Kayak fishing failure is Good.

Author: dunebuggy

Category: Technique & strategies

Created on Monday, 27 September 2010 10:05

Written by Stuart Whitehouse

My recent entry into the KFT (Kayak Fishing Tournament) was disappointing to say the least. Having been lucky enough to be in the winners circle in the past, NOT being there again was a bit ... well, crushing! In a recent prefish, article here, I had landed 3 bream. two of these were legal and would have placed me in the top 5 had I caught them on the day. You may ask why I say "Failure is Good" but I think it should be fairly obvious. It is only by making mistakes that we can learn from them and move forward. Yesterday's total failure was certainly a blow to the ego however, I am certain that on occasion, better fishermen than myself have found themselves in the same situation, but that fact certainly didn't make me feel any better.

I was very annoyed with myself and proceeded to analyse my actions of the day. As with all of us I'm sure, I like everything to go smoothly but it doesn't always work that way. That's life! and there's nothing you can do about it. A few mishaps at the start of the day which resulted in having to pedal back to the start for a couple of reasons, really put me in a bad mood, and certainly the "Wrong Frame of Mind" to be fishing a tournament. Like life itself, tournaments are a learning experience and there is certainly plenty to learn. So let me share what I learned from this round and how I plan to improve things for round 2. The things I learned were from a combination of self analysis and from listening to what others did on the day. I will itemise the lessons I learned and then perhaps, elaborate on some. My hope here is that others may benefit from my mistakes.

• Leave your ego at home!
• Mishaps are bound to occur, so don't let them ruin your mood, or your day.
• Even if it's a tried and true or proven technique, if it's not working on the day .. try something else. You need to catch fish to win.
• Don't use the fact that others around you are doing it tough as an excuse to fail. Oh well, no one else is getting any so I don't need to feel so bad about not catching any.
• Don't be lazy.

Let's talk about number one, EGO. I turned up on the day thinking I was a contender for the top 10 as I had been in the top 10 in every round last year. It was probably more by good luck that good management. Right place, right time etc.. Even though I have learned a lot about targeting bream since I began yakfishing, and although I obviously  realise that I still have much to learn, I also came to the realisation that I don't know nearly as much as I need to.

Not much to say about number two, I have a problem with my temper and I let it get the better of me. I need to take my own advice... "Mishaps are bound to occur, so don't let them ruin your mood, or your day"

Item 3 on my list is simple. I stuck with what I knew because it worked for me in 3 rounds last year and in my prefish before the comp day. This was my undoing. I had a good array of options with me with regard to lure types but I didn't take advantage of that fact. I did not use a single surface lure all day and later found that much of the action was indeed, on the surface.

Number 4, I settled into a slump. I thought, Oh well, no one else is doing much good so.... I guess, subconciously, I used it as an excuse to fail. Hindsight, as they say, is always 20/20, or perfect vision. What I should have done was to step out of my comfort zone, which wasn't working anyway, and followed slim to the flats and mangroves but I didn't. No I said. This worked before so it will work for me again, I need to stick with it. FAIL!

Number 5 kind of relates to 3 and 4. If you are not catching fish, regardless of whether anyone else is or not, change your tactics. Proven tactic or not, if it's not working on the day...change. If you have a good assortment of lures, use the darn things. Keep trying until something works. I was too lazy to change lures as I thought, with everyone I spoke to already trying something different and not catching fish, what's the point in changing my own method?  FAIL!

There is something else that I myself need to do if I want to continue entering these tournaments and have a chance at winning. I need to put in a lot more time and effort into chasing bream and refining techniques and learning new ones. I have spent every day I can, fishing offshore chasing the big stuff which I love doing but, if I want to compete, I need to be competetive and put the hours in. What's that old saying? Don't rest on your laurels!

I certainly hope that my own "self analysis" has been of benefit to some of you, or at least one. It has certainly helped me just by sitting here and putting pen to paper, so to speak. The most important thing is also the reason I made it number one on the list .... "Leave your ego at home".

Thanks for reading.