Fish Psych 101: Reflections on a Hot Streak (part II)

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Overview

During the darkest hour of the recent pandemic, I started reading articles about sports psychology. It began with an article on the BBC news website about a phenomenon known as “Quiet Eye” that can be identified in certain elite athletes (I’ll have more to say about that in another post). It continued from there through sports journalism, scientific studies and science writing in various media. In short, I started to wonder how current research and concepts might apply to tournament fishing.

For example, I started asking questions about what’s happening in my body when I am fishing. How is physical exhaustion related to mental fatigue? What are my eyeballs doing in relation to what my hands are doing? Can I identify patterns of movement and thought – decisions I make – from my body language and movements in the countless hours of video I record? What is my brain doing? I began noticing things, and I started writing them up.

This second installment in my “Fish Psych 101” series is actually a sequel to the first article I wrote on the topic, which I posted last season.  In that article, I began asking questions about how types of brain activity might correlate with results in tournament fishing.

Here, I dive into the recent tournaments since that streak in late 2022, waters I fished, and my general mindset. I may be starting to elaborate a theory about “confidence” that goes against the grain of what I hear in most conversations about tournament fishing. What I know for certain is that something dramatic has changed in how I approach the water, mentally speaking.

As before, I am elaborating basic concepts and attempting to summon questions more than I am deciphering answers. At times, I feel like the sorcerer’s apprentice in Goethe’s poem, and I can’t quite figure out how to control the spell. Nonetheless, I make the cast.

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Learning the Water: Kayak Tournament Fishing in Falls Lake

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I. The Question

Fishing is an acquired skill. Like just about anything else worth doing, it requires practice. Some people are quick to learn the art of casting and tying knots, others require time to learn the basics. Some simply give up. I was tempted on several occasions, before I even began fishing from a kayak, let alone tournament fishing. It’s much easier to just watch people catch fish on television.

In order to fish competitively, you also have to learn about gear, techniques for specific types of fishing and also how to fish certain waters. Add in kayaks, with their specialization and physical effort, and you can understand why some folks buy a bass boat. Kayak fishing is not easy.

I know. As I said, I learned it all the hard way. I competed in kayak tournaments for nine years without a 1st place finish. Over the past three seasons, I have had four of them on three different lakes (Jordan, Shearon Harris and Falls). Each one of those lakes is a different animal, and I have been fishing them all for the past fifteen years (and in the case of Jordan, even longer).

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Jackson Kayak Blog Posts 2022

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As a regular contributor to the Jackson Kayak Fishing Channel, I publish fishing reports, product reviews and kayak fishing advice. This is a compilation of my posts from 2022.

1. Scupper Plugs: Do I need Them?” is my fourth post to the Jackson site. In it I focus on an often overlooked kayak accessory – the scupper plug – and explain its importance and uses.

Click here to read my article.

    2. I fish rivers, and in this article, I explained how the new Mark IV Flex Drive affects river fishing from the Bite FD.

    Click here to read my post.

    Jackson Kayak Blog Posts 2021

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    As a regular contributor to the Jackson Kayak Fishing Channel, I publish fishing reports, product reviews and kayak fishing advice. This is a compilation of my posts from 2021.

    1. This was my second post to the site, in 2021. Entitled “Late Winter Tournament bass Fishing in the Bite FD,” I wrote it after my improbable victory in a CKA Tournament on a very cold February day. This post gave me the idea to compose my Carolina Trail diary, which covered my entire 2021 tournament season with CKA.

    Click here to read the original post.

    2. This was my third blog post to the Jackson site. In it, I reviewed the Jackson Cruise 10.5, which is my favorite light paddling/fishing kayak from the old Jackson Fleet. No long produced, the Cruise is now considered a “Legacy Boat.”

    Click here to read the review.

    Jackson Kayak Blog Posts 2020

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    1. As a regular contributor to the Jackson Kayak Fishing Channel, I publish fishing reports, product reviews and kayak fishing advice.

    This was my first post to the site, in 2020.

    Click here for my complete review.

    Note: since 2022, the newer Jackson Bite FD has a completely new drive system, a new seat configuration and more.

    Fish Psych 101: Reflections on a Hot Streak (I)

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    Overview

    During the darkest hour of the recent pandemic, I started reading articles about sports psychology. It began with an article on the BBC news website about a phenomenon known as “Quiet Eye” that can be identified in certain elite athletes, but also in mediocre athletes who suddenly go on a “streak” (I’ll have more to say about that in another post). My interest in that article led me to more sources: sports journalism, scientific studies and science writing in various media. In short, I started to wonder how contemporary writings about sports psychology might apply to tournament kayak fishing.

    I started asking questions about what’s happening in my body when I am fishing. How is physical exhaustion relation to mental fatigue? What are my eyeballs doing in relation to what my hands are doing? Can I identify patterns of movement and thought – decisions I make – from the countless hours of video I record? What is my brain doing? I began noticing things, and I started writing them up.

    This first installment uses a recent run of good results as a starting point to explore some of those questions.  Maybe I’m jinxing myself by reflecting on it during the hot streak, but I’m not superstitious (unless it’s my football team). I’m also trying to figure out how it happened after a major surgery that seems to have cleared my mind as my body healed. It seemed counter-intuitive: wouldn’t my recovery impede strong performances. Or did the extended period of trauma and recovery do something that helped me succeed on the water?

    I’ll introduce some terminology and basic concepts, then proceed to results and speculation. I have no preconceived notions; like stars in the night sky, curiosity and experience guide me.

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    The Extraordinary Complexity of a Fishing Life: A Review of Janet Messineo’s Casting into the Light (2019)

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    by Hank Veggian

    What holds a book “together?” Many readers will look for a theme or a message, a “take-away” that makes a “point” over many pages. I call them the miners, because they look to extract something useful from a book. Other readers read for the story, and take pleasure in moving with the tides. I call them the swimmers, because they go with the flow. A third type of reader: the editor. These readers take pleasure from a book’s style, and admire how the words are assembled, above all.

    There are always exceptions to the types, and other types. Can they all co-exist? How many personalities can inhabit a reader? What about a single life? And can they all be captured in a book? Janet Messineo’s Casting into the Light had me wondering about these questions. Did the book answer them? Maybe, and indirectly, but not because it sought to. And that’s why I enjoyed reading it. It’s a raw book in some ways, without major goals or some splendid architecture to showcase. It’s nonetheless a collection of stories that add up in some way to a portrait of a life, and an interesting one at that.

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    Kayak Fishing: Wading, Portaging and Fishing in Fast Water

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    Introduction

    How do you navigate fast, shallow water in a fishing kayak? And how do you fish that water? It isn’t always simple or easy. Prior to a recent tournament on Falls Lake in North Carolina, I consulted the USGS gauges for the rivers on the north end of the lake. There had been some rain, but not too much, and I wondered if some of the resident fish might be active due to food and oxygenated water flowing downstream. So I decided to give it a shot.

    I prepared for some expected obstacles and eventualities, and improvised along the way. The result? A 7th place finish in a field of 57 anglers. Afterward, I made a short post about it on social media. The response was extensive and positive so I decided to expand the post in order to share more details about the effort, problem solving and safety tips involved in fishing this particular type of water.

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    Form and Void: A Review of the Wilderness Systems Kayak Krate

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    “Everything dies, baby, that’s a fact
    But maybe everything that dies some day comes back.”

    That’s a Bruce Springsteen lyric from the song “Atlantic City,” but it applies to this product review, too. An earlier version of it was first posted to the Get Outdoors: Pedal and Paddle blog. That blog has since come down, and with it several of my reviews. I  have since decided to update the review, and it has now been re-published by Basstrail.com, which is emerging as the best all around site for kayak fishing industry and tournament new son the web.

    https://basstrail.com/articles/article/form-and-void-a-review-of-the-wilderness-systems-kayak-krate

    © 2022

    Kayak Fishing in Carolina Country Magazine

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    As more anglers take up paddles and fish from a kayak, more companies take notice. Outdoors media now regularly feature kayak anglers in their publications, a sure sign that our sport is growing and reaching new audiences.

    In North Carolina, we have one of the oldest and most well organized kayak fishing scenes in the United States. The sport has grown here at a grassroots levels through clubs and trails and tournaments, attracting the attention of outdoors writers.

    In this article below, outdoors writer Mike Zlotnicki interview me for a profile in the January 2022 issue of Carolina Country magazine. It’s a profile of me, but also our sport. Click the magazine title or the full link below, and please share it to spread the word!

    https://www.carolinacountry.com/issues/2022/departments/nc-outdoors/quiet-competition-the-joys-of-kayak-fishing-tournaments