as bad of mood anymore, i was just happy to get that fish in. You can’t become a headcase when in a tournament because if you let things get to you it’s just going to get worse and worse.

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Dave,

I can totally relate to your thread. When I lose fish I absolutely come unglued. And I dont even have the pressure of a tournament weighing on me because I dont fish too many. I wish I knew the formula for getting myself back in focus mentally. Last year was a great year for me and this year has been tough. Sometimes I wonder if it’s because I have a high intensity high stress job where as last year it was pretty low key, low stress. I know one thing, I’m not the same fisherman this year as I was last year

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2 words for ya…..HIPPY LETTUCE….BYE BYE STRESS

My day Saturday in the BFL as well was VERY BAD. Not going to go into any details…but it was a very eye opening experience and will prolly not be fishing as a co anymore.

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My day Saturday in the BFL as well was VERY BAD. Not going to go into any details…but it was a very eye opening experience and will prolly not be fishing as a co anymore.

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That’s what happens when you draw Slop Bass as a partner…

I’m sorry to hear you had a bad day Glenn. I’ll bet you learned a thing or 2 fishing with Doug Stanton in the Stren.

Fishing with Doug was amazing, he is truely a first class angler and person. Even though I had a tough day in getting the fish to bite, he continued to put me around fish all day. It was an amazing learning experience!!

I had nothing go wrong with my boat I just could not find fish of any size. I am assuming most people caught thier fish in slop? I did not have any decent fish in the slop. I got a couple fish in wood in current. It just frustrates me to come in and see so many people with fish. I live three and a half hours away so I can’t prefish that much. Did most people catch their fish in the slop? I can’t fish slop that long without a bite. I fished a couple spots and did not get a bite after a half hour to hour I was out of there. Any advice? My co-angler was from LAX and it sounds to me that slop is the best way to fish these pools in the summer.

OK…. I already know that I’m going to get pounded for this post. But here goes.

I am an ex golf professional that played competetively for quit a while. I do not have the fishing tournament experience that you do but some of what I have done in the past may help. There is far more time involved between shot than there is pitches or casts. But the philosiphy still applies. Much of this you are alredy probably doing.

Take each cast for what it is. ONE CAST. You can not control the cast you just made nor can you control the one that is up coming. Live in the moment, take one at a time. As you know there is no way to make the fish in the tank any bigger nor can you get the kicker you lost back.
You need to be able to distinguish between Emosion and Logic. Logic is the voice saying “Flip it there” or ” slide into 20ft of water”. Emosion is the Drunk Monkey on your shoulder saying “Son of a Biaatch” or ” I look like Lippripper”. You will never get rid of the Drunk Monkey, but you can begin to control him. (Unlike LIP)

This is all stuff that I worked on every day. Every day had to simulate a competetive round. As time goes by it getts easier and easier. At some point all you will remember is taking off and coming back in with a full tank. There will be moments of emmosion both good and Bad. Learn to control both. When you boat the pig take a breath. When you loose the pig. Take a breath. Then get back to work.

This may not be what you were asking for. But it is somthing that worked for me. Take it for what is worth. And don’t EVER let anyone tell you it’s just fishing! Competiton of any kind is somthing much better. Once it’s in your blood it’s a way of life. And GOD DAMN it’s fun.

Good luck and keep rollin! Sorry if I rambled and sorry if this wasn’t the responce you were looking for

Hey Chuck,

I had my limit just past 8 a.m. on a slop stretch about 30 yards long. I had a few blow ups there the day before for the few hours I was able to pre-fish…..so I pounded it hard that morning and pulled out small limit from it.

We continued to fish differnt slop most of the day yielding the same thing you saw->lots of short keepers or shorts period. I found some nice arrowhead later that afternoon in 3 ft. of water and told my Co-A to flip the weed edge and he picked up 3 of his 4 keepers there, including a 3 pounder.

Had I gotten more than a few hours to pre-fish, I might have been able to disect the bite a little better, especially after seeing the arrowhead bite. I do know that many boats were fishing main river weed stretches, which wasn’t a bad idea given that there should be decent current along them.

Keep chuggin bud…and keep your head up!!

I suppose they have some insane rule against the Hippy Lettuce!

Anyway, I know what you mean, Dave. I was all set to go to my boater’s spots and catch a ton of fish. But as we’re idleing through the harbor his big motor is running rough. When he gives it a little gas it stalls out. He told me at the meeting that he was having problems when he was coming back in, called the tech who told him to check the plugs. He changed them all after the meeting, but when taking off Sat. morning the boat wouldn’t even get on plane. We ended up pulling over, letting the rest of the boats take off, then fishing around the harbor all day.

I had one nice 3lb LM break off while going airborne, and a bunch of shorts. My boater ended up with a limit of barely legal fish. He appologized over and over again for the engine trouble, but I never got pissed or blamed him. I was so psyched up for one style of fishing, it just through me way out of my mindset, and took more than half the day just to get myself back into fishing mode. My boater seemed to roll with it a lot better than I did. Maybe I should’a tapped into his energy!

I had an incident during my club tournament that totally turned the day around. About 7:30am, I had 3 fish in the livewell, two being pretty decent fish. I turn around and a DNR warden was approaching during the good bite. He had stopped us from fishing for about a half hour and totally threw my game off. The rest of the day I managed to catch some more fish, but nothing over 14″. Between that and the hot and sticky weather, I just could not regain my composure…talk about frustrating.

First and foremost: d-nort, saw your rig parked at the motel friday nite, i was going to drop in and say hi but i was in a hurry to get somewhere. i stopped and drove past it close up later, all i have to say is sick! haha..just a sweet looking boat, must be like riding a rocket eh?

as far as mental things go, i probably have most of my breakdowns due to a lack of sleep. most tourney nites i stay up till 11 PM getting stuff ready, finalizing things, just stuff that always seems to make me stay up late. therefore, i have to drink 2-3 Monster energy drinks the next day to get my [censored] in gear. the whole first half of the year for me went terrible. boat problems every tourney, had to pull out of two, just frustrated as heck. but the first two tourneys of the second half of my season have went without problem(except for a charger failure so i ddnt have a trolling motor in the lansing TS) and i’ve brought in limits. not anything thats putting me in the money, but for me, its a step in the right direction.

one thing for me that has gone differently is that i’m in the zone for longer periods of time. sounds weird i guess, but i just get where i know that im ticking stumps and not a fish ticking my jig, and i just automatically thumb the spool to make sure the drag doens’t slip with the power pro on it. just little things like that, hesitating on my frog strikes to get good hooksets, making perfect casts, just everything goes right. now if i can just get on some bigger fish..

Nort, I feel your pain. I think chriss put it well. If you watch pro golf (minus mickelson us open or vandevelde a few years ago) it is one shot at a time. Same with all sports, you have to leave what happened yesterday or 1 minute ago behind you and play “one game (cast) at a time”. I think taking a couple minutes to regroup can be worth it. Its hard to do that, with the pressure of tourneys, but otherwise for me it turns into a “comedy of errors”- ie missed fish, bad cast, snag, step on a rod, hook in hand, trolling motor hits stump, etc, etc. I think if you feel it slipping: stop, re-tie, grab a drink of water, take 5 deep breaths (one for each 4 lb fish you are about to catch) and then back to business. What happened already could have taught you something and think about what you might have done wrong so you dont repeat it. I think its worse in the heat of summer because you are hot, tired and get frustrated easier. good luck, next time smoke ’em.

Before I answer how I deal with the situations posters have mentioned, let me first say it shows a great deal of maturity and intelligence for those that have in this post mentioned problems to first understand the problem exists , and then have enough backbone to do what it takes to do better next time and seek advice and care enough to want to get better. The following are undoubtedly all plagiarized from someone somewhere and have all come together numerous times on my websites, in past posts, and in others articles. If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a ton of times everything I know about fishing, and Life I learned or heard first from someone else.

GOAL SETTING

When we set goals for ourselves there are a few principles that we must be aware of. Goal setting can be counter-productive if not used correctly. If the goals set are too difficult, for the fisherman at a specific stage in their growth , the goals in question will not be achieved. This failure may result in negative thoughts and therefore negative feelings towards tournaments and the Angler themselves. But the keyword and most important principle in goal setting is challenge not result.

Visualization

Today, Visualization is widely used by amateur and elite level performers alike. The Visualization possibilities for the tournament technique are endless. It is already used by many EVERYDAY, but what some people do not realize is that we have all used it at one point or another. Before a job interview, a date, a sales appointment. But how can we use it more successfully.

When in, ( not just before), a stressful tourney situation, visualize ourselves in a group buddies, the last time everything went perfect, past successes, thereby helping us to concentrate on our fishing, rather than the stresses that we put ourselves under in these situations.

Self Confidence

Confidence to an athlete and especially a competitive fisherman is everything. You’re only as good as your last game, or in our case, your only as good a stick as your last tournament situation. If someone has a bad tourney or seemingly continuous frustrating situations, you can bet that next time something similar comes along, the feelings or fear will come back and we may start to use avoidance techniques. Not fishing slop, fishing too quickly, changing baits to quickly, moving from active fish because we can’t get them in the boat anyway so why stay.

So how does an athlete get their confidence back after a poor performance? They get back onto that training ground and get practicing, working on their techniques, practice not only makes perfect, it also makes permanent. And guys like it or not most of it is still all about …”time on the water.” My back doesn’t allow it now, but when I was still fishing 250+ days a year I simulated a tourney in one way shape or form ALMOST every time out. For example: I almost always fished whether with clients or by myself to achieve a limit in rapid fashion and then concentrated on kickers. This way you build your confidence in your ability to catch fish, to catch numbers, and to find patterns that work consistently. Then when tourney day comes your mind is already programmed to weed through this and that problem or annoyance and just keep in the rhythm of success.

Competition

What does an athlete train for? To compete with the opposition and to beat the opposition. I look at every single tournament situation as a game with my myself and fellow competitors, but mostly with the fish. I simply do not play to lose. I look at regular days on the water as tournaments, guide trips, bait shop visits as a if they were part of a national championship finals preparations . We should never play to lose, when it’s you and your fishing skills, you can only play to win, if you don’t want to win, you shouldn’t have started the Practicing in the first place. And if you can’t live with losing you also shouldn’t start in the first place either.

I used to be up until very recently the absolute master of temper tantrums on the water.. either through age or injury or simply time I have realized the total insignificance of fishing tournaments, and frankly anything that doesn’t pertain to God or my family. Does that mean I don’t expect of myself or partners the best performance possible that day. No it means exactly the opposite. It means I demand the best performance possible that day, and that I am able to cope with whatever result that yields, and go on down the road.

Lastly Luck has nothing to do with fishing whatsoever. I have said … “if my luck had just been a little better”, Bull!!! Bad luck is the lack of proper or incomplete preparation, the inability to adjust or know when to adjust, and an incomplete understanding of the fish and it’s habits and reactions to it’s enviornment that one is trying to catch. And lastly Bad luck is a lame excuse we all use to excuse ourselves from responsibility for or actions or lack of proper action. Instead of blaming luck, now I critique my most recent performance and practice, or research the proper response for next time.

I AM NO TOURNEY FISHERMEN BY ANY MEANS BUT DO COMPETE IN MANY OTHER SPORTS. ONE THING THAT WAS NOT MENTIONED HERE IS YOU HAVE TO HAVE FUN IN WHAT YOU ARE DOING. LAUGHTER IS GOOD MEDICINE, I TEACH SKI RACING AND SEE TO MANY PEOPLE TAKE THINGS TO HARD, AND I ALLWAYS HAVE TO TELL THEM THEY ARE DOING THIS BECAUSE YOU ENJOY DOING IT AND GETTING MAD IS JUST GOING TO PLAY WITH THE MIND, AND THE HEAD CAN REALLY SCREW THINGS UP. BAD THINGS HAPPEN BECAUSE OF A CLOUDY MIND, IF SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS JUST STOP, TAKE A BREATH, CHUCKLE A LITTLE, CALL YOURSELF A DUMMY AND START OVER. WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS CLEARING YOUR MIND OF NEGITIVE THOUGHTS SO YOU CAN KEEP THINKING CLEARLY.YOU MIGHT THINK THIS IS BS BUT IT DOES WORK FOR MANY OF MY SKIING CLIENTS AND I BELIVE IF THEY DID NOT DO THIS THEY WOULD NOT BE SKIING ANYMORE.

AS FOR FISHING THIS AREA, NOT IN THE SLOP, I WAS OUT FOR 3 HRS THIS WEEKEND BOTH MORNINGS,POOL 8 – STEEP RIP RAP W/ CURRENT AND THE ENDS OF WINGDAMS WITH A 1/4 JIG AND A 3″ YUM CRAYFISH, HAD 10 FISH EACH MORNING OVER 15 SMALLIES AND LARGIES.LOST SOMETHING HUGE AND NEVER SAW WHAT IT WAS. GOOD MORNINGS. SORRY TO RAMBLE.

AlvinMack

Where is he anyway?