The old cliché of whether you’d rather be lucky or good in our sport really holds no merit. Anglers in the top ranks of professional bass fishing seldom leave anything to chance and tend to master their own destiny rather than relying on luck. How they do this, in my opinion is in preparation. I’d argue that along with the standard homework and time on the water, another key ingredient to success is mental attitude and here’s what I think on the subject.

Bass see hundreds if not thousands of jigs during a season of fishing, want to make sure they bite the one you put in front of them? Modify your jigs so they’re different and set apart from every other one they see. We all want an edge in Bass fishing. We all want a bait that looks a little bit different, a bait that isn’t the same right out of the package as the one the guy in front of us or the guy behind us is throwing. There are a few simple modifications that you can make to your jigs that may give them a look that the Bass haven’t seen and if you’re lucky just may trigger the strike you need.

Think you’ve got all the answers? Are you set in your ways? Can an old fisherman be taught new tricks? While my questions are rhetorical, the fact of the matter is, if we close our minds we risk condemning ourselves to never moving forward in our sport. The Bass fishing industry is fluid; ever changing, evolving and developing. As anglers, especially tournament anglers we need to keep an open mind and embrace education just as we embrace a hot new lure. 

So you wanna be a sponsored professional angler huh? Living the dream; casting for cash. Tournament Bass fishing has exploded into an industry worth billions of dollars. So how do you get your piece of the pie?  Careful what you wish for. There’s more to being sponsored than donning a patch or logo and hitting the lake.

We’ve all heard it before. Most lures are designed to catch fishermen, not fish. When we walk the aisles of our favorite tackle store what are we seeing that the fish aren’t? Better yet, when we cast those lures into the water what are the fish seeing that we aren’t?

Ever dream of getting your angling hero alone in a boat for 10 hours of fishing? What would you ask? How would you act? At the end of the day would you still hold this person in high esteem?

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The 2011 Tournament Schedule looks to be challenging!