The Plan

[EliteFF]

After yesterday's FOM event on Saginaw Bay I was inclined to write this posting. I believe that most of us "tournament anglers" leave the dock in the morning with some type of plan for the day's events depending on how things unfold like weather, fish cooperation, water clarity etc.

#1. First and foremost when fishing as a team, make sure that you have clear and agreed upon communication before you leave. This is the biggest failure that my partner and I had. This was due to my lack of communication and I want to apologize to Joshimoto for failing to do this properly.

#2 Make sure that you are on the water the day before the tournament.

#3 Pay attention to your surroundings

Now on to what happened. We left the Au Gres River with tournament winnings already set in our minds. We made the 16 mile ride to our fishing grounds. We arrived at about 6:30 to find that the water was muddy/stained and 53 degrees. Joshimoto looks around confused and questions our location. That very moment should have triggered a problem.
This is where I began to lose site of my plan. I believed in my own world that I somehow could will this area of Saginaw Bay to clear up with the day progressing.
I chose that we would stay and watch this miracle unfold and we would go back victorious. At 10:30 the thought of plan B crossed my mind and I spoke aloud about leaving this type of an area to go to another place that could be in the same condition. This is where the #2 thing comes into play.
After scratching out a limit and seeing that the water had started clearing up my plan still had some hope. I just didn't look at the equation that it had taken 6 hours for the first two hundred feet of water off of shore to clear up, because it is not quite noon now. I also didn't catch the hint of the other boats that had come into the area and left within an hour. If I had taken these things into consideration I would have looked at the fact that I still had time to go to plan B. This is part of #3
Instead I watched the clock until we were in a live or die by plan. So with the Hail Mary in effect we fished in the stained water blindly with the hopes that we could will some big fish into biting by casting blindly at what could be structure holding some spawning or pre-spawn fish.

Yes we culled some fish. No, we didn't even come close to competing with the winning weight.
Hind sight is 20/20. However, I will try not to let this happen again. I failed to put our team on a level playing field and it cost the team.
I had the right intentions, but the wrong thought process.
I hope that those of you reading this who are new to tournaments read this as a tip from someone who has fished a few tournaments and wants to keep you from falling into this trap.

Looking back after writing this post there are quite a few "I" statements. Take the hint.

Cliff

[dartag]

Mike Tyson said  " Everyone has a plan till they get hit ".  I am sure there are guys all over the state today with the same feelings.

we fished 2 tournys this weekend on inland lakes and had to change our plan all day due to a large number of boats on small lakes. 

[djkimmel]

There should be a #4 - don't forget the first 3 for EVERY event!!

[Waterfoul]

Great post.  I fished a tourney on Sat. on a lake I addmitadly do not know all that well.  My partner however knows the lake well... I sat backseat in my own boat most of the day defering to his experience and knowledge.  We still didn't do well, but that was mostly my fault pulling in a big fat ZERO (I can't remember the last time I pulled a 0 ).  BUT, we fished as a team and lost as a team.  At least we didn't finish last!!

Oh, and I will never fish that lake for money again.  Now that I think about it... I DO remember the last time I pulled a 0... it was on THAT same lake last year!  

[BigSmallie]

Don't forget #4........Your Partner!!!     This was a team event.......you are not alone......there  is no "I" in TEAM.......lol.

Don't keep kicking yourself in the rear....if your partner didn't feel it was the correct decission to stay....then the both of you should have communicated ON the water....and either stay or move......but don't just blame yourself.....unless I didn't read your post correctly.     

Just because you have a plan to start with, does not mean you can't change immediately on the water!!   

If my partner and I do not agree on a move.......we will usually keep arguing our point until one of us conceeds.         But then we stop arguing and move on......and put it past us.    We both have a tremendous amount of respect for each other's gut feelings......so making an immediate move on the water is kind of exciting because we trust each other's gut feelings will put us on the fish we need.

But as you stated.........a good plan and backup plan should be clearly planned out.......and of course.......checking  your water the day before the tournament is a bonus! 

Good Luck.......

BS       

[1javelin]

 At least we didn't finish last!!
 

Thanks, so now my saying we took last on a lake we tend to do pretty well on has more meaning.  Or maybe the fact that we stuck with one plan for 6 hours, then switched for some unknown reason and actually started catching fish.  Too bad we still lost by more than 10 pounds!  Not the way I envisioned the season starting off. 

1Jav

[Durand Dan]

Jaguar
,
Hey, If everything was cut and dried and we didn't have the decision making process what fun would that be? I fished Top Bass on Sat. and made a few bad decisions of my own. They were small but critical. Just the deference between swinging a fish in the boat and netting them loss a few pounds for me. Twice while trying to net I slacked up on my line and loss a couple good ones. So the next one I tried to swing in and of course I broke it off. What a day!! I got 5, but not the ones I needed

[joshimoto son]

Jaguar,
Have you ever bought a lottery ticket? If you're like me, you have the money spent already and are so excited. Then when the numbers don't come in, disappointment sets in.
The one thing that we did communicate on was the fact that going up there was a gamble. We laid all our chip on black and we shoulda played red.
We've done this before, remember leaving early at that St. Clair tournament? At least this time we were catching fish. LOL

No appologies are necessary my freind. We were shooting holes in the boat and I was feeding you the bullets.

Good lessons learned.

The season is just starting and we have the rest of the year to make up for it.

For those of you who don't know my partner, he is as dedicated and determined as I've seen. We both put a lot of pressure on ourselves because we never want to make the same mistakes again. We are a team, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

"It wasn't meant to be," buddy. Let's get em next time.

joshimoto son

[MBell]

Don't beat yourself up, just learn from it.  It's a team tournament and thats how you have to treat it if you want to do well.  You'll learn a lot about a fishing team when the fishing is not so good.  You have to win and lose as a team, otherwise it won't work. We also had some poor communication, I knew within the first hour that the fish I had found in practice were long gone.  It's hard to make your partner leave an area after he catches a 5.5lb smallie, but looking back it would have been the right move in the long run.  Can't wait to get back at it this weekend, with a little more experience. 
-Matt     

[thedude]

lol... judging by the posts in this thread, i think i validated my decision to take the opener off this year and drink a lot of beer and crown & cokes. I did fish a little, got a young man into some topwater smallies, got a nice walleye for lunch ( on a st. clair crayfish tube no less) and i'm pretty sure i hit all the major food groups on the grill between sat and sun (chicken, brats, hot dogs, burgers)..

I needed monday just to recuperate...     my season starts monday from the looks of things.. i will take these warnings to heart.

and mike...  you should know better than fishing that lake for money by know.... shame on you!