The Confident Nature of Competition
Capt. Tony Gagliano
Competitive nature, do you have it or want it? Would you say your competitive nature is aggressive, confident and patient? I would say you need to have a little of all three to be competitive in tournament fishing.
Can you be aggressive in your thinking, in your pre-fishing and on tournament day? When planning your pre-fishing, have you thought it out, examined charts, reviewed the weather and tide information to make the most of this time? Can you try new lures and fishing techniques? These are a must in order to grow and learn. When pre-fishing, do not be scared to run in new areas once you have examined charts and tide information.
A couple of tips: fish areas you feel comfortable with early in the day and explore new areas when you have more sun. If you’re not sure about the bottom when exploring, raise your motor as high as possible and run slow. If it becomes shallow faster than expected while running on a slow plane, your boat will stop fast. The boat will be easier to move to deeper water if you have not run hundreds of yards onto shallow hard sand at 50 mph. That is the worst and, of course, we have never done this in the past! Ok, call me Pinocchio.
Without confidence, you will be doomed to fail. Confidence in your plan on tournament day is essential. You can develop confidence by being as informed as possible on tide, wind, lure selection for the conditions, and fish locations thoroughly during pre-fishing. This confidence needs to carry into the day, even if things aren’t going your way. Be patient, all good tournament fishermen are skilled at knowing when to be patient and when to kick in a good back up plan.
Patience is a virtue, and knowing when to be patient is what makes champions. Do you have the patience to fight your aggressive nature to move when the action slows or when a fish is in your sight and he is being difficult? Can you wade a 30-yard area for eight hours straight with only four or five bites? Can you Power Pole down for a couple hours when the tide is not moving or have the patience to wait for the sun to get in position to compliment the direction you must drift when site casting? When you are throwing a lure, can you pause or let your lure sit for up to one or two minutes? Try to be patient with other fishermen when they are new. You can’t change what others do, but you can set example for what should be done.
We are not all born with the traits discussed; I know I wasn’t. But these traits can be learned. Sometimes these traits escape us, but when they come together is when we see success. Get out there and start practicing some of what we have discussed.
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