How to Become a tournament angler

Becoming a tournament angler

When it is time that you decide to become a tournament angler there are several things that you need to prepare for and you need to understand the commitment. What ever style of tournament fishing you chose; you must prepare yourself mentally for a lot of issues that come up at times. It is not as easy as you think and it can take a toll on your finically. My first year was a terrible year and we didn’t place in one tournament. We did though….HAVE FUN! That, to me is one of the most important aspects of being a tournament angler.

I come from a long background in team sports, so I am a very competitive person by nature. I always want to win and at times, I have to think back to my high school and college wrestling days. I used the mental exercises. I learned in wrestling and college baseball to help me in high competitive tournaments. I relax, have fun and try to outwork my competition.
My first year in tournament fishing we did not weigh in one single fish but we became better anglers. We became better anglers because we learned from our mistakes and worked harder to become a respected team. We didn’t give up and we would fish to the very last minute. We would take notes on why we didn’t catch redfish and we would listen to the anglers that weighed in fish on how and why he was successful in catching his redfish. Tournament fishing is like any other sport…..you have to learn to swing a baseball bat before you can hit a 90 mph baseball. It’s not practice makes perfect….it’s perfect practice makes perfect. You can practice all day in pre-fishing but if you are practicing wrong, you will be unsuccessful on tournament day.

There are so many things that you need to learn, just as I did before you can start to place in big time tournaments. You need to learn how to relax and visualize before your tournaments. You need to have confidence in your angling abilities. When I attend captains meetings I like to talk about tides or productive areas with long time pro’s but you need to watch out because there are a lot of ego-big mouthed anglers who will tell you lies. They do this because I guess they are trying to be funny or to be “cool”. You will though, met some many great anglers and make new friends. That is what makes it that much more exciting to fish in professional tournament. You can make long time friends. You just need to watch out on who you get your advice from and make sure you have a secondary plan if someone gives you bad advice.

As far as pre-fishing and tournament day goes, make sure you give yourself enough time to find a productive area to fish. You don’t need to focus on one place, you need to search out several areas that are productive so you can fish each of them, if one place is not holding fish you can move to another area to fish. When tournament day comes, you need to have a check list so you do not forget anything. Get to the tournament ramp early and put the finishing touches on your tackle and other gear. Make sure your running lights are working, the live well is pumping fresh water and you have enough food/drinks for the day. Tournament fishing should be fun but you are out for one reason…to catch the winning fish. As I said before, we did not place in any of our tournaments in the first season but in our second season we placed in several events. We won money and gained respect of other tournament anglers.

Tournament fishing is my passion but I am still a baby in the sport. I read and watch as many shows as possible. It reminds me of when I would scout a pitcher when I was about to face him at the plate or watch a tape of an All-American wrestler to learn what his strengths and weaknesses are. No one is going to win every tournament but if you prepare and give it your ALL, there is nothing to be disappointed about if you don’t do well. Just practice hard and take in as much information from shows or magazines…….until next time, keep fightn’ fish!

Jimmy “The Swamp Thing” Jones