Pressure Release

Sometime during last years fishing season, I had a revelation. Not in a religious way or anything crazy that happened to me. Something just changed. That is in my fishing. I have been fishing tournaments since I was fifteen years old. I have always considered myself a competitive person more than likely due to my father’s influence.

Year after year my fishing ability became more and more refined. I started placing in several events and even managed to win a few hear and there. But more times than not I was usually one or two places out of the money. I knew I had the talent but something always seemed to be holding me back from my full potential. I tried fishing harder. I tried slowing down, speeding up. Nothing seemed to help. I finally found that answer on Kentucky Lake during a Stren Series event by accident.

It was not the fact that I finished in twenty sixth place. For the first time in a long, long time I was having fun. I was catching a few fish and it was fun. Somewhere throughout the many years of tournament fishing, I had forgotten why I started doing this in the first place. Fun fishing was going to an old strip cut lake with my dad and brother and wearing the bass out. Fun was not going into every tournament. I was stressed out for financial reasons like most of us. I would worry about how I was going to fish the next event if I did not cash a check. My mind set was totally in the wrong place. Other stresses were the fact that I had gotten married and starting to raise a family. I thought I needed to win to make my wife happy.

All of these things were locked in the back of my head and it was affecting my fishing ability. On my way back home from that Kentucky Lake event my wife called me and said, “I am so proud of you. I know you had a lot fun.” Fun? That’s right. I did have fun. Actually I had a blast. I did not set the world on fire in that event, but something defiantly happened that week down there.

Since then my fishing ability has not changed. My mindset has. I will never lose the drive I have for this sport. I just look at things differently now. I have become more relaxed and have learned to just enjoy the day and live in the moment. A person would not think that having the proper mindset would make that big of a difference. I am here to tell you that it does.

The best advice I can give to an angler is this. If the fun has been thrown out of the equation when you are fishing and you are solely doing it for the money, then do not expect to excel. Greed is the downfall of man. A real fisherman is passionate about this sport. The guy who is laughing and having a good time in his boat. The guy who is having fun.

Just Enjoy it!