You're a fine bass fisherman Ron. Back in 2001 I won like 13 tournaments of
various sizes. Needless to say, I haven't come close to that season since,
probably never will. I've found that the fish usually win.

WW

"Ronnie" wrote in message
ups.com...
Thanks to all of you for the kind comments but I don't think I will
ever be what I consider a
really good bass fisherman rather than a lucky one. I am just not
consistent enough.
We fished Jackson one month ago and I fished many of the same places
and caught
two keepers. We had many limits caught that day on the pattern I was
fishing.

A couple of examples. We have a guy named Bobby in our club. He is
consistent,
won 7 of 11 tournaments he fished two years ago and I don't remember
him every
zeroing. He almost always has a limit. He came in third with a limit
weighing about
9 pounds in both the last two tournaments I won one and placed 8th in
the other.

Van Kennedy, Steve's dad, is probably the best bass fisherman in
Georgia. He has
been club fishing longer than me - over 35 years. He has made the
Classic twice
through the Federation, made the state team something like 13 times and
placed in
the money about 30 of the 35 Top Six tournaments he has fished. I have
fished 27
Top Six tournaments, made the team 3 times and placed in the money 9.
I will
never be on Van's level. I have talked with him a lot and he is
willing to share tips
and tactics with me but I just can't replicate what he does. I gave
up on trying that.

I think really good fishermen have some sixth sense or special talent I
don't have.
Anyone can learn to play baseball but only about 1 in a million will be
a Chipper
Jones. Anyone can learn to play a piano but very few will ever be
concert pianists
no matter how much they practice. Why is that? I think bass fishing
is the same.
Sometimes I seem to have a flash of insight - had it Sunday morning -
but it only hits
maybe 3 or 4 times a year. It often fails me the second day of a two
day tournament
- like the last MTC and last fall at the NWC. I think the really good
bass fishermen
have this insight a lot more.

Its not like I don't get to fish a lot and I get to fish with some
of the best bass
fishermen in Georgia working on magazine articles. Seems I should learn
more.
Example - last April I fished with a local tournament angler for a
March article on
Oconee. I had a club tournament the next Sunday there and he gave me
three plugs
to use and told me some places to use them. At the last minute he
decided to fish a
pot tournament that day and I saw him - he told me to keep fishing
those spots
although he was fishing them too. I had three bass weighing 8 pounds
that day. He
had five weighing 14 pounds to win his pot tournament..

Maybe I just don't have the confidence it takes.

Don't get me wrong - I love fishing and enjoy trips even when I
don't catch fish.
Maybe I am taking the whole thing too seriously. But it is
frustrating. I want to win
every tournament I fish!

Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com