In the first part of this article I discussed how putting all your eggs in one basket can be a costly gamble and how putting your faith in your competitors can be risky as well. In this second part to the article, we’ll cover a couple of other ways that you can put yourself in good position to “lose a redifsh tournament”.
Let what you think the competition is going to do on tournament day affect your game plan.
If you’ve done any amount of competing in redfish tournaments, you’ve heard the chatter at captain’s meetigs. “I heard so and so is headed to ‘xyz’ tomorrow.” “Everybody’s running to ‘location x’ tomorrow.” “It’s gonna be a zoo at ‘blah blah blah’ in the morning.” If there’s one thing fisherman like to do more than fish, it’s talk. They brag, they spread rumors and they just generally run their mouths about anything and everything to anyone who will listen to them. And there’s nothing that can turn your stomach more than to start hearing rumors that the spot where you’ve got good tournament fish at is rumored to be where the entire tournament field will be setting up shop on tournament morning. It can make you want to change your gameplan. But should you?
Let’s think about this logically. You likely put your time in pre-fishing and the spot you want to go to is rumored to have more anglers in it than fish come tournament time. But, that’s where you believe your best shot at getting winning fish are located. Why would you go somewhere you are less confident in just because you THINK your spot will be overrun? You cannot win a tournament without winning fish! So why would you let what you THINK others are going to do dictate what you are going to do. Go to where you believe your best chance of winning is.
Have you noticed that I keep emphasizing the word “THINK”? As in what you THINK other people are going to do or where you THINK other people are going to fish??? That’s because lots of times the more a spot or area is talked about the week prior to a tournament will have an affect on what EVERYONE does. I spoke with Capt. Greg DeVault about this a few years ago. He was telling me about a tournament where everyone, all week, talked about a certain spot; and for good reason too. There were tons of great tournament fish there. People had been in and out of the area all week checking on the fish. People were talking about the spot all week and the rumor was that everyone would be there and it would be a nightmare on tournament morning. Well, tournament morning came up and Greg did what he should have done. He went to where he thought the best fish were regardless of how many other people would be there. When he got there, nobody was there! Nobody else even showed up the rest of the day! He didn’t win the tournament but he finished in the top 5 and had as good a chance as anyone to pull off the win if he had just gotten the right bites. He said that so many people had talked about the spot and so many people had seen each other there all week that they all scared themselves out of going. So, don’t let what you THINK others are going to do change your game plan. Go to where you believe your best chance of winning is.
Don’t Adjust.
Capt. Ben Alderman is going to be writing an article soon on game plan management and he’ll get more in depth on the right way to do it but I’m going to tell on myself again and explain the wrong way right here.
A few years ago I was sitting in a great position to have a shot at winning an FLW redfish tournament. We had a great 1st day and we were in the lead with 14lbs 4oz. The first day went so great that we were done fishing by 9am. We caught fish after fish and we were able to cull up to our great weight early in the morning. We were feeling good about our chances and about our spot. So on day two, we ran to our spot and began fishing. The only catch was the weather had changed. On day one we had a light east breeze in the morning which helped push the water in with the tide along the north face of the little spoil island we were fishing. The fish loved it. On day two, the wind switch directions to come out of the north and it had picked up speed to 15 knts. Now the wind was blowing right on the shoreline; chopping the water up. Another problem we had was that a north wind was keeping the tide out and we needed the water to be high. We fished and we fished that 100 yards of shoreline for 5 hours refusing to give up on it. We just kept believe that if the tide would just finally come in, that we would be able to stick our two fish and move on to day three.
We should have known much earlier in the day that we needed to change our game plan. Between the weather change and the lack of bites in the first hour we should have known that we needed to make an adjustment. Well, after 5 hours of pounding our heads against a brink wall, we finally decided that we needed to do something else. By now though, time was running out and panic was beginning to set in. That panic put us in a rush and subsequently put us into a fishing mode that rarely works. Fishing too fast. Our next idea was a good one but the rush we were in cost us our shot. We decided to check out a set of spoil islands about 500 yards away that were more protected from the wind. So, with our trolling motor on high we rushed down the shoreline looking for our missing fish and you know what? We found them. Hundreds of them. All rushing by the boat at mock 5 because we had moved into the area at warp speed because of the rush and panic we were in.
Had we recognized earlier in the day that we needed to make an adjustment, we wouldn’t have been in such a rush when we checked out the other two islands and the outcome may have been much different. It’s difficult to know exactly when you need to make adjustments. Keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming article by Capt. Ben Alderman as he explains how to execute a great game plan and how and when to make adjustments. If there’s anyone that knows exactly how to do it is him. With 2 ESPN Redfish Cup victories and several top 5 finishes, the knowledge he’ll be sharing will be something you’ll want to get your notebook out on and take notes.
Well, I’ve told on myself enough and though I haven’t told you how to win a redfish tournament, I hope you’ll take some of this information and use it to help you avoid losing one. If you have a great story or a tip on how to avoid losing a redfish tournament let us know about it. If you have any questions, feel free to give me a ring or send me an email.
Capt. Clay Eavenson
813-300-2147
www.captainclay.com
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