by Ryan Kennedy
As a tournament fisherman, I must be in a constant mindset that any cast or flip could be the one to change the game. I recently got back home from a collegiate event on Lay Lake in Alabama where this was 100% the case at hand. Me and my partner were able to have three days of practice before the tournament which was filled with monsoon-like rain, changing water levels and clarity change across the entire body of water. These changes made for some stellar moments of practice and plenty of mental droughts throughout the days. With everything that happened during the time of pre-fishing, practice was wish-washy at best.
Day 1 of the derby rolled around and we knew we just had to run with what we had. The day started off better than I had expected when we had three fish in the live well quickly, including a 3.5 pounder that I caught right in front of a competing team. Excited by the fast-paced start, we continued running the same pattern as nature awoke all around us. The sun began to get a little higher and I had a gut feeling to move to a slightly deeper spot to catch the bass in their transition to their deeper dwelling for the day. After making it to the waypoint on the Humminbird Helix unit, we threw a few casts out and were able to fill our limit.
Yes, we had a limit, and just like many other tournament anglers I feel that I fish better with five in the boat, but our limit wasn’t what it needed to be in order to do well on the first day. Well the strong courage that was abundant in the boat at the start of the day was starting to dwindle as the sun got higher and hotter. We were simply doing what worked in practice after the sun got to its full intensity for the day, and that was flipping boat docks with brush piles using a Chattahoochee Jig made by The Dugout in Kennesaw, GA. After hours and hours of flipping to no avail we knew something had to change. Again, on a gut feeling I ran to a spot up river where the current was pushing through a little harder around the docks. By this time, it was the final hour before we had to be checked in for weigh-in. Within that hour we were able to cull every smaller bass in the live well on the jig. With every cull that came in the boat, I let out the classic Iaconelli yell… “NEVER GIVE UP!”
The excitement of a plan coming together after staying positive throughout the day even through adversity is a feeling that can’t be matched by anything else in the fishing industry. With a positive attitude in a tournament or even just a fun fishing day on the water, anything is possible… a tournament win, a new personal best, the best day of fishing you’ve ever had or even just a new level of confidence. Keep your head up, your lines tight, and stay determined. God Bless!