I feel like I've generally been fishing pretty well for the last several years. I’ve compiled a good number of Top-10 finishes and made it to the TITLE Championship every season I’ve been on the MLF Pro Circuit so far.
Despite reaching a level of consistency I’m proud of, I've also had one or two bombs each year that have marred my seasons and left me wondering why I continue to make the mistakes that result in triple-digit finishes.
Despite the fact that I prefer to focus on process-related goals instead of results-related, one of my main things I wanted to accomplish this year was to make it through without one of those major bombs.
Well, after a dismal 136th-place finish at the Harris Chain, I not only will miss out on the satisfaction of accomplishing another goal, but I am once again left humbled by the realization that I still have a great deal to learn.
When I looked at the Pro Circuit schedule this year, the Harris Chain jumped out at me as one of the events I looked forward to the most, but also the one I knew could easily get away from me.
The reason for this skepticism is because I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with that chain of lakes. If you look at my record, I generally do well in Florida, so you could assume I’d be consistent there, but the way I explain the Harris Chain is it’s “a Florida fishery for non-Florida anglers.”
The reason I say that is not because the Harris Chain isn’t an excellent fishery – it certainly is – but it is very different than other more traditional Florida tournament venues such as Okeechobee or the Kissimmee Chain.
On most tournament lakes in Florida, success can be consistently found utilizing a small handful of shallow power-fishing tactics. This means that you can pretty much win any event with a flipping stick, which is a technique that I know, love, and tend to lean on hard in Florida. But not on Harris.
Sure, I was able to get a 6th-place finish in 2020 by flipping on the Harris Chain, but it seems that flipping has continued to play less of a role there than it does on any other fishery we visit in the Sunshine State.
This point, of course, could be used as an excuse, which I don’t want it to become. The reality is that I am a professional angler. To me, this title means that I need to be able to catch fish and strategize in any situation, to overcome any adversity, in order to succeed.
It’s not enough that I recognized that the Harris Chain would likely be one of my greatest challenges this year. It’s what I should have done with that knowledge to strategize better that is most important.
Deep down, I knew during practice that I was falling into a trap of my own making.
WIth the Harris Chain offering numerous lakes to choose from, and a plethora of ways to approach each unique fishery, the hardest part about this chain is clearing your mind of what I call “the grass is greener” trap, where you never find yourself getting into "the zone" because as soon as you start fishing one lake, all you’re thinking about is the next. In two days of practice, this is exactly the type of mentality that will leave you wondering where your time had gone, and if you actually accomplished anything at all.
The thing is, I know what to do after practices like this. I’ve had excellent tournaments after practices like this. These are practices that you fish conservatively until the opportunity to take risks presents itself.
In this event, instead of taking the conservative approach, I found myself swinging for the fences right from the beginning, running to multiple lakes on the first morning, including the very committed run to a post-frontal Lake Apopka – a move, once again, I knew was wrong. The rest of the event I ended up making similar mistakes and it just snowballed from there.
In a sense, I think my overconfidence on Florida venues might have been a major factor in this complete failure of an event, because with every poor decision I made, I felt like I could fish clean enough to overcome each awful decision. But success in tournament fishing doesn’t usually come from fishing well with a bad game plan, it comes with superb decision-making even when you’re not fishing at your best.
This isn’t the first time I’ve told a story about how I’ve missed the mark, and failed to accomplish a goal, and it certainly won’t be my last. Each of these stories is critical to my growth as an angler, and to accomplishing future goals, but the key is to hold myself accountable for my strategic errors.
Yes, I absolutely hate falling flat on my face, but I also recognize the importance of appreciating events like these, because, like I’ve said before, they are the ones that show you the glaringly obvious chinks in your armor.
The Harris Chain didn’t get me in this event – I got myself. I made the decisions that led me down a path of frustration and failure. I made the decisions that left me with my worst Florida finish in about a decade. I did that.
The beautiful thing is, if I could do that, I can do the exact opposite too, and I look forward to my next opportunity to redeem myself the next time I’m faced with similar circumstances.
(Miles "Sonar" Burghoff is an MLF Pro Circuit competitor and the co-host of the TV series "Sweetwater." To visit his website, click here. You can also visit him on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (SonarFishing) and Instagram (@sonarfishing).
