My Yamaha ran just great all season, and I’ve been really impressed with the performance of the 250 h.p. VMAX SHO four stroke outboard. It’s a real upgrade from the standard four stroke, particularly for people looking for exceptional speed and holeshot to go along with the fuel economy and environmental friendliness of a four stroke outboard.

I made the Classic but had a little slip at the end of the year where I missed a couple of fish in tournaments, and that really came back to haunt me. It all started at Kentucky Lake, where the area that I fished last year and did real well around didn’t have any grass in it this year. And no grass means no fish, so I had to find offshore fish elsewhere.

There’s something that grinds at me when looking for offshore fish when there is no grass or other visible strucutre. I just don’t have the confidence to fish for fish that are just holding in current. Everything I’ve been taught about the habits of bass insists I find a factor like structure or food—something tangible and visible that the fish gravitate to. I just find it difficult to stick it out when fishing deep moving water with nothing tangible to attract the fish, so I usually give up after a while and move elsewhere to find fish.

At Kentucky Lake I missed a couple of key fish, and the same thing happened to me at Clarks Hill. I wasn’t on a ton of fish in the first place, but at each tournament I missed key bites. At Clarks Hill, I had a five pounder on a swimbait and he jumped twice and came off. That fish would have put me well into the cut, because a five pounder there is just gold, and a high scoring fish.

At Kentucky Lake, I had two big fish on the second day of fishing that would have put me into the cut, and they just came unglued. I really don’t know what happened, but it cost me. That’s just a part of bass fishing that you can’t control. You just have to accept it and move on, knowing that that fish just hurt your chances of making the finals. You can’t let it get into your head, or you’re done for the event. You just have to remember that the next cast can put you right back in the running to win the event.

Going into the last event on the Arkansas River I felt pretty confident because I’d made a special trip out earlier in the year to learn the water, and during prefishing for the tournament I found some great fish. But because of high water levels BASS decided to change the venue from the Arkansas River to Fort Gibson Lake, a decision I’m still not happy with. I’d put in a ton of time, money and effort learning the venue, and then they changed it at the last minute, and gave us just six hours of practice time to learn it.

I’m just really disappointed in the folks at BASS that made the decision to move the event and not give us adequate time to practice and learn the lake. I felt it provided a huge advantage to the people who fish that lake regularly, and that it showed in the outcome when a local won the event wire-to-wire. Everyone is supposed to be on an even playing field, so they should have either provided the normal practice period for everyone, or cancelled the event altogether. There’s just too much investment and too much riding on the line to just arbitrarily move the event to another location and expect people who haven’t fished those waters to be competitive. It’s just unfair to the majority of anglers in the field.

From the start I was uncomfortable at Fort Gibson Lake—the water was low and there were shoals all over the place. Going into the event I wasn’t even comfortable navigating around the lake, so I was really disappointed in the decision and I felt it favored some of the people who fish it regularly.

That all being said, I tried hard, and the most obvious thing I could see on the lake was docks, which I fished hard and caught a lot of fish on. Unfortunately, they weren’t the caliber of fish that were needed to be competitive in that event. I just didn’t have the time to find the fish that I would need to have a chance to do well in the event.

So with the season over, I’ve got a lot of stuff coming up this summer. I’m fishing the Northern Opens, and some of the PAA tournaments. I’m actually glad the Elite season is over. I’ve made the Classic, my motor ran hard without a glitch all season and is still looking strong, I’m looking forward to fishing Lake Champlaign and some of the other northern lakes I love to visit in the summertime. It’s been a good ride, and it should be a great summer on the water.

Full post:  http://blogs.discovervmaxsho.com/dave-wolak/one-fish-can-really-cost-you-in-a-tournament/