Everybody who follows tournaments these days wants the results up before the winners get their trophies. But for those who want to reach a higher level competitively, they should really be much more interested in how the pros practice, not just what they caught on game-day.
No one has had a more lengthy and successful pro career than Quantum pro Gary Klein since he left Oroville to seek his fortune chasing bass. When he discusses “practice” or pre-tournament, on-the-water preparation, he says, “We have two types of anglers on the circuits (all circuits). One category is those who launch their boats and go fishing and wait for things to happen. The other are those make things happen.”
While I was quizzing Gary about things to avoid in practice like too narrow a scope, not building in contingencies or over-confidence, he cut me off by saying: “It’s a matter of what you are trying to accomplish in practice.”
Clearly, he was saying, you need to have a plan. Over Gary’s long and successful career, we’ve heard him say many times that it all comes down to either establishing or eliminating areas, lures or patterns. Those who “make things happen” are competitive on any waters. As Gary puts it, “They’re conditioned to catching bass in all situations and read the water quickly.”
For this reason, he cautions about the value of finding the predominate pattern. “When I show up with 100 of the best anglers–extraordinary anglers–I have to watch myself. For example, on the first day of practice I might find a phenomenal bite, as in tossing jigs on the corners of the docks. The most predominate pattern in practice is nothing. The lake’s not getting a lot of pressure,” he warns.
“Guys know how to run water. They find that stuff. Instead of the easy bite, the fish get tucked under the docks where they were on the corners.” Looking West, he said the same thing happens. “I might run into a pocket at Lake Mead, with (a couple of twitches of) a topwater and it’s easy. Then another guy comes along in 30 minutes and does the same thing. The fish get conditioned to that.”
While there’s nothing wrong with having a good practice, have you ever noticed how sometimes several of the top finishers say they had nothing going before the tournament? In those cases, the process of eliminating or establishing is culminated with the tournament under way.
“So don’t be your own worst enemy–something I’ve done before,” he says. “I’m catching them in practice and I push, push push in the tournament and it’s not happening. Instead, I should be taking a deep breath and change. You can’t get caught up.”
As you practice you are learning, but things change in Nature (and sometimes because there are a 100 boats on the water). While admitting, “There are no exact guidelines it’s going to be the same each time,” Gary says, “You should always analyze the practice day and prepare for the ‘what-if’s’ out there.”
And that takes practice.
2 Responses to “Gary Klein: Practice requires practice”
Very true. Here on Clear Lake I see two different groups of fish. The ones that get caught during the week (less pressure) and the ones that get caught during the weekend (heavy pressure). We hear about the easy 25 to 30 pound limits being caught on Wednesday that turn into a 22 pound win on Saturday.
Good stuff. Interesting insight into how Gary Klein has survived and how tough it can be to excel in used water. Most of us have had to fish used water, but most of us don’t have to fish behind 100 Elite pros like Gary does. The best make it look easy and are probably better than they look.