It’s simple math, really. When you log some quality hours of practice time on the water, you may think things are going well. But add in the inability to execute when the fish bite, and your results are going to be poor. This is the way the first tournament of the year went for me this past weekend as our club kicked off a new bass fishing season.

It’s one thing to go out and not locate any good fish when you are practicing. Those are the tournaments you fish with little more than gut instinct and maybe take a few more chances than you normally would. But when you log three quality days of practice and locate some really nice bass despite changing weather conditions, you can be forgiven for having higher hopes. It turns out you still have to be able to put them in the boat when the time cones.