Tournament bass fishing is one of the most humbling things I do. A perfect example of this is my last two tournaments. I finished 7th and almost broke the 100 lb. mark during the Falcon Lake Slam. The next week, I finished 77th in the BASS Open on Douglas Lake. The Douglas Lake Elite was my best finish last year, and I thought this could be one of my best tournaments this year. I was wrong.
After having back-to-back top 10’s in the first two Elite events, I thought the momentum would help me at Douglas. A few of my practice days were decent and a few were really tough. I still wasn't worried going into the first day of the tournament, because I was confident that I knew enough about Douglas to catch a decent limit.
That first day was probably one of the toughest tournament days (physically and mentally) I have ever experienced. It was 40 degrees and rained all day long. I had two rain-suits on and still got soaked. Freezing and frustrated that the fish weren't biting for me, I pretty much checked out mentally at noon. I was a late boat number due in at 5:15, and for about the last 5 hours, I was just going through the motions of fishing, not thinking I was going to catch anything. I only managed to catch one tiny keeper. There were several times throughout the day, where I was thought of what I was going to tell Chris Bowes on the weigh-in stage about bringing in one little keeper. On most tournament days, I think I am going to catch a fish on every cast, and I stay focused until the very end. This day couldn't have been further from that.
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