"The Secret Bait"

    Time and time again we are faced with lure choices because of some outside form of persuasion. Magazines,websites,outdoor programming and "dock talk" are just a few of many ways we are coheresed into flipin' the credit card around like a black/blue jig. We fill our tackle boxes and storage bens with thousands of lures and in reality most of us don't use ten percent of it. Truthfully there is no real magical bait that works in every situation, water color or temperature, or cover……till now.

The last two months on the water I finally discovered what I have been told for years. Confidence is without a doubt the most important tool you have for fishing. It does not cost you anything………"other than the occasional marriage" and it does not take up any room in your boat or tackle box. And if you forget it at home poor results are a guaranteed outcome. Here is my development stage from failure till present:

Early September brought our final Great lakes division BFL Tournament on the Mississippi River out of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. This is the pool just above my favorite pool so I was looking forward to fishing this tournament. I happened to have been laid off of my regular job so I was able to spend four days on the water prior to the weekend. Every day was great as I was catching twelve to thirteen pounds with little effort which would easily allow me to make the cut to day two.

Friday before the tournament I made a mock run of how Saturday would go and caught 5 keepers by their own accord and shook off twenty plus other bites and was very confident. Saturday morning, tournament day was a different story. We got to the lock and dam and had to wait an hour for a barge to get through and I began to feel a little panicky. When we finally got through I ran to my first area and caught a short fish on the first cast and never got bit after that…from this point on I lost my confidence and spiraled downward to the worst day of fishing I have ever experienced. Catching only one keeper in six different area's.

To make a long nightmare short……I only boated one keeper that day, not even close to making day two and to make matters worst fell out of the top ten in the point standings for AOY. On my four hour ride home I had plenty of time to figure what went wrong. I quickly assessed that the problem was not the fish but the fisherman!!!!

I have been in all of the above situations before with limits of fish as the results, so why now……what happened this time……why did I lose focus…why did I make poor presentations……why was I hung up more than usual???? Because I lost my confidence, I had no faith or belief in the abilities in which the Lord was generous enough to bless me with.  In a sense I lost myself for at least eight hours that day and now promised to never let it happen again.

The weekend after returning home I had a tournament on my home water for some real big money and considered not fishing it because of my previous weeks performance. Not wanting to let my partner down I agreed to fish……and begin to counsel myself on my confidence. The first day of practice was kind of rough and I kept thinking back to Saturday…you get the picture……but I continually changed my thoughts to positive picturing of catching fish and things got a little better. The next day of practice I made a little adjustment and went shallower and shook off some real good fish and things really began to turn on.

On tournament day I awoke feeling ready to fish…I felt fresh and renewed and could not wait to hit the water. Our first three or four area's in the lake produced nothing and by ten o'clock am we still did not have a keeper in the boat. We decided at that time we would head upriver, further from the launch point knowing we had to head back at one o'clock PM no matter what to make it back to weigh in by our two thirty cut off. Though we were both shook by our lake fish not co-operating we still made a good choice and went to the river confident we would catch fish.

 In the river we proceeded to catch our six fish limit from around eleven o'clock to within mere minutes of having to leave. We were very excited and I was on top of the world and was sure we were going to get a check. I kept praising my subconscious over and over again back to weigh in for keeping my spirits up and doing away with negative thinking. We ended up with a fifth place finish and a nice payday for our efforts. More importantly that I got my confidence back……rest assure that no matter what the weather or the fish does I won't leave my confidence at home again.

Two weeks later my same partner and I fished another tournament in extreme post cold front conditions and had better results than our last with a second place finish. I bet you can guess where my confidence was that day. My fishing buddies and I used to have a little saying for fishing……"fish it till you can't go anymore"……Now we are thinking on changing that to the old cliché……"never give up"!!