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What Life Is About
When you look back at life, the best things that remain are the memories. Trophies mark our progress as anglers or whatever craft we pursue, but it is the memories that matter. Memories you keep and memories others keep of you are true measures of a lifetime.
There are lots of memories in my past of fishing tournaments and other life experiences.
Here are some of the ones I will keep:
Transition Thoughts
Now that I have been home for a few weeks in the heat of summer, I have had time to contemplate my last Elite Series Tournament. It’s still a month away, and still it is on my mind constantly. I think about it while riding my tractor and while enjoying the A/C at home. I may have never wanted to do well in a tournament more than this one. And I have wanted it pretty bad over the years.
My whole family is traveling to Oneida to witness the event. That combined with the rest of the situation makes for some pretty heady stuff. I have feelings and thoughts ranging from “Oh my God, what have I done?” to ”Thank goodness, it is just about to end.”
On the one hand, I feel anxiety relating to the last tournament. These all-encompassing competitions have occupied a huge majority of my waking moments for the last 30 years, and I cannot imagine not thinking of the next competitive event.
Some Like It Tough
After fishing BASS Tournaments the past 27 seasons, I have come to the conclusion that I have greater success in events like recent one in Iowa on the Mississippi River. Tough tournaments in which bites are pretty scarce seem to present more challenges in establishing a pattern, but making decisions based on little input from the fish requires more experience in those types of situations.
I acquired most of my early tournament bass fishing experience in waters and situations that were not exactly bass factories. My win in the Super BASS Tournament on the St Johns River is a great example. I fished three days of practice and had exactly two bass bites. I didn’t have many options, but I managed to concentrate on those two fish and focus my efforts in a small area and eked out the win. Of course there were some adjustments along the way, but it produced a life-changing outcome for sure.
Two To Go, Two To Remember
Life is about making memories and I certainly made some at Kentucky Lake. I have to say the tournament days were two of the most fun fishing days in my memory. Fun that is until weigh-in. Then the results of catching an average of 100 bass each day were somewhat embarrassing when compared to the rest of the field. Some days you just cannot make them be big.
Observations from Home
After spending seven weeks in our Host Camper, we finally got to come home to Meers last week. You know you have spent a long time in a camper when you try to kick-flush the toilet at home. We also had a call on our answering machine from the Electric Co-op wanting to check out what was wrong with our meter. It seems they noticed it was not moving. That’s what happens when you are gone from home for so long with nothing running but a fridge. We truly enjoyed our camper time though. It makes me wish we had become “happy campers” sooner. It’s like having your home with you while on the road.
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