Oak Orchard River Bass Anglers
2010 President's Corner
March 1, 2010
Like most avid bass anglers I watched the recent Bass Masters Classic. I was not at all surprised to see Kevin Van Dam win again. I am becoming more and more convinced that he is about the only one out there that really understands what he is doing. KVD understands that tournament bass fishing is a skill that can be honed to perfection. Everyone else seems to think that tournament bass angling is a recreation and that luck has a major influence on the results. KVD understands that a true professional angler makes his own luck. KVD understands that a true professional angler is prepared to do whatever he must, wherever he must and whenever he must regardless of what he likes to do. Please explain to me how any professional angler could flip for 2 days straight despite never having a strike. Is that what you expect from a professional?
During this last Classic I heard several different pros or alleged experts state why KVD could not win doing what he was doing. I heard how KVD couldn’t fish shallow and win. I heard how he couldn’t fish the way he was and win. I heard how he couldn’t limit himself to the small area he was fishing without running out of fish. I heard every excuse in the world for why KVD couldn’t do exactly what he did do. What this clearly indicates to me is that nobody else gets it. Nobody else truly understands bass behavior nor do they understand what it takes to put the winning bass in the boat.
Kriet and Faircloth both seemed to think that they could defeat KVD simply by working harder. Wrong! If you want to beat KVD you had better be working smarter. Hard work and all the effort in the world can not replace knowledge and skill. Sorry Jeff and Todd, you guys just are not good enough yet. Unless, and until, you get good enough KVD will continue to eat your lunch and he will eat it every time.
No matter how much I talk about paying attention to details or how much I talk about intuition and trusting you instincts, people continue to believe in luck. Kriet and Faircloth believe in bad luck, but the point is the same. The only luck that KVD believes in is the luck that he creates by putting himself in the right place, at the right time and fishing in the right way. If you pay attention to all the details, then luck is almost totally eliminated from the equation.
KVD knows how to find the best concentration of the right sized bass. He knows how to find the right presentation for catching those bass and he makes sure that he is there at the right time to be successful. He makes sure that he has the absolute best equipment for every part of his endeavor. He goes the extra mile to make sure he has the proper hooks to achieve what he needs to achieve. He goes the extra mile to fine tune the color, the size and the speed of the retrieve. He understands the effects of weather and water changes and he adapts better than any other angler out there. He interprets the environment and the behavior of the bass better and quicker than anyone else. KVD does all of these things, but the thing he does best of all is he believes and trusts himself.
Some may say that he is cocky. I say he is confident in what he does. If you know what you are doing and you know you can do it better than anyone else, then how could you not be confident? If you don’t like what you perceive as cockiness, then do something about it. Unfortunately to do that you would have to be better than KVD. I wish you a lot of luck with that one.
Don’t let envy cloud your vision. Learn from the best.
February 15, 2010
While I am a firm believer that fishing strictly for the largest bass available is not a viable option for a tournament angler most of the time, I do believe there are times that a tournament angler is better served by settling for fewer bites, but bigger bass. Let me explain.
When fishing primarily for largemouth bass in our Northern waters, my experience tells me that individual bass of 4 pounds or more are the exception and not the rule. Therefore if I were to key on catching nothing but largemouth bass of 4 pounds or more I would be very unlikely to be successful on a regular basis. However, my experience also tells me that largemouth bass of 3 pounds or more are a different story. Most of our waters contain more than sufficient numbers of largemouth bass of 3 pounds or more. An angler can be successful keying strictly on bass of this size. Although it would be reasonable to expect to get fewer strikes by doing so, the increase in the individual quality of each bass would more than offset the decrease in the number of strikes.
When fishing for smallmouth bass, it is different. Right now many of our Northern waters are holding great quantities of smallmouth bass of almost 4 pounds. I would not hesitate to try and key on smallmouth of about 4 pounds each. Schools or groups of smallmouth bass of between 3 ½ and 4 ¼ pounds are common enough that attempting to key in on them is a valid option.
What this means, regardless of whether it is largemouth or smallmouth, is that there are times and places where I will intentionally forego getting a lot of strikes in order to increase my odds of getting bigger bass. While this is a formula that has produced tournament victories for me in the past, it is not an easy formula to follow and it is not a formula that a lot of tournament anglers would be comfortable following.
It can be very difficult to stick to this formula simply because strikes are infrequent and they are usually few in number. Most tournament anglers believe that the more strikes they can get during a tournament day, the better their odds of doing well in the tournament. Unfortunately this is seldom true. It is a difficult thing to get tournament anglers to understand that it is not about getting a lot of strikes. It is all about getting the right strikes.
Too many tournament anglers are obsessed with the all mighty limit. Do not think of success in numbers. Think of success in weight. If 12 pounds is a good catch on the water you are fishing and 15 pounds will probably get you the win, then keying in on bigger than average sized bass is a very good option. You will not need a limit to win. Four bass of three pounds each will serve you better than fifty bass of 2 pounds each.
However, if you are an angler that defines a good day by the amount of strikes and the numbers of bass caught, then you are going to love the later and probably hate the former. Unfortunately, you are also going to lose a hell of a lot more than you are going to win. Forget the all mighty limit. Think strictly about the weight needed to win. If you happen to also catch a limit, then you will truly understand the logic of this approach.
There will still be days that you fail, but there will be days that you don’t catch many bass and win. I guess the question that you have to ask is this. Am I here to catch as many bass as I can possibly catch or am I here to win the tournament? If you are there to win the tournament, then keying on larger than average sized bass is something that you need to consider. Remember, it isn’t how many you catch; it is how much what you catch weighs.
Know why you are competing
January 26, 2010
I am a firm believer in setting personal goals. I think that every angler, regardless of what his skill level is, needs to set goals. When I first started tournament fishing well over 35 years ago, I didn’t know what goals to set. Tournament bass fishing was something new and something that I had only read about. I loved bass fishing and I was eager to test my skills against other bass anglers, but I really had no idea of how I would fare in competition. With no experience to base expectations on, I set my goal at catching a limit and hoping that I would win. It didn’t take long to realize that I had set my goal pretty high. However, it literally took me years to truly understand that bass tournaments are not just about catching bass. Tournaments are all about catching the right bass. In addition bass tournaments have changed and so has the level of the competition. I believe that tournament competition today is at least 10 times tougher than it was when I first started in 1975. Hell, it might be 100 times tougher!! In today’s tournament environment an angler should start out with realistic and achievable goals. An angler’s first step should be to join a local bass club. You will need to have a tool for measuring your level of success and fellow club members are that tool. If you have true self confidence that you can catch a limit at every tournament, then set your goal at weighing in a limit at every tournament. Be careful here. Do not over estimate your true abilities. If you do not regularly catch a limit, then set your goal at just weighing in a fish or two. Goals must be obtainable otherwise you are headed for major disappointment. At the end of your first year you will know where you rank amongst your fellow club members. Now set your goal to improve the following year. Where ever you finished in the point standings set your goal to finish at least one position higher the following year. Do not become too discouraged if you fail to meet your goal. If your goals are always obtainable then they aren’t really goals. Everyone has set backs. Continue to learn and experience as much as you can and do whatever you must to gain confidence in your ability to catch bass. Sometimes I think people believe that an angler has to have total confidence before he can ever win a tournament. Don’t you believe it. If that were the case, I would have never won a tournament. It has taken me over 35 years to start to trust my own ability and to have the confidence to believe in what I am doing. When I look back to when I started I realize just how little I really knew about what I was doing. But you know what? I won the first tournament my club ever held. Knowing what I know now that may have been the worst thing that could have happened. It caused me to set my goals too high and it led me down a long road to disappointment. It was a couple of years before I won my second and then several years again before I got my third. The point is that I set my goals based on success that I knew was based more on perseverance than on skill. False self confidence is no basis for setting goals. I know. I’ve been there and done that! One final thought. Becoming the best tournament angler that you are capable of becoming will be based more on self understanding and trust than any other single factor. Learn yourself, accept yourself and then trust yourself. In the long run, the only thing that stands between you and success is you.
Enjoy the journey!! I know I have. You hear and read a lot about how knowledge and experience are the keys to tournament success. A successful tournament bass angler must have as much knowledge and experience as he can amass about the species, location techniques, presentations, and untold volumes of practical knowledge concerning tons of equipment. No doubt, all this knowledge and experience is important and necessary to success. However, you never seem to hear or read about perhaps the most important aspect of successful tournament angling, decision making. It is almost always successful decision making that ultimately determines the winners and the losers. Despite this fact, you never hear or read about it. All anglers, and particularly tournament bass anglers, are faced constantly with decisions. There can be no doubt that making good decisions is a vital key to tournament success. Every tournament angler is constantly faced with decisions. Where do I fish? How do I fish? How long do I fish this spot? What lure and technique should I use? Am I doing everything that I can to maximize my weight? Should I move to a different location? Should I change my presentation? How should I change my presentation? What am I missing? The list is endless. The art of making good decisions is acquired. It is not something that any individual is born with nor is it something that an individual can learn from anyone else. Making good decisions is based almost entirely on personal experience. There is no doubt that knowledge plays a part in good decision making, but that knowledge can only be honed through experience on the water. Good decision making is based on past experience. Every time that you make a bad decision, you have also eliminated an option. When you are again confronted with the same circumstances, you should have learned at least one option that will not help. Over time the bad choices are narrowed and the odds significantly improve that your next decision will be the right one. Once you have made a good decision, you begin to gain the self confidence that will lead to self trust. The kind of true trust that allows you to try anything regardless of what you think you know. It is that kind of trust that ultimately leads to even stronger self confidence and in turn more success. For any angler to become the best that he is capable of becoming, he must totally trust his own ability. This trust must be absolute and unwaveringly. There is no room for any self doubt. You must believe in yourself and your ability and then you must allow yourself to do whatever it is that has to be done. Eventually you will get to the point that you will know when you have found a location that holds the fish you need. You will also have an idea of what you have to do to get those bass into your boat. However, you will also be ready, willing and able to make any changes that may be necessary. It is all about getting into what is commonly called the “zone”. Being in the zone is nothing more than trusting yourself and doing so without any reservations. Turn your mind off and let your knowledge, experience and instincts do what you have spent years training them to do. This is how good decision making becomes routine. A funny thing about making good decisions is the fact that good decisions lead to better decisions. The more often that good decisions are made, the more good decisions will be made. It is an upward cycle. All it takes is absolute self confidence and total self trust. Be confident, trust yourself and make good decisions To see archived President's Corner Columns please click the links below
Since it took me so many years to finally learn to set the right goals, I thought that maybe I could offer some suggestions for those anglers that are just getting started. It should not have taken me as long as it did to finally understand what it takes to be successful, but I am stubborn. Maybe my advice can help shorten the long learning curve I went through. Had it not been for my true passion for competition and my intense desire to improve my skills, I would have given up the chase years ago. I don’t want to see anyone else give up too soon. So here is my advice on setting goals. I hope it helps someone to stay in the hunt. Oh, one other thing. It is not the end of the world if you fail. You will still be the man you were before you started. Remember, in the truly big picture, whether you can catch bass and win tournaments or not, the world will still exist. Dreams are nice, but life is reality. Try to keep everything in its proper perspective.
January 13, 2010
2009 President's Corner
2008 President's Corner
