Developing Confidence- Blaukat Blog
At the heart of it, the attraction to fishing is the magic and mystery it presents anglers.
It is a sport with a tremendous amount of controlled and uncontrolled variables that will determine the level of success you eventually experience.
Regardless of your skill level, one of the top elements to be a successful angler in my opinion is developing confidence on the water.
Confidence cannot be faked, and confidence not founded in the proper perspective is quickly undermined on the water.
So why is confidence so important?
In my experience, it lies in two principles…
1. Fishing with confidence increases your focus. When you are focused your awareness is at its highest levels. With awareness, comes the ability to pick up things on the water that other miss, and helps you put together pieces of the puzzle.
2. The “unexplained” factor. The best example I can give for this was in a story Rick Clunn related to me years ago. His brother, Randy Fite was a top tournament competitor years ago. Rick told me Randy had a problem thinking if he were having a good tournament, eventually he would run into a bad day. One tournament, Rick and Randy were fishing the same area, and Randy was leading the event going into the last day. On the final day, both got to their area, and Rick told me the the fish were biting like crazy…better than they had all week. He approached Randy mid-day to see how much weight he had, and to Rick’s amazement, Randy had zero fish in the boat. He zeroed for the day, and Rick caught a big bag right next to him. Rick’s only explanation was he felt the fish could actually pick up on the energy Randy was putting out that he was “expecting” a bad day…and it manifested. Over my course of 35 years fishing professionally, I can honestly say I have seen the same mystery unfold not only for myself, but for other competitors, in the fact they created their own viewpoint of reality on the water.
The key to developing real confidence comes through experiencing reproducible successful fishing trips and analyzing poor trips when you have them.
That is the foundation, but not the entire story.
You can have confidence that you understand a body of water, a technique, or what the fish are doing, but the extent of that confidence is either built up or tore down as the hours tick by on the water catching fish or not.
Nothing builds confidence like catching fish. It builds confidence in your lures/approach and strategy. Nothing erodes confidence like going hours or even days without catching fish.
In order to overcome a lack of confidence, you must play a mental game with yourself.
Here are a few that have been successful for me…
1. Visualize a bass being inches away from your lure every cast. Expect to get a bite every cast. This is mentally exhausting but will increase your awareness of everything around you. High awareness equals successful fishing.
2. Tell yourself the longer you go without a bite, the closer you are to getting a bite. Remind yourself the bass are always biting somewhere, and you will figure it out.
3. Make a change or move. If you ever feel you are just “casting”, and that you do not have a real chance of getting bit each cast, change areas or techniques. A simple change on the water can boost your confidence immediately.
4. Develop fishing friends you can trust to give you honest information. Sometimes getting a tip thrown your way can be a big confidence booster and help eliminate any negativity you may have developed after not catching fish.
5. Expect the unexpected. This goes back to the mystery of Clunn’s story. Each day expect a big fish or expect to find a good bite out of nowhere. Trust that this unexpected event will take place. Tell yourself you do not know when or how, but you know it is coming. This is one of the most powerful exercises in fishing.
And finally, just relax and enjoy your time on the water. Never fish uptight or tense. The more relaxed your attitude is, the better you can tap into the elements that creates success on the water.
Best of luck out there!
