If you could go back to your teenage years and do things differently to set yourself up better to fish in the elite series or a high level of competition what would you do?

Leave the pot and broads alone

Get a vasectomy right out of high school. Yep.

Everything written above me, plus winning the lottery.

Marry into the Clunn, Nixon, Brauer or Van Dam Family.

A-Jay

I have no answer for this. While I have fantasized
about fishing the big tournaments, I actually don't
fish any tourneys. Prefer the ease of fishing for my
own pleasure and my own records.

So I'd probably have done nothing different....

I wouldn't quit fishing after jr high and pick it back up 25 years later.

Simple....Stop Taylor Swift before she ever sings a note!!!!

9 hours ago, slonezp said:

Leave the pot and broads alone

I grew up in the 60s; drugs, sex, & rock-n-roll took me farther than I wanted to go, keep me longer than I wanted to stay & cost me more than I wanted to pay!

1 hour ago, Catt said:

I grew up in the 60s; drugs, sex, & rock-n-roll took me farther than I wanted to go, keep me longer than I wanted to stay & cost me more than I wanted to pay!

me too ~ but for some reason, I just don't remember much of it . . .

A-Jay

 

Well I would have been a lot dif. He'll might have been a classic champion by now... But than again maybe if I did go back something bad might happen... This is the path God put me on right now, we can all still accomplish our goals, just a little harder now

This question comes up often IF you could go back to your teen years what would you do differently? My answer is always the same...nothing! 

I lived my life fully and very happy to make this far and do not want to live it over.  When you come to a Y in the road..take it! The bottom line is you can't change anything so take advantage of everyday and live life, cherish your family, keep your priorities in focus and fish often.

 

Tom

Well, I don't think I'd do anything differently in terms of competitions, but I would fish more. I didn't get into fishing until I was around 19-20. I'd have wasted less time loafing around and fish sooner. 

I wasn't thinking about tournaments but I was fishing nearly every day.If I was thinking about being a pro.I'd join a club with some real experienced members Learn all I could and fish local tournaments, then enter bigger tournaments etc.

I took the tournament road for a few years before I decided it wasn't for me. The traveling was the biggest factor for me. You miss so much time at home. I was working 3 on 4 off and spending atleast 5 days a week on the water. After awhile it just quit being fun. No way in hell I'd want to fish for a living and be gone 250 days a year.

It's easy, probably I would have not wasted 2 years of my life fooling around studying a carrer I didn't really like at college and jumped right into the school of Veterinary Medicine right out of high school; however, now that I have thought about this for many years, probably the best decission of my life was studying those 2 years I "wasted", I learned valuable lessons that helped me a lot when I finally got into Veterinary Medicine.

I would have bought a nicer boat before I got married.  Now, it's a freakin' act of congress!

Probably start bass fishing more. Back when I use to catfish a lot, bass fishing was something you did when the cat were not biting.

I'm quite sure we all have things in our past we would like to able to change.  I have quite a list myself, and all I will say about it is, anything related to fishing would  not  be on the  list.

I got hooked on fishing when I was in my single digits. I've been addicted to smallies since I was about 16 yrs. old and that been 40+ years. Did some tournament fishing............didn't find it to be fun. Recently was going to revisit it and decided against it.

I'm making it a point this year to go back to throwing some old school baits that I have not fished in several years. Somehow you get yourself away from them. Hard and soft baits.

i would do a lot different but i can't so i make the best of what i have now 

Work your butt off and make it happen. Success doesnt happen to those who havent worked hard for it. 

Simply make a choice and do it.

Dont waste time wondering what could/might have been, just learn from it and apply it to next time. 

I know this is about going back and changing things with regard to fishing but that would affect everything else in my life as well.  There are things I regret from the past, but with time and wisdom, I accept that I wouldn't be who I am today, and I wouldn't necessarily have the relationships I currently have, if I hadn't traveled the road that I did.  Despite having some pretty bad situations early in life that gave me a severe bout of stinking thinking that I had to correct, I wouldn't go back and change a thing.

1 hour ago, .ghoti. said:

I'm quite sure we all have things in our past we would like to able to change.  I have quite a list myself, and all I will say about it is, anything related to fishing would  not  be on the  list.

 

8 minutes ago, senile1 said:

I know this is about going back and changing things with regard to fishing but that would affect everything else in my life as well.  There are things I regret from the past, but with time and wisdom, I accept that I wouldn't be who I am today, and I wouldn't necessarily have the relationships I currently have, if I hadn't traveled the road that I did.  Despite having some pretty bad situations early in life that gave me a severe bout of stinking thinking that I had to correct, I wouldn't go back and change a thing.

There are a few of us that are honest

I would have made an effort to fish at a collegiate level.