Had a rough night

[Codywskeeter1521]

This is one of the not so good reports. Fished the friday night tournament out of Cape fair. Let out at 7 I ran to aunts creek. Fished some spots there with a spook with Nothing not even a sniff. Worked my way back to wolley hitting spots on my way with not even a bitE fishing a spook and a jig.Finally when I pulled into wolley my first spot produced one keeper on a spook jr. Then I lost a good one right at last light.

As it got dark I switched to a jig fishing gravel points and everything in between switching to a beaver to brush hog caught one at 10 on a jig. Even threw a single spin for awhile. spend the rest of my night without a bite Keeper bite. Caught tons of shorts. I must say it was so nice to have the lake to myself last night.

What am I missing? Ready to take some pointers And learn somethIng. Thanks guys and gals.

[fishinwrench]

What did it take to win ?

[Codywskeeter1521]

I don't know I didn't stay for weight in. I had a buddy that had 3 keep keepers.

[Champ188]

This is one of the not so good reports. Fished the friday night tournament out of Cape fair. Let out at 7 I ran to aunts creek. Fished some spots there with a spook with Nothing not even a sniff. Worked my way back to wolley hitting spots on my way with not even a bitE fishing a spook and a jig.Finally when I pulled into wolley my first spot produced one keeper on a spook jr. Then I lost a good one right at last light.

As it got dark I switched to a jig fishing gravel points and everything in between switching to a beaver to brush hog caught one at 10 on a jig. Even threw a single spin for awhile. spend the rest of my night without a bite Keeper bite. Caught tons of shorts. I must say it was so nice to have the lake to myself last night.

What am I missing? Ready to take some pointers And learn somethIng. Thanks guys and gals.

Cody, here's a lesson from a very experienced tournament fisherman who's had MANY days/nights like you just described.

The lesson is: You don't always catch 'em. Doesn't mean you're an idiot. Doesn't mean you missed anything. Doesn't mean you did anything wrong. What it does mean is you are human. Shake it off.

Hey, at least you're honest enough to get on here and admit you didn't catch 'em. So many people these days would be saying, "Well, I broke off two big fish and had another one at least 4 pounds jump off right at the boat."

One of the first stories I did as a young outdoors writer was to interview Bill Dance when he was in town for a tournament. He told me something that I never forgot: "If anyone ever tells you they catch fish every time they go, they are a liar -- plain and simple."

I've fished lots of 4-5 hour nighttime jackpots over the years. You hit the water running and do what you planned to do. There's hardly any time at all to adjust. It either works or it doesn't.

[Codywskeeter1521]

Cody, here's a lesson from a very experienced tournament fisherman who's had MANY days/nights like you just described.

The lesson is: You don't always catch 'em. Doesn't mean you're an idiot. Doesn't mean you missed anything. Doesn't mean you did anything wrong. What it does mean is you are human. Shake it off.

Hey, at least you're honest enough to get on here and admit you didn't catch 'em. So many people these days would be saying, "Well, I broke off two big fish and had another one at least 4 pounds jump off right at the boat."

One of the first stories I did as a young outdoors writer was to interview Bill Dance when he was in town for a tournament. He told me something that I never forgot: "If anyone ever tells you they catch fish every time they go, they are a liar -- plain and simple."

I've fished lots of 4-5 hour nighttime jackpots over the years. You hit the water running and do what you planned to do. There's hardly any time at all to adjust. It either works or it doesn't.

Thank you sir.

Very good points. I've had some derbys where I seem to make all the right choices and everything falls into place. But man I get frustrated and have to just remember the love we all have for this lake. She's hateful more often then not. But we always come back.

There's one thing I'm not scared to do is learn. Seems there's always something to learn from on this lake every trip For me it's what's not working lol.

I'm also not scared to swing and miss and admit that I did.

I can remember as a kid fishing wolley with my grandpa in a 16 foot v bottom boat. He loves that cove. We would fish for hours and not catch a fish but at the end of the day the story's and memory's we made out there is what mattered Of course not back then at 6 years old lol It was more like come on grandpa let's move or I want a different bait. But now I wouldn't change it for the world. last night as I was fishing frustrated those stories my grandpa would tell me would just pop in my head. Just put everything in prospective for me thus sport is fun and I love it even on (those kinds of nights).

now a father I will pass the love hate relationship of the rock on to both of my boys And make those memories that one day when they are fishing and having a rough night they can look back and smile like I did last night.

Thank you guys. Really enjoy getting on here and reading all the great reports and learning.

[Hunter53]

I am not a tourny guy so take this with a grain of salt.

Would it not help the learning process to stay for the weigh-in on the times you don't catch them. I would think it would help to learn from what worked on the nights you did not catch them.

[Codywskeeter1521]

I am not a tourny guy so take this with a grain of salt.

Would it not help the learning process to stay for the weigh-in on the times you don't catch them. I would think it would help to learn from what worked on the nights you did not catch them.

Yes sir I usually stay But It was a chilly night out there wanted the heater of my pickup lol.

[Hunter53]

Certainly can understand wanting some heat after being cold and having a rough night of fishing.

[merc1997 Bo]

cody, that is why it is called fishing and not catching. one thing that caught my attention about your plan of attack, and that is it seemed you fished a lot of gravel. i have not looked in the last few days, but for a while the lake had a ton of water running through it, and was dropping. this will normally pull the better bass of the flats and suspend. this means you will have to either figure out how to deal with the suspended bass, or fish areas that are more vertical where access to the bank is at arms length so to speak.

bo

[Chief Grey Bear]

Cody, here's a lesson from a very experienced tournament fisherman who's had MANY days/nights like you just described.

The lesson is: You don't always catch 'em. Doesn't mean you're an idiot. Doesn't mean you missed anything. Doesn't mean you did anything wrong. What it does mean is you are human. Shake it off.

Hey, at least you're honest enough to get on here and admit you didn't catch 'em. So many people these days would be saying, "Well, I broke off two big fish and had another one at least 4 pounds jump off right at the boat."

One of the first stories I did as a young outdoors writer was to interview Bill Dance when he was in town for a tournament. He told me something that I never forgot: "If anyone ever tells you they catch fish every time they go, they are a liar -- plain and simple."

I've fished lots of 4-5 hour nighttime jackpots over the years. You hit the water running and do what you planned to do. There's hardly any time at all to adjust. It either works or it doesn't.

I'm not a tournament fisherman and I really have no business posting on this thread.

But I just want to tell you I love the advice that you posted.

I quit fishing lakes years ago and I'm basically strictly a river fisherman.

And I will admit I have days that I just cannot catch them. And I think to myself what is the deal! And I'll come on here and I'll see reports from guys are just slaughtering them. I'm thinking holy cow do I really suck that bad?

Well yeah sometimes I guess I do! That is not something that we like to admit but sometimes we just have to.

I salute you Champ and you also Cody for posting this.

You both are champs in my book!