Fishing tip of the week

Fishing Tip of the Week

Wednesday, 02 April 2025 08:57

Confidence is Key
by Mike Gerry

The key to success in any sport is confidence. Success comes with believing in yourself and making every cast with the confidence that this cast will be the one that wins you the tournament.
Have you ever seen a professional athlete that was not just beaming over with confidence? You must believe in yourself and your process to be a good fisherman. It is no different whether you are a fisherman, football player, or a computer repair person. No matter what you do you must have confidence in yourself to be good at it and fishing needs or requires the same self engine to be successful.

I don’t think I have ever seen a fisherman win a tournament that was convinced that they could not compete, it just does not happen. Self confidence comes in many different ways on the water, sometimes it is the depth of water you are fishing, many times it is the bait you are using or even the presentation you are fishing. I find that if a person believes in their day on the water from start to finish it not only makes them fish better, but it moves the day on very quickly.

Confidence also comes in baits. One of the things I always ask a person on a tough day on the water is what is your confidence bait? When fishing is tough, I turn to their internal engine to put baits in their hands so that they are confident they can catch a fish. Sometimes doing this I have to change the depths or go to areas with less grass or find rock or stumps to accommodate their confidence bait, but it helps, they believe again, and they fish with more energy and generally find a way to start catching fish.

Lastly, confidence is not arrogance, it generates energy, you pay attention to the detail. You fish harder, and you catch more fish when you do it with confidence. Arrogance is a defense
In most cases to lack of confidence and that only gets you in trouble on the water. When you fish with confidence you make the right moves at the right time, and you have more fun!
Believe in yourself on the water and it will pay dividends.
Captain Mike