Do I really have what it takes to win tournaments?
That was a question I'd ask myself over and over after I'd get an opportunity to win and things just wouldn't go my way. Although I've won small tournaments at the club and jackpot level, a win at the regional level had eluded me since I began fishing as a boater in 2007.
Although I'm a confident angler and pride myself on the strength of my mental game, the fact that I'd work so hard and go year after without a victory was very disheartening. I know there are young guys just like me who are striving to become professional anglers, and they, like myself, utilize all their available resources (i.e. time, money) and shed blood, sweat and tears to become the best they can.
Despite their hard work, they just aren’t seeing the results they desire, and even though they may try to be confident and optimistic, feelings of doubt can sometimes be overwhelming. That's how I've felt over the past 3 years fishing as a boater. I'd worked so hard, gotten so close, and still hadn’t been rewarded for my hard work. I can’t tell you how many times I was unable to sleep because I had the overwhelming power of doubt running through my mind.
Through all of the biographies and autobiographies I've read about professional athletes, one thing that I found interesting was a common thread – they just needed that initial taste of victory to fully realize their potential as competitors. Although they were confident in the beginning, it was important to win for the first time to understand what it takes to win, and most importantly, to understand that they could win.
Well, after 3 years and many sleepless nights, I finally experienced what I hope to be the turning point in my career as a competitive angler – I won my first BFL Super Tournament at Lake Okeechobee. Here’s how the week went.
Practice: Where to start?
I hadn’t been on Okeechobee since the last BFL in May, and I hadn’t heard a whole lot about what was going on at the mega-lake, so I gave myself Thursday and Friday to find out what the bite was like.
I made my usual pit stop at Okeechobee Fishing Headquarters, the one-stop-shop for any fisherman, and ended up talking to those guys about the bite. I didn’t want any specifics, since any info they would give me was probably the same that others would get upon asking, but I did want to know where I should start searching on the second-largest natural lake in the United States. They said the north end of the lake was holding a lot of fish.
I also knew from my own previous research that people had been winning tournaments on the Big O by fishing to the south near Harney Pond, so I had two areas to work on.
I ended up starting the first day on the north end of Grassy Island. I kept the trolling motor on high and started covering water as fast as I could, which is usually how I pre-fish Florida lakes. I only had a couple baits tied on to help me find concentrations of fish quickly – a white Secret Lures Chubby Frog, a gold Cotton Cordell Boy Howdy and a Strike King Red-Eye Shad in gold sexy shad color.
I soon found a stretch where I started to catch fish on the Chubby Frog. The fish were inside the Kissimmee grass and bulrushes, and there were quite a few. However, I couldn’t get anything of any size, even when I started probing a bit with my flipping stick.
After finding several concentrations of fish on the main lake I set out to locate more. As I was driving down the grassline I came across a small boat trail leading to Government Cut and decided to go see what was going on in there since I had never been to that area of the lake.
When I got back there I was pretty disappointed to find that the area was covered with airboats spraying herbicides on the matted hyacinth, cattails and hydrilla on the edges of the cut. However, I have seen on rare occasions where sprayed vegetation will concentrate the fish into smaller areas on the edges, so I started to flip.
To my surprise, despite the fact that the area looked completely dead, I instantly started catching fish. I ended up leaving at sunset with several waypoints marked on my Humminbird, all within Government Cut, and all around dead, decaying vegetation. However, my largest fish that day was only 3 pounds.
On day 2 of practice I decided to stay up on the north end and expand upon my area in Government Cut in hopes of finding stretches of the boating channel that would hold large enough fish to make the cut.
Oh, yeah, and I found 'em!
I ended up coming across two areas where I instantly got two big bites apiece, and ended my practice on a good note. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to refine the bite in the area, but that’s what the tournament was for, anyways.
Day 1: The 10-Minute Limit
The first day I started out on a stretch that was holding a lot of fish – one I hadn’t gotten a big bite on yet, but had confidence that there were good fish around. The morning bite was slow. I was catching fish, but they were small. I didn’t even bother throwing most of the keepers in the livewell. I just was keeping the 1 3/4- and 2-pound fish, and not fussing with the squeakers, which I felt was a gamble I could afford to do take since I wasn’t fishing for points, but rather, a spot in the cut and ultimately the “W.”
After working the area for a couple of hours with only about 5 pounds to show for it, I decided it was time to hit my two big-fish areas.
The first area was a short stretch of isolated hyacinth mats and cattails where I had gotten some 5-pound-plus bites during Friday’s practice. The stop was a total waste of time – I only caught two small keepers off of it.
Next I stopped at what I considered my best stretch and started flipping a junebug Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver, matched with a 3/4-ounce Tru-Tungsten weight and 6/0 Lazer Trokar flipping hook around the water willows and hyacinth. I was about 45 minutes into fishing the area before I got my first big bite – a fish about 5 pounds, but by that time I was at the end of my best stretch. I felt good that there were still quality fish there and I knew that it was all about timing, so I decided to start from the beginning and hit it all over again.
Bingo!
I ended up catching one about 4, another about 5 and then finally one that would have pushed close to about 7 pounds. Between the time I caught my first 5-pounder and when I caught the last big fish, only about 10 minutes had passed. I also lost a fish over 4 pounds.
I ended up leaving immediately after I became confident I'd be close to the lead. I didn’t want to touch the area again; instead I spent the rest of the day expanding on my areas and hopefully finding another quality-fish locale. And I was hoping to finally cull my smallest fish, which was about 2 pounds.
I ended the day with 23-08, and settled at 2nd place after the scales closed, about 2 pounds behind leader Jim Hurlock Jr. I was pumped for the next day, but I was nervous, too.
After the final-cut meeting I began preparing my tackle for day 2 and then set out to find a new cranking battery since mine had died twice during the day (good thing I bought that Jump Starter from Black & Decker!). Koby Kreiger and Capt. Mike Krause at Okeechobee Fishing Headquarters heard about my issues and fronted me a battery for the second day. I will always remember their generosity!
Day 2: I Need One More Over Four!
The next day I switched up my game plan a bit. I had found that the fish the day before were hanging around isolated willow bushes in my best area, so I decided to hit it up first thing, but stay way off and pepper the isolated stuff with a Chatterbait. I didn’t get a sniff.
After the initial pass I decided to hit my best limit spot while I was waiting for the right time to come so I could return to my big-fish spot. The limit spot was a pier with lots of hyacinth matted underneath and I caught my limit easily, but it didn't weigh much.
The time was right for the big fish to bite, so I headed back down the cut, but made a detour at my other big-fish spot that hadn't produced the day before. It did that day, though – I ended up catching two fish over 7 pounds before the bite died.
I soon left for my other primary area to hit it for the second time that day. Once again, timing was everything. I ended up catching two 4-pounders and finished out my limit with a 3 1/2.
Though I knew I had a chance to win with what I had (but I thought I only had 22 pounds), I forced myself to keep working at it and not rest on my laurels, since I could easily be surpassed Hurlock caught what he did the previous day. I kept on telling my co-angler Johnny that I needed one more over 4 to seal the victory. Boy, was I wrong!
I got back to the weigh in, very nervous yet surprisingly confident. I knew that I had performed flawlessly and that I had a good bag of fish. All my nerves melted away after I heard that Hurlock hadn't caught them well that day.
I knew I had my first respectable tournament win.
When I put the fish on the scales and they settled at 26-15, I just laughed because it was the biggest bag I'd weighed in a FLW event. But when everything was said and done, I won with almost 10 pounds more than the runner-up.
I can’t tell you how excited I was. Everyone tells you to act cool and pretend like you've done it before when you get the trophy. Well, not me! I was probably the most excited person to ever win a BFL event.
It wasn’t about the money, because the payday wasn’t all that huge. Rather, it was the fact that I worked extremely hard, remained consistent throughout the 2 days and beat a great group of anglers by almost 10 pounds. It was also surreal to have the local “sticks” who I respect so much, like Don DeMott, Gary Simpson, and Arnie Lane, along with others, come up and congratulate me.
Turning Point
Looking back at this past weekend, I feel like this was a major turning point in my learning process. I now know how it feels to win, and that I can get the results I want through hard work.
So, to my peers out there who are getting discouraged, I can now say from experience that winning is not something that just happens to some people out of mere chance, it does come from hard work and determination. It may take awhile, but you will be rewarded for your persistence. A friend once told me, “Work on being consistent, but do it all while keeping your eye open for an opportunity to win, and you'll make it.”
I want to send out a special thanks to Capt. Mike and Koby at Okeechobee Fishing Headquarters – I couldn’t have done it without them.
Miles "Sonar" Burghoff is a student at the University of Central Florida and an aspiring professional angler. He writes a regular column for BassFan.
