Shoulda,woulda,coulda!!!

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mark Byrne on May 5, 2009 at 12:26am

From now til fall this is all we talk about! LOL
It sounds like you had a well laid out plan, hey sometimes it does not work out! I would not change how I fish or waste too much time second guessing myself! I feel that if I have a good plan it will come to me. Maybe not this tournament but for most of them it works out!

Permalink Reply by Eric DeLay on May 5, 2009 at 12:30am

What did you weigh in your club tourney?

Permalink Reply by Josh Potter on May 5, 2009 at 12:01pm

I don't think your plan was flawed necessarily. Sometimes plans just don't work out. My wife had planned on me mowing the lawn last week. She had a great plan it just didn't pan out. In all seriousness your plan is exactly the plan that put my partner and I in the top 10 at Nixon's event at Moses last year. However, having said that we still had to adjust in order for it to work out and it didn't go exactly according to plan. We ended up putting a 7.5 poung LM in the boat to get us there but the SM deal was our main target for the exact same reasons that you explained. My partner was catching huge bags of SM in pre-fish and we felt, like everyone else, it would take 20lbs to make the cut. Green or brown makes no difference as long as they weigh 20 and we felt the LM would be the focus of most teams.The day of the tournament we were catching a lot of fish but we only had around 17 pounds and our fish were getting smaller. We changed up and flipped up a big LM and that put us over the hump.This year was different and all that SM water that we had to ourselves last year was being systematically dismantled on Saturday during the event. We really had no back up plan. Couple that with a few missed opportunities and the wheels can come off pretty fast. The weather was also way more stable last year and that made things more predictable. If you were lucky enough to pre-fish during those precious few days of stable weather before the tournament I can see how you arrived at your plan and had things remained the same it probably would have worked out great. How does that saying go.....best laid plans?

Permalink Reply by Jeff Grimes on May 5, 2009 at 12:47pm

This Sport is not about pre-fishing.....it is about Adjusting to the conditions. Like Josh said.....last year I had 2 days pre-fishing with over 24 pounds of Smallmouth. The Conditions were just right and the fish were semi- predictable. During the Tournament, the best spot.....gave us a 6 pounder and a few 3's. Our plan for the day, fell into place as we wanted it to and the bag was anchored with Josh's 7.7 LM. The 2nd day.....I think we just ran out of fish.
THIS Year, Our plan was solid....but I think what hurt us was not having much for a back up agenda. We failed to adjust to the water temps dropping, and the clouds and wind and rain. Last year, we had a few areas to ourselves....and this year those areas were hit hard by a few other boats. We lost a few good quality fish that were key as well. How many times do you hear people say that you can't win ( or succeed) if you don't execute well. It is easy to look back and say what if......but it doesnt matter. It was a disappointing day for me, but I am looking forward to next year already. I know that my partner and I can rebound and learn from the experience this year.



Josh Potter said:

I don't think your plan was flawed necessarily. Sometimes plans just don't work out. My wife had planned on me mowing the lawn last week. She had a great plan it just didn't pan out. In all seriousness your plan is exactly the plan that put my partner and I in the top 10 at Nixon's event at Moses last year. However, having said that we still had to adjust in order for it to work out and it didn't go exactly according to plan. We ended up putting a 7.5 poung LM in the boat to get us there but the SM deal was our main target for the exact same reasons that you explained. My partner was catching huge bags of SM in pre-fish and we felt, like everyone else, it would take 20lbs to make the cut. Green or brown makes no difference as long as they weigh 20 and we felt the LM would be the focus of most teams.The day of the tournament we were catching a lot of fish but we only had around 17 pounds and our fish were getting smaller. We changed up and flipped up a big LM and that put us over the hump.This year was different and all that SM water that we had to ourselves last year was being systematically dismantled on Saturday during the event. We really had no back up plan. Couple that with a few missed opportunities and the wheels can come off pretty fast. The weather was also way more stable last year and that made things more predictable. If you were lucky enough to pre-fish during those precious few days of stable weather before the tournament I can see how you arrived at your plan and had things remained the same it probably would have worked out great. How does that saying go.....best laid plans?

Permalink Reply by Keith Brooks on May 5, 2009 at 4:44pm

I would have to take into consideration the quality of the smallies you were catching versus the rate they were biting. I usually figure if the bite slows or quality is dropping, especially if you have five in the well already, its time to go for kicker largies as culling onces of smallmouth usually wont get you there on Moses.

Permalink Reply by Shawn O'Connell on May 5, 2009 at 4:54pm

It's a tough call that we also went through at Moses. There are some pig smallmouth in there and we figured a couple of good upgrades and we'd be there. It never happened but we also kept catching just enough to make us determined to stay. I don't know what the right answer is. The smallmouth thing could have worked out and I don't think I would have been fishing confidently if we went after the green fish. It sounds like you were in the same boat. It is easy to look back and say we should have done that different. Perhaps that experience will pay off down the road, but you could have just as easily laid into a slab smallmouth and been tickled with your decision.

Permalink Reply by Ronald Hobbs, Jr. on May 5, 2009 at 6:17pm

I don't think Mike and I would do anything different if it wasn't for missed opportunities that outlook would be very different. To win every opportunity must be capitalized on. In our case or maybe I should say mine, since Mike was flawless, was I would change the amount of mistakes such as rod positioning and preparedness on the cast. Rookie mistakes in which I have no excuse for but to call myself and idiot and take responsibility for them.

In the end it was a great tourney because there still wasn't any lack of having fun.

Permalink Reply by fishheadko on May 7, 2009 at 2:39pm

Hello everyone. For myself who has no experience in Washington team tournaments but fished club and team tournaments in California for over 5 year, my experience has always been that the fish will make some type of change with the increase in fishing pressure on them during a tournament and it's the adjustments of the fishermen that is the make or break for success.The one team tournament that I won in the 5 years, I caught one fish off the structure practicing for it. But the location should have held a lot of fish for the time of year and conditions present. It was just a matter of figuring out how they were positioned and what they would eat. And what I caught them on, I never threw during practice either.