Welllll............you've come to the right place. Get a pad of paper out son, I'm gonna share ALLLL the knowledge I've learned after 30 years of tourney fishing. Brace yourself, this stuff is like GOLD!!!!
- Learn a solid 15-20 excuses
- Never understate or estimate the size of the hard bite that you swung and missed on
- Know that you'll average 15-80 pounds on the day BEFORE the tourney, expect 3-9 day of
- Know that the 7 rigs that you set up the night before will all be cut off by 9am
- Go ahead and sit down to enjoy lunch........seriously.........it's the best part of your day!!!
- Find a partner that is also a shrink, child counselor, or motivational speaker, it'll help.
- Remove all knives and other sharp things from the boat for personal protection
- Get a REALLY fancy gps/sonar set up to mark all the spots they were biting in practice
- Order extra withdrawal slips from your bank.............won't need any deposit slips
- Make lots of $20 side bets with friends in the event. Then, make sure you have exactly $20 X (amount of friends in event) in your wallet
- Don't worry what to stock up on, regardless, they'll be on the one that you only have ONE bait left in the bag!!
Oh............and seriously, have fun. If you can do it for the competition and realize that it's an amazing combo of luck, skill and knowledge and a real long shot for anyone to win any tourney, you'll be fine. The moment you decide you have to win to enjoy it, you're doomed to have a bad day. I'm ate up with fishing tourneys. LOVE the competition. Almost never win, but simply love em! Good luck out there!!! Wanna bet $20??