Why Doesn't The Best Angler Win Every Commercial Fishery Match?

Why doesn't the best angler win every match, I believe there are three major reasons:-

Experience of the Fishery: The angler is unfamiliar with the fishery or peg and will be unable to beat others that know it better. Examples of this are fishing for Silver fish on a Carp peg and vice versa, choosing the wrong hook baits and methods. The best angler in the word would not win at the Viaduct Fishery on his first visit as there are too many regulars and “venue experts”, in this particular case you will be fishing against the fishery owners!! I reckon that three to four visits should be sufficient to get gain sufficient knowledge to be competing. I get to know the venue experts and give them a good grilling before and after each match.

Poor draw: The fishery is peggy combined with the other anglers being too skilful for the best angler to win off any peg. This is a big aspect of fishing and I don’t think it is possible to have a venue that on any given day, the best angler will win every match. I believe it is important to keep it this way as anglers who win every match will soon get bored up and stop fishing (and pissing off the other anglers in the process) – hard to believe, but this nearly happened to me when I had a terrific run on the K&A Canal at Seend Park – match fishing almost became pointless much like pleasure fishing is to me nowadays.

State of mind: The better angler could have had a run of bad results with a resulting drop in confidence. Without confidence in your own ability, you will never be a consistent winner, and once you’ve lost it, lack of confidence will hold you back far more than a run of poor draws. In my opinion this is one of the most important aspects of consistently framing. I learnt this lesson some fifteen years ago whilst on a John Bull Training Course and have since then kept this in the forefront of my thinking both whilst preparing for a match and for my personal debrief and lesson learnt after each match (irrespective of the size or importance of the match). I no longer have “Post Match Torment” (PMT), as I have absolute confidence in my ability and approach to match fishing. That said I still make mistakes, which sports don't at some time. Some of the following pointers may help:

1. I Never have it in mind that I want to draw a specific peg as failure to do so will immediately impact your confidence. I prepare myself for any peg and how I might enjoy fishing it and dig out some coin.

2. On drawing a peg that won the previous week (or the previous day in many cases!) I blank out all the usually comments from fellow anglers - “my Grandmother could win off that peg, etc, etc …” It doesn’t mean that it will win again. I try to find out how and where the previous angler caught and If they had caught using an alien method to me (say - shallow at 17 metres) I don’t try and imitate – I always fish to my strengths first.

3. On drawing what appears to be poor peg, I never give up until I am confident I have given it my absolute best and confirmed in my mind that the fish weren’t there to catch (as Dad use to say “If there aren’t any fish feeding in your swim then you can’t catch them – he also use to say “you can guarantee you will get at least one bite during a match”). The number of times I see excellent anglers beaten before they even reach their pegs – I just smile to myself as this is one less angler to beat.

4. Remember that the chance of drawing a framing peg is the same for every match. This means that you have an equal chance of pulling a framing peg every match as you have of pulling the worse peg at every match. That said I think over time it does even itself out and therefore if I am suffering from bad draws I do not let it affect my confidence as I know my turn awaits. One tip (and I hope this doesn’t cause a stamped at the draw). I try and draw first as you are certain that the winning peg is in the hat.

5. Post match, whether you have framed or not some anglers (not the knowing ones) can be cruel with their comments. If you win you have drawn “a flyer” and if you have suffered a bad day, you “fished it wrong”. I take no notice of these comments as I have total belief in myself. However, I do see some good anglers get upset over such comments – particularly from fellow team mates when team fishing leading to PMT’s!

6. Keep contemporary records of each match you fish - winning pegs, baits, lessons learnt, etc... Why not start a blog and share your information! This blog has been set up to enable me to quickly find how venues fished at the various times of year - winning pegs, baits etc..

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Finally – Remember “You are what you are, and you can not be anything else and what you are is good. Just make sure you give all of what you are”. (John Bull)

PS: Can anyone tell me who is hiding behind his pools book - full name?