The Art Of Winning Bass Tournaments

I’ve said before that if bass tournaments had anything to do with luck, the same guys wouldn’t continue to win them over and over. Luck would spread out the results, like random numbers or lottery picks. But with names like Clunn, Fritts, VanDam, Brauer, Ehrler and, most recently, Christie crowding the record books, it's evident that mere chance has little to do with it.

I have always been intrigued, almost fascinated, with the anglers who seem to know how to win. Sure, there are lots of guys who succeed in tournaments and regularly cash checks. But there has always been this “other level” of anglers in our sport who end up in the winner’s circle repeatedly. Not 2nd place, not a good check – champions.

Oftentimes such a streak is temporary, undoubtedly the benefit of confidence bred from tournament success. But occasionally we see something that is more than a streak; something that can only be defined as an angler on a higher level. We’ve read Clunn's thoughts of higher awareness, visualization, and attempting to manually create a victory. We’ve heard others thank God for it happening. In any case, for every “lucky” angler who wins repeatedly, there’s hundreds of envious others who want to know how they do it.

My curiosity got the best of me again this week, so I called Jason Christie to see what makes him tick. Christie has won at least two major events each of the last 3 years on lakes across the country, and I just had to breathe in some of his magic. I prepared a handful of off-the-wall questions that had noting to do with secret lures or seasonal patterns, and everything to do with winning bass tournaments.

Following are excerpts from the interview that I found particularly interesting, and may give us all better insight into what makes these guys tick and, more importantly, causes them to win.

Balog: What do you attribute your success to?

Christie: "There’s nothing that I can come up with. I’ve done the same thing the last 3 years that I did the 7 years before that. I would say the main thing right now is the confidence in my decision-making process. You have to trust your gut. In tournament fishing, you don’t want to listen to your brain; you want to listen to your gut. The hardest thing about this is to know the difference."

Why is it so important to rely on your gut?

"The best analogy I can give you comes from my old basketball coach in school. He would run us almost to death in practice. He would say that your brain is conservative, and that it wants to protect your body, and that, as a competitor, you have to run your way through that and be tough.

I think fishing is similar. In fishing, we all want to use our brain. We want to put science behind everything. But fishing isn’t about science; it’s about the sixth sense."

What do you think separates you from other tournament competitors?

"That’s a hard question. I don’t see myself as a lot different than other guys. I can tell you I work really hard, but there are a lot of guys that work really hard. We all want to win. There are just some guys that seem to get more breaks than others, but they put themselves in position to get those breaks."

Why do you think some competitors consistently do well in tournaments, yet others win?

"My philosophy is this: Our events are 4 days. (Throughout the tournament), I don’t save anything. I go out and catch all that I can all 4 days because conditions change from day to day. I stayed off some fish recently at Beaver Lake and, when I finally went to them, I never caught a thing. I worry about the next day the next day.

"I think some of the guys that tend to win are those that are willing to gamble and take risks. Fishing’s not so much about catching fish anymore, it’s about the decisions that you make. These consistent guys are the guys that aren’t afraid to change and don’t get burned on something when it’s not working."

Do you practice for tournaments?

"Yeah, but I don’t put a whole lot into practice, like if I catch 20 pounds a day or something. In my opinion, the purpose of practice is to make yourself familiar with the lake so that if conditions change, you know what to do. You know where you can go to get out of the wind, you know where you might be able to pull up and catch fish sight-fishing, that type of thing.

You hear a lot of guys saying they had a good day of practice their first day, and then it gets worse and worse. That’s because everybody just goes fishing the first day. When you figure things out as the tournament goes on, you do better."

Have you ever had a feeling like you were going to win a tournament before the event began?

"Yeah, a bunch of times, and I never won any of those tournaments."

Is it better to be a one-dimensional fisherman or versatile in order to win tournaments?

"I think versatile. I try to be versatile, but when the going gets tough, I fall back on shallow water and flippin' techniques."

Did you have a fishing hero growing up?

"My heroes were the guys that fished in my family."

Have you ever looked into visualization or positive imaging in sports in order to create a winning environment?

"No, not really."

Do you set goals?

"No, not really, I take it as it comes. I guess the only thing I’d still like to do is win a major Championship on either tour."

Is there a major difference in the competition level between the Bassmaster Elites and FLW?

"Absolutely not. There are guys that can hammer ‘em on both tours."

As we chatted, Christie went on to sum up what he feels has led to his success:

"One of the things I learned a long time ago is that you can’t be out there fishing if something else is on your mind. When I’m at home, I get everything done – every single last thing – before I leave, so that I can just concentrate on fishing. Also, my whole family is my support group, and that is the key. My wife, kids, everybody plays a role so that I can concentrate on fishing.

And I feel I have the very best sponsor base I can have. Everything I have and use - as far as equipment - I feel is the very best you can buy. So when I’m fishing, I know I have the best equipment I can have, and the only room for error is now on me. I can live with that.”

After I got off the phone with Christie, I immediately drew a comparison to other winners I’ve had the pleasure of spending time around. I thought of Denny Brauer coming into the tunnel at the Classic; five rods on the deck; all flippin' sticks. I thought of Fritts cranking three wins out on the ’97 FLW Tour. I determined a long time ago that two key variables separate these guys from the rest of the tournament world:

1. Supreme confidence, to the point where you can almost see it in their demeanor.
2. Incredible attention to detail.

The two oftentimes feed off of each other. Make a good decision, get a good result, increase confidence in your decision-making process, and repeat.

We’ll never know exactly what it takes to consistently win tournaments. Christie summed it up in the same way that the champions before him had. “Got lucky, I guess” was his initial comment.

Please, save that one for the weigh-in crowd.

(Joe Balog is the often outspoken owner of Millennium Promotions, Inc., an agency operating in the fishing and hunting industries. A former Bassmaster Open and EverStart Championship winner, he's best known for his big-water innovations and hardcore fishing style. He's a popular seminar speaker, product designer and author, and is considered one of the most influential smallmouth fishermen of modern times.)