Tournaments: What did you learn?

My first walleye tournament was on Mille Lacs, in the 80’s. The lake was calm for 2 weeks before the tournament. We were killing the fish on the mud. I thought we’d finish in the top 5. The morning of the tournament, there were 5-6’ft waves crashing onto shore. Our mud bite went bye-bye. The top 5 teams caught their fish in 3’ft of water, bobber fishing on the rocks. I learned somebody WILL catch fish, no matter what. Just because you’re NOT catching, doesn’t mean the fish aren’t biting.

What have you learned?

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My first walleye tournament was in Mille Lacs, in the 80’s. The lake was calm for 2 weeks before the tournament. We were killing the fish on the mud. I thought we’d finish in the top 5. The morning of the tournament, there were 5-6’ft waves crashing onto shore. Our mud bite went bye-bye. The top 5 teams caught their fish in 3’ft of water, bobber fishing on the rocks. I learned somebody WILL catch fish, no matter what. Just because you’re NOT catching, doesn’t mean the fish aren’t biting.

What have you learned?

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I’d say that was #1 what I learned as well. Fish are always biting, regardless of conditions, time of day, etc.

I also learned to that time clicking away and lack of results can pressure you to bail on tested techniques and try anything you can think of to put a fish in the boat. That in turn teaches you to think outside the box.

Prime example. I had a buddy place pretty low at the Red Door tourney on Saturday. I fished the same mud flat as him all day and I out fished him 3 to 1. I was fishing just for fun.

Even though he physically watched me kick his butt, he wasn’t willing to employ my technique on Sunday just because he never really used leadcore. He stuck with what he knew and didn’t do well on Sunday either.

I think the most important thing i’ve learned is to never leave fish to find fish. A few years back, I would panic if the fish I had going during prefishing were off, and I’d run and gun all day searching for the next hot bite.

Experience has now taught me that what worked yesterday, may not work today. Certain weather factors have may influenced the fish to act in a different manner or change their location slightly. I’ve found that adjusting rather then completely abandoning a game plan has been sucessful for me.

Most importantly to me, I learned to fish new waters. I was a Mississippi river only guy until I started fishing tournaments. A whole new world was opened to me. I learned a ton of new techniques, how to use new equipment etc…

I learned that you can not be a one trick pony and do well consistently. In the Walleye game, you have to be as versatile as possible or you will fail far more often than you will succeed.

I learned that there are multiple types of tournament anglers. Those who only fish local events in their comfort zones, those willing to travel just to learn new things and those who only do it so they can say they’re “tournament anglers”.

I learned to not get worked up by big names being in the event. I learned to not listen to the BS going around in pre-tournament meetings and at the ramps. I also learned who I could and could not trust.

All in all, I learned a lot from fishing tournaments, most of it good. If somebody wants to force themselves to learn new things and fish new waters that they probably never would otherwise, tournaments are the way to do it.

Marshall Wuensch

Easy, just put the right bait in front of the right fish at the right time, to win tourneys, put the right bait in front of big fish, at the right time.

I usually got two of the three down..

Question I’d have is, you talking about making your career out of tournament fishing or just hitting weekend local ones?

Major tourney trails are a major commitment, you should have enough money already so can can afford to fish and pre fish whatever tourney’s your planning on fishing.

Have a wife who understands the mortgage payment may come a bit late as you need to get out to whatever lake your fishing a week early to pre fish, and don’t have any kids.
Expect to lose, and plan for it.

There are very few players who are making a good living off fishing, oh..go fish Bass btw, more money in it.

You’ll learn to be adaptable to changing conditions, and buy the best weather gear you can, it may sunny in California, it won’t be the day of your tournament.

Big plus is learning to sell yourself and more importantly the products your would be sponsor makes.

Always catch the biggest fish on your sponsors tackle…

Be a pro no matter how bad things are, lower unit goes skyward and you let off a string of 4 letter words…not good if anybody hears you, sponsors don’t like that.

Keep track/records of where/when/conditions/tackle/times of any lake you fish, they will help you a few years down the road when you get a pattern down.

Be seen by the bigger pros, companies used to look for fisherman to sponsor, many times they ask the pros they already deal with.

Good grief the list goes on, but it’s a start imho

Weekend warrior?
Go have fun….

I learned the hard way I didn’t have the finances or the free time to become a pro, almost ruined fishing for me.
Now I just have fun.

Not sure if this is what you were looking for or not.

Al

What those guys said, plus “A LOT OF LUCK!”
You can be fishing a spot for hours and have some guy come in and pop a 10 pounder right over a spot you covered all day–just the way it goes.

I also learned I don’t want to be a serious tourney fisherman. There are some guys who take it way to seriously. That would ruin for me what I’m out there doing, enjoying my life and what the day brings. Regardless of the daily take.

I learned not all cold fronts kill a bite,alot of years ago I fished a tournament and during prefishing found a good bite speed trolling.The night before the tournament a big nasty cold front blew through,so I did not even try anything with a speedy approach to it.The winning team burned Rattle Traps over the weeds,the only team to weigh a limit.

That a tournament day of fishing is very different than a day of fishing with your buddies.

The best touraments are with your buddies, for a beer and bragging rights till the next one.