First, let’s be realistic that not everyone is skilled or lucky enough to cut a check at every bass tournament they fish. Moreover, the higher-level tournaments you fish the odds will continue to plummet out of your favor. But this article is for those who are competitive and honestly feel that they are good enough to finish in the money at most of the events they fish.
The number one factor in bass fishing is confidence and if you’re not confident in that event we would all agree that you shouldn’t fish otherwise you’re just donating to the field. If you agree with this let’s seriously look at the key factors for fishing confidence.
1. We have the best equipment we can afford. This goes from your boat, fishing rods, and tackle.
2. We have the time to prepare or prefish the event.
3. We have the right lures for the event
4. We have all the proper fish care
5. All our equipment is well maintained and working at its optimum performance i.e. boat, outboard, trolling motor, electronics, fishing reels, etc.
These are the top five factors that top anglers can control to maintain a high level of confidence when they go into a tournament. If any one of these items are deficient, you’ll agree that the odds of cutting a check at the event is seriously diminished. If you agree with this we are all on the same page, however it leads to the single most important reason why many anglers lose $1,000s of dollars in tournament winnings and achievements such as Angler of the Year (AOY) due to their lack of knowledge or empathy toward their power system.
Hopefully, we have your attention and curiosity now. Here are several things you hear at the weigh in that caused the loss of valuable points or an opportunity to cut a check. I lost a big fish, my dead fish penalty killed me, I have equipment failure (boat or equipment), and someone beat me to my spot. I’m sure there are other reasons not mentioned here, but these are probably the most often discussed between the top anglers that cut a check or those just out of the money.
Other than losing a fish, the other factors can be controlled by you but you may not have the knowledge or empathy to realize that your current power system is really the reason why you’re that close to cutting a check or winning more money at tournaments. Let’s look at this analogy before we go deeper into your boat’s power system. Would you run your bass boat that is rated to run a 250-horsepower motor with a 150 or 200 horsepower motor?
Well, the number one reason why most people lose out on real money in tournaments is because of dead fish penalties, especially in the summer months. Most tournaments will not allow you to cull a dead fish and if that’s the case it dramatically hurts your odds if you have a small keeper die on you to really improve your weight. Ironically, it’s not because anglers are not using the best fish care products such as Sure life products or G-juice, etc. The real problem is that they are not running their livewells enough to recirculate air into the water and periodically bringing in fresh water to maintain high levels of oxygen into the livewells. So, the simple question is why do a lot of anglers insufficiently use their livewells?
Let’s go back to my analogy about having an under horsepowered boat. Most anglers will tell you that if they ran their livewells all day they wouldn’t be able to start their outboard motor to fish more spots or to make it back to weigh in, so they simply manage their battery life by underusing their livewell system. Does this sound familiar? Well, they don’t have the right power system to adequately run their boat’s electronics, anchoring systems, outboard starting, livewells, etc. This often results to dead fish and placing out of the money or losing out of winning a tournament. Can you relate to this and comprehend what you are sacrificing?
Many (boat dealers) will simply tell you to add another battery. This sounds simple but will cost you another couple of hundred dollars. But there are other problems with this simple solution, does your boat have space for another battery? Many individuals don’t have the space in the back of the boat and may use up rear storage to add that added battery. Another issue is that you are adding another 50 to 80 lbs. to the back of your boat and you lose significant performance (speed and holeshot) to your boat. Some of you can relate.
All of you will agree that technology has come a long way and there is a real solution to serious tournament and weekend anglers who will honestly agree that they are losing money in tournaments because of dead fish penalties due to their lack of confidence in their boat’s power system.The real solution to this problem is going lithium.Lithium provides several benefits that go beyond what it can do to improve your winnings.Here are a couple of things it will solve: eliminate power deficiencies with livewells, electronics, etc.; dramatically improve boat performance; and provide you with complete confidence in your boat.For more information check out www.elitefishingproducts.com.