Well guys, I just got back from my Amistad Tourny this past sunday!  Though I didnt win, I had another solid finish (4th) and it should move me from 3rd place in the overall standings up to 2nd!

I try to learn something from each tourny I fish because I have decided that about 99% of tourny fishing is mental!  If you look at leader boards most of the guys consistently placeing high and winning, are the ones that use their minds and have the most tourny experience!

What did I learn from this past trip!  Well, I learned that if I have a good game plan that i need to have the "confidence" to stay with it and not just give up!

Our gameplan for the event was to fish stagging areas of where pre and post spawn females would be moving in and out of the shallow spawning grounds.  We were fishing the mouths of small creeks and drains within larger creek arms of the lake!  We were concentrating in areas of 6-15 feet dragging C-Rigged senkos!

The morning started off Awesome!  It was nice and calm and within the first hour we had 2 keepers, a 6 lber and a 3 lber in the boat!  However, the wind whipped up to about 30 mph and the fish became very hard to find!  We spend the next 4 hrs without a single bite.

With about 3 hrs left we started to loose confidence in our game plan a decided to grab the drop shot rods and go finish out our limmit on a group of 14-15 inch fish we had found the previous day!  We began to do this, however, the little Mike Ike that sits on my shoulder screamed, "Never Give Up!"

I decided to stay confident and keep to the plan.  I moved to the northern shoreline of the area of the lake that I was fishiing, thinking that area would be a little warmer as it is protected from the strong north winds we got the night before.  I found a big creek arm that had plenty of small drains and creeks!  I began working that C-Rig and watching the clock!

With 1 hr and 30 min left to fish, I finally found the group of big females that I had been looking for.  These fish were setting up in the mouth of where this little pocket with a drain hit the main creek arm!  Just like I thought!

The first fish I caught was a solid 3 lber!  I then lost a good fish that spit the hook, maybee an 8 lber!  On the next cast I caught another 6 lber.  Shortly after I lost a 4 lber at the boat.  I then picked up a male going about 1.5 lbs to finish out my limmit.  There was very heavy cover in the area and my partner lost two giants in the area that wrapped him up and broke off, one wan an easy double diggit fish!  We were still getting bites but just ran out of time!

We ended up with about 19 lbs on a day where conditions were extremely tough.  However, we might not have even caught a limmit if we would have let ourselves loose confidence in our game plan.  In fact, we probably cost ourselves 1st place by wasting that 30 minutes with the dropshots trying to catch dinks.  If we would have had another 30 minutes in this area I know we could have culled at least two fish out and might have caught a real monster cause this area was loaded with fat females!

I really learned an important lesson.  I need to stay confident in what i know that I should be doing.  Never give up, as Mike Ike always says.  It only takes a few minutes to put together a big sack.  IF you have a good game plan and have spent time putting it together and know that the fish are close ,than stick with it.  Dont let unreasonable doubt slip into your head and stay positive.  If you are a competant angler, confidence in what you are doing will work out nicely more often than not.

Good Luck!

You are exactly right. I see it all the time, and can admit that it's happened to me. A big thing I see is guys will go out pre-fishing and get on a decent bite on bait "x". They stick around the boat ramp after practice and hear some dock talk that says that bait "y" is doing pretty good. Having that stick in their heads the whole next day wears on them. Every cast with lure "x" that doesnt result in a bite is just a missed cast with lure "y" that could be loading the boat. So their thoughts get to them and they use lure "y" all day and end up not doing as good as they would have if they would have just stuck with lure "x". It's all in your brain and you have to stick with what you know for sure.

Sounds like you had a pretty good tournament none the less. Good job!!

Great read and "article"... Always learned from what you did previously.

You are exactly right. I see it all the time, and can admit that it's happened to me. A big thing I see is guys will go out pre-fishing and get on a decent bite on bait "x". They stick around the boat ramp after practice and hear some dock talk that says that bait "y" is doing pretty good. Having that stick in their heads the whole next day wears on them. Every cast with lure "x" that doesnt result in a bite is just a missed cast with lure "y" that could be loading the boat. So their thoughts get to them and they use lure "y" all day and end up not doing as good as they would have if they would have just stuck with lure "x". It's all in your brain and you have to stick with what you know for sure.

Sounds like you had a pretty good tournament none the less. Good job!!

This is spot on. It's happened to me in the past, and in fact, not that long ago. I try to have my plan together as much as I can before the tournament but I will go away from it if that bite doesnt materialize quickly. It's a bad habit because most of the time I put in a good amount of practice and to just abandon it so quick is a big mistake. I'm working on this very thing right now. It's definitely a challenge when you're fishing against the clock.

Yea, I try not to even worry about the clock untill the last hour!  Like I said, in the past 3 tournys I have fished, the bulk of my limmit has been caught in the last 2 hours of fishing!  You dont need but a few minutes to put a good sack together if you are getting the right bites.  Big fish seem to stack together!

Though it wasnt  tourny, sticking to my game plan helped me put me and dad on some great fish the other day at Choke Canyon.  The lake was very crowded so we decided to fish the entry areas to spawning grounds and staging areas, as fish are starting to move up!  Most people were on the banks and in creeks, so I knew that these spots would be less crowded since they are generally a little more offshore and the fish are less pressured!  We  fished small creek mouths that were close to, or part of, larger creek channels!  We dragged C-Rigs in about 6-15 feet!

The bite was tough for us all day, but we stuck with it and in the last 2 hrs found the honey spot.  The best five went right aroudn 25 lbs and I nailed a nice 8 lber!

Stick to the plan!  But, dont be too stubborn that you cant adapt and know when to change!