Due Diligence and Past Practice

Never underestimate the value of being on the water. Tournaments are great, coaching is great, catching fish is fun. It’s impossible to plan for every little problem that could pop its head up in a tournament. It’s preparation and familiarity that allows a person to deal with it.

As a high school bass coach and sometime tournament angler I can recount success and failure in similar fashion to a Hall of Fame slugger recounting all of his homeruns. It’s an uncanny talent…sorta’. Every ball and strike, the number of outs in an inning, who was on base at the time, the name of the pitcher it was hit off of and even whether it was a fastball, curve or slider. I however, am not David Ortiz. 

“I am David Ortiz, and I hit that home run off of Roy Halladay.”

Ask me about why success or failure happened in a bass tournament and I can almost always pin it down.

There’s the negatives;

“Kid was eating crackers from his coat pocket and missed bites.”

“I forgot to retie after catching a pike.”

“I stayed in an unproductive spot too long.”

“Dave put mustard in my socks.”

“I listened to what was being said at the dock.”

A day on the water means everything.

And there’s the positives;

“It was overcast and the weeds were perfect.”

“The kid learned how to tie a good Palomar knot.”

“Everyone got a good night of sleep and a cup of coffee this morning.”

“Something in the back of my head said – “Run that spot again, but differently.” 

“I ignored the dock talk and fished my game.”

“Caught ‘em on a Ned rig in 60 feet of water. Trust me. They weren’t biting anything else.”

The hard truth is that if everything you know is based in theory and not on practice…well…you’re going to have problems.

I learned this the hard way my first year as a varsity bass coach. It’s one thing to take members of the team fishing, and it’s another to instruct them on how to tournament bass fish. In order to achieve any level of success on the water with my team, I had to put time in off the water with them. Not all feedback is negative either. Constructive criticism is a tool for improvement. It’s also a two-way street (sometimes).

Starting last year we had weekly off-the-water practices and learning sessions. Knot-tying class, baitcasting reel class, fishing line class – you name it, we touched on it.

Dylan and John, made the best of a tough day.

*I think it’s important to point out that I am anything but a typical person and when it comes to high school varsity bass fishing in Vermont even more so. There are only two state tournaments per year in Vermont – a qualifier and a championship. And, in my opinion, there are really only two types of coaches - those who act as guides, and those who act as educators.

I’m not trying to disparage anyone here. We all have our reasons. I do not act as a guide. Growing and developing a program at the school I coach for is important to me. I value evolution, education and consistency. For years I wrote a fishing column for a local newspaper that touched on the many different styles of fishing, the personalities of the people I fished with and the many types of fishing that take place here in Vermont. I especially enjoyed when those people shared with me the activities they were passionate about. When what I wrote about wasn’t understood by the editors, they wanted me to write more of a “go here, throw this, catch this” kinda’ thing. I chalk it up to print media falling off the page and to the fact that most people now get their information from ten-second clips on social media websites. The enjoyment I derived from writing about fishing had been reduced to reporting and providing information instead of telling a story. And yes, I’m still bitter. I’ve always thought the general public was much more intelligent than given credit for and was able to recognize that what I wrote wasn’t always about fishing. I hold on to that hope even today.

Yes, I can and will destroy you at Jeopardy!

It’s probably why I decided to dip my toes in the coaching pool. I got tired of telling people what to do, and instead wanted them to start to figure things out for themselves – to a point.

Driving home from a day on the lake with my team, I expressed that to them;

“I was hoping that if maybe I became a coach it would sorta’ flip the switch for you guys and inspire you to want to do this more - that maybe you’d enjoy tournament bass fishing and start to do some of your own research in order to become better anglers. I’ve led you to water, but if this is important to you, it’s up to you to drink.”

Austin, new “jig enthusiast”.

I was surprised at the responses I got. Every one of them responded that they’d rather go bass fishing than do the sports that they grew up playing. On one hand, I was extremely pleased to hear that. On the other, I didn’t want them to forget how important personal development through team sports is. Teamwork, friendship, common goals and the celebration of shared success are important to a young person’s growth. Learning how to deal with adversity and disappointment is just as important.

Being able to understand emotions and label them properly is also difficult for an adolescent. Most times frustration is labeled as anger. Happiness isn’t always winning either. The joy on the faces of my student-athletes when they learn that the jig does work (!) is something that cannot be faked. 

Sometimes other fish are caught, like this pike that Gabe brought in.

It’s something that I sat with for a while. The energy around the team has definitely kicked up a few notches this year – that’s for sure. We communicate regularly as a team. We discuss the events of a day on the water as a team. Most importantly, I think that everyone realizes the value of that mindfulness and wants to see everyone around them improve. I especially like it when someone can explain their reason for doing things in bass fishing nomenclature. Kids will be kids, and they’ll have their opinions, but overall, the goal of winning a state championship has become more attainable now that they understand the importance of tying good knots and being present when at practice and on the water.

Ignore the dock talk and trust what you know.

“This is the only high school sport I can think of where it doesn’t matter how fast you can run, how high you can jump or how hard you can throw. All that really matters is your desire to learn and compete. If you have those two things, this team will not just compete every year, but contend for a state championship.”