“Failure is not an option” is a phrase that seems to resonate ever since it was uttered by Gene Kranz, flight director for Apollo 13 (in the movie and in real life). Unfortunately, in the bass fishing world, anglers frequently bypass this option in a curious manner. They merely ignore they ever failed.
Which is odd. Since they often fail. One only needs to peruse the standings of a multi-day event—daily if you follow closely--or just take a look at the final results. If the limit is five, then everyone who weighed less than five fish per day failed to get a limit. So here’s the question, what are you going to do about it?
Having covered tournaments for more than 40 years I’ve seen a lot of failures (and have since added my own when I decided to compete). But while I’ve heard those “I dumped a 5-pounder at the boat,” or “I had eight fish on that jumped off,” or “I didn’t know that was off-limits,” every interview may have made good copy, in almost every situation, these accounts were always glossed over like a rag with Pink Stuff.
Be it the Fates, bad luck or a lack of divine intervention, a weather change or boat traffic, something else was always to blame. Surely not the fisherman, leaving him to chuckle with the weighmaster and thank his sponsors as if his game was flawless. Of course, I know there are perfunctory duties with regards to those companies who help pay the bills. But if someone admits to “dumping three fish next to the boat” the only reason I want to know what brand he uses is so I’ll never buy one.
MAD FACE
There is a great scene in the movie Money Ball, where the Athletics General Manager, Billy Bean [Brad Pitt] bursts in on the team locker room following another loss. The players have the music blasting (“We Got the Funk”) and are dancing and carrying on. Enraged, Bean slams the music box and water jug and asks them, “Is losing fun?” When they finally
WINTER 2016
GARY KLEIN has witnessed other competitors looking for excuses.
acknowledge that it isn’t, he throws a bat and when the clatter dies, there is dead silence in the room.
To which he explains, “ That is the sound of losing.”
Again, the marketing part of the sport may demand a few engaging words at the microphone, but they should never serve to erase an underperformance or flat-out failure.
One of the great exemplars in the sport is Rick Clunn. I can remember back in the day when he was Rick Clunn, a 4-time World Champion and a threat to win every Bass Classic. When he failed to win, he would man up. I know, because I missed all four Classics that he won, but when I attended the final press conferences of each event I made, he was always there as well. He wanted to know why he had failed. Clunn wanted to hear from successful anglers where he had gone wrong.
Pushing forward to the present, I’ve seen and heard his reaction to some bad days and bad finishes, and they were not pretty. In fact, they were grim. But he wasn’t upset with the host, he was figuratively looking in the mirror, knowing he had failed. It stings and it drives him still.
Some years back, Gary Klein spoke about the subject, saying, “Many fishermen are looking for an
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