Is winning a tournement just luck?

[Guest]

OK...I need to chime in here.

I might be restating alot of what has been said earlier, but here are my 2 cents...

If you rely on luck, you have absolutly ZERO buisness fishing tourneys.

Ok, this comes from someone who has never fished a BIG tourney but I have fished countless small tourneys and league tourneys and have won my fair share. If I had the money to enter larger tourneys I feel totaly confident I'd do well.

Anyhow, back to the topic-
I believe that in order to win, being prepared and doing your homework is the key to winning.

Prefishing is a MUST.

Someone said earier that one could prefish a lake every day for 2 months and still get waxed by a tourney pro who only spent one day on the water...what a load of bull!!
Sorry to destroy your image of pros being these super human fishing machines, but they are really not any better than you nor I, it's just that they have the time and the resourses needed to compete at that level.

Yes, they would know better what to do under certain conditions, but being in touch with what is going on on THAT body of water is what makes or breaks you.

As for another comment about that you need a super-fast boat in order to win...well, that too I would argue. I have beaten people with 225's on 20 ft'ers with my 70 and 18 many, many times. I have seen teams outfish 99% of the field fishing out of 12 foot jon boats...and it is NOT luck.

It all comes down to-
Prepare, prepare, prepare...
Research, research, research....
Prefish, prefish, prefish...
And Win, win, win!!!

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Gull Guide Service
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Brainerd-Mille Lacs-Willmar
Bemidji-Ottertail
N.P.A.A. # 841

[Flipnripem]

Tom, in a nutshell you are correct. You are not going to be consistant on a body of water by being lucky. I fished a tourny this past weekend and was not doing so well at 10:30. I know to win you must catch big fish. To catch big fish after spawn you must fish deep. When fish are deep I`ve got 3 or 4 good spots to fish. First spot, nothing. 2nd spot three fish plus a five lbs fish. We`ve got our limit but not the weight. The last hour we hit another good area and boated another five lbs fish. Without the knowledge of the lake I may have weighed two fish. Not luck, but when where and why caught those fish. The size may have to do with the fish gods, but we were on the right structure. Good dicisions made a great day out on the water. Flip

[Guest]

Tom,

I think you are confusing winning a tournement with doing well. You are only pre-fishing and learning a lake to reduce the luck factor as much as you can. But you cannot eliminate it.

Luck is an element that many people try to say doesn't exist in the winners circle. But ask any Pro and they will tell you that luck is indead a huge factor....especially when they are fishing against guys who are as equally talented and spend as much time fishing a lake as they do. Some of these lakes and resivoirs are so huge it would take over a year to fish it all....and then some rookie stumbles upon a small honey hole and wins. Now is he a far superior fisherman? And is never heard of again. Or did he just stumble across a lucky spot?

By the way I do not believe you have the confidence to enter these big money tournements....otherwise why not just borrow the money and pay it back with your huge first place winnings?

[Guest]

Flipnrip,

What tourney did you fish and how much did you win for 1st place?

[Guest]

Think what you may dude,
The only reason I have not done what you have said can be summed up in one word....
WIFE

[Guest]

Tom,

Well the wife deal I can believe.In other words it is not really lack of money but lack of time. I hear ya...a friend of mine can barely leave the house now that he got married.

[fishface5]

Hey B. P. & Cyb. Where are you guys?The thread just aint right without ya! I betcha B.P. wins the Tonka tourny! If not him, Gordon M. definetly will. Luck rules! Cat fishin' and beer drinkin' sounds like a good cure too me.

[Cyberfish]

Hey fishyface, I got a nice 24 inch sewer trout on buffalo Saturday, on a spinnerbait.
hows that for luck!

Cyb

[fishface5]

Was it realy luck? Or...? was it fate, or pre-destination/election. Or... just the ausome skill of the CYBSTER!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on B.P.strike back!!!! Hey B.P., what camp are you in? Luck, Skill, or pre-determined tournament winners.

[Flipnripem]

Mr. Lee it was gabbys spring classic on Lake Washington. I believe 1st paid out 1300.00, 2nd was 1000.00, 3rd was 600.00 and big fish was 400.00. The 2nd big fish, optional was an additional 400.00. They paid down 6 spots and is an awsome tourny to fish. there are 40 boats and are boats turned away enery year. There is another on the lake in the fall. Flip

[This message has been edited by Flipnripem (edited 06-05-2003).]

[Guest]

Personally I only hve one thing to say, all this talk about luck and skill is just that, talk.

Sometimes one gets lucky and most of the time a skilled angler wins.

Compare it to horse racing. Take the kentucky derby for example, only the best horses and riders in the world are in that race, just because the longshot won the race dosent mean its just luck. People forget the field is made up of the best.

Basically, everyone is going to have an "off" day where you just cant get in the groove, and every now and then you will have an "on" day where it all just falls into place.

I feel that in the tourneys i fished in the past 95% of the field is composed of skilled fishermen and that any one of them has the ability to win but I am going to try my hardest to be the one at the podium in the end.

Now lets quit all this talk about luck and actually do some fishin!!

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The Warrior is back, and he's packin a new grill.

[mnbass2002]

They said it"In my travels, I am often asked how much of a factor luck plays throughout the fishing year. I typically discount the influence of luck on most endeavors of this nature because I believe if you truly prepare for the things that are going to happen, then very little is left to luck. I believe that if you expect good things and believe good things are going to happen, you manifest good luck. I don't believe that is truly luck because, if you expect and deserve good things to happen, then it's not luck."
— Former Classic champion Ken Cook

[Guest]

All I have to say is go Google the FLW HSOforum and look up how David Dudley won the largest purse in Tournament Fishing history. The story is increadible and the whole thing turned on him having unusual determination combined with some bad luck that turned out the be the luckiest thing that could have happened in the end. This story will go down in Bass Fishing Lore forever because it is quite a tail from start to finish.