When do you consider it a win?

zippyduck · July 05, 2018, 09:24:44 PM

I enter every tourney with this question in my head.
Is it with the check and trophy in hand?
Is it when I've done all I could with my opportunities?
Is it when I have them figured out and still lose by a pound or two?

I consider it a win when I have put in the effort and have tried to do the best I can. If I end up with 5 keepers and have not blown any opportunities and lose, then it was not in the cards. But you can bet I am going home happy.
Many just keep doing the same things over and over in many of my tourneys. If I were to do that then I have lost even if I won. I have not learned anything and am just going through the paces.
My favorite tourneys are on bodies of water I am not familiar with. It helps me keep an open mind and not afraid to try anything. It also puts my mind into the seasonal patterns better and has proven to help me.

When do you consider it a win?

coldfront · July 06, 2018, 06:14:32 AM

like the way you approach it!

for me a win is the win. everything else is just a 'good day'. perhaps that's why I moved away from tournaments? inside, when I come up short, there's this drive that pushes me to work harder, prepare better for next opportunity so I can get the win. I realized a while back this was sucking a lot of the fun out of it for me.

we're all different. think you have a much better approach

D.W. Verts · July 06, 2018, 07:07:00 AM

Anything other than first is a loss. I could be satisfied with that loss (if I did my best like you mentioned) but second place will always suck. And third is worse (and so on).

You're a good man zippy- great attitude right there.

Capt. BassinLou · July 06, 2018, 07:47:06 AM

That's a good humble approach you have there Zip. I have always been a competitor, its hard wired into me for some reason. A win for me is when you get 1st place. Like Dale mentioned, 2nd place is the first loser.

.

Wizard · July 06, 2018, 08:41:34 AM

I consider myself a winner every day I'm above ground. Fishing is just the topping to the day. Anyone can win a bass derby. Some very unlikely guys have won BASS events. One was at LOZ. An angler had fished BASS for two seasons and never finished in the TOP 20. His business was starting to fail and he promised his wife this was his last event. Every one but him fished the lower lake. He fished the far upper part of the lake. He fished all day without a bite until he ran across a school of shad and a wad of big bass. He won the event, went home to his wife and business. He never fished BASS again.

Wizard

Kris · July 06, 2018, 09:01:43 AM

back in the day I did a lot of Club, Team and Open tournaments. I would say I was moderately successful in areas that I knew. Didn't do as well in new locations. As time went on I adopted kinda what Zippy is talking about. There was only one problem with that, most of the time it cost ME to fish the tournament. It was a trickle back into the outgoing flood of entry fees and big bass comps. I, like Coldfront, decided that this was taking the enjoyment out of fishing for me and stopped all but the Club tournaments.
Today I fish only club tournaments where we pay the Winner $2.00 and the Big Fish $2.00. Plus, the co-angler pays launch fees and contributes to the gas to get there.
No more thousands of dollars to win but I enjoy it a whole lot more.

zippyduck · July 06, 2018, 11:30:07 AM

Don't take it wrong, I want to win or I would just fun fish. But without the tourney days I wouldn't learn as much.
And the guy who wins at least half of our club events needs his butt kicked. Honestly he's a heck of a guy and my driving force to do better.

Capt. BassinLou · July 06, 2018, 11:47:53 AM

Quote from: zippyduck on July 06, 2018, 11:30:07 AM
Don't take it wrong, I want to win or I would just fun fish. But without the tourney days I wouldn't learn as much.
And the guy who wins at least half of our club events needs his butt kicked. Honestly he's a heck of a guy and my driving force to do better.

FLBR is my driving force in getting out of my comfort zone and learning how to fish my same home waters differently and feed my competitive spirit .

zippyduck · July 06, 2018, 03:55:36 PM

Quote from: Bassinlou on July 06, 2018, 11:47:53 AM
FLBR is my driving force in getting out of my comfort zone and learning how to fish my same home waters differently and feed my competitive spirit .

IBASS has done the same and has made me a better tourney guy. Since the inception of IBASS I have won Lunker twice and came in second three times in my tourneys.

Wizard · July 07, 2018, 01:16:41 PM

Zippy, to be honest, I seldom learned anything on tournament days. Practice days were for learning the lake and forage. The real learning was on the "fun" fishing days where you had time to experiment. I watched other anglers for what technique they were using. Sometimes they had a better way than I was using. If I saw someone catching bass where I had failed, I watched for something new or different he was doing. I watch birds feeding. Seagulls diving on shad? I want to know what is holding the shad to that location. Sometimes it is a rockpile in 50 ft of water. BUT, the shad are suspended over it as it is the main structure in that area. A new spot few will notice. I can't do those things on tournament days.

Wizard

zippyduck · July 07, 2018, 06:18:00 PM

Wizard,
On fun days I throw my favorite baits all day. On tourney days I bring out the search baits and faster moving baits way more often. Tourney days teach me more about myself than how to fish. Like how stubborn I can be or how to change my thinking process.