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Tournament Angler Guide
From page 18
10-20m distance eight times out of 10. Medium-term should be something that will take you 6-12 months, such as mastering techniques or understanding a specific waterway. Your longterm goal should be something that will take you up to five years, such as placing in the top ten of Angler of the Year, or taking a podium place on your favourite waterway. All your goals should always be specific, attainable, relevant and time-specific, not aspirations. As a part of your goalsetting process, it is also important to assess yourself as an angler. Again, Mark Crompton shows how his business insight can guide you to find the gaps in your angling skill set. “I am happy to admit I have used a range of business assessment tools to evaluate myself as an angler,” he said. “It’s important to know what your strengths are and what you need to work on before you even think about getting better tournament results.” Setting short-term goals to fill gaps in your angling ability is ultimately what will help you reach your longterm goals. BUILDING THE KNOWLEDGE BANK When I asked all three
anglers about finding information, techniques or fishing locations, all three anglers quickly shot back saying written and video information are a good start, but there is nothing is better than working it out on the water. “You need to create your style of doing something – a book or dock talk is good to get a starting point, but the only way to get it right is time on the water,” said West. “Most of what I know and use today is the result of previous experience, talking with my fishing partner and time working on my skills,” said Griffiths. While putting time on the water is one thing, the key is using it effectively and understanding the successes and failures you experienced most on the water each session. For Crompton, his process of building a knowledge bank all started with having a fishing diary. “When I started fishing more seriously, I really struggled to remember everything that happened on the water,” he said. “Looking back on old diary entries, I really missed lots of key indicators for where fish were on a given day. Maintaining my diary allowed me to retain more information, and now I can use old entries as a method
to jog my memory.” In a standard diary entry, you should cover everything from tides and wind through to the lures that worked and didn’t work. It is all about helping to build a mental memory bank to reflect upon, and to help you build patterns of success. And if writing isn’t your forte, don’t worry – West has you covered. “I really can’t find an ordered method that allows me to keep a fishing diary in written form, so I take photos instead,” he said. “When I am visiting an old lake or thinking of a technique I am trying to work out, I use old photos to jog my memory.” While all three anglers agree that you need to be able to reflect on your fishing successes and failures, each of them have wide-ranging views on pre-fishing and social fishing, and how best to use your time on the water. Crompton and Griffiths do most of their fishing solo, using the time to focus on what they are trying to achieve. “I find when I fish solo I can experiment more,” Griffiths said. “I don’t worry about getting other people onto fish, and it frees me up to try techniques and locations that may fail spectacularly.” Once off the water, Griffiths uses his networks to validate and bounce ideas off
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other anglers to see what they have been finding. “I think it’s important to have a network of people you can talk fishing with; that idle chat allows you to think of new ideas and push each other forward,” said Griffiths. Unlike our two lone wolves, West likes to use his social time to take family and friends out on the water, but still focuses on his
angling goals. “I think too many people worry about catching fish on a social outing and don’t look at it as an opportunity to learn,” Griffiths explained. “I am more than happy to forgo catching 30-50 fish a day socially if it means I can work out a new technique or understand where the big bass will hold in a tournament.” You may be thinking,
‘gee this sounds like I need to become a monk and not talk to the outside world’, but for our anglers it’s about building confidence in yourself and knowing what works for you. External information is great but it should be used as a starting point. “Everyone’s information is valuable; no matter if you’re first or last in the tournament,
The hard work and preparation is done; it’s now time to put what you’ve learnt into action.
MAP IT. OWN IT. SHARE IT. I can’t believe how good this map is I just downloaded free off the Quickdraw™ Community. Look at this structure, those drop offs. Never would have known about this lake without the community. It’s fun fishing new water. I’ve already caught two nice keepers. Of course, I’ve uploaded some pretty nice maps, too. Glad someone decided to share this one.
IT’S YOUR TIME.
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