With that said, I often wonder about some of the decisions they make. I see key stretches of bank or a particular area that they overlook and wonder to myself why they missed it, only to see another angler come in behind them, or later in the day and catch fish in that exact spot. I’ve also watched anglers fish a bank, then get to a prime stretch of bank with current running on it, only to pull up the trolling motor and leave.
It’s always made me wonder what makes these guys overlook such obviously prime real estate. The more I watch, and as much as I respect these guys, I’ve come to two potential conclusions. The first is that they are getting in a rush to put something together, and second, I feel that there are times when the pressure of an event causes them to overlook something obvious because their mind is not completely focused.
THE BOOK ON BASS FISHING
I’ve been fortunate to be at every Major League Fishing event that has been held thus far. Being on the editorial team at MLF and the camaraderie that the crew has when on site is something that I look forward to. But, on the water, I get to absorb myself watching and trying to think along with the angler. A lot of the time, I can see which move they are going to make, and I do guess right a lot of the time.
SPRING 2016
One thing that has become apparent to me over the years is that many of the top anglers in the world are on the same page most of the time. Here is what I mean by that statement. A day of a Major League Fishing Cup event will have 10 anglers competing, and a select field will have six. Out of that field, I can often look at an Insights map and see areas that anglers are going to hit throughout the competition day. Much of the time, several of those spots would wind up being fished by a majority of the field several times a day.
The reason is that this top flight group of anglers has all been a part of “writing the book on bass fishing.” Throughout their careers, the Bill Dances, Roland Martins and Rick Clunns of the world educated the Hank Parkers and Denny Brauers, who educated the Kevin VanDams, Skeet Reeses and Mike Iaconellis of the world, and so on. As technology and new techniques have been improved or added, new chapters of the “book” of bass fishing have been added by the subsequent generation of pros.
When you gather all of that collective knowledge into one place, the chances are that many of the anglers working to try and figure out all of the pieces of the puzzle will wind up pulling some of those same pages to the forefront of their memory and using their mental reference manual to try and locate a pattern.
CLUTCH PLAYERS
When it comes to the pressure of big competition, we’ve all seen what we consider classic
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