CLARITY
touch—that’s what I saw—so not wanting to risk the
DISGUSTED FA T C H E E NEW STANDARD IN paneontahlteyr, toavpeer,itthweefnisth. Bcalecakrhlyohmaed,bree-emn egaosoudr.iAngnoytehter
Now from that incredible
failure—on me.
checklist of all the places you
Sometimes you need back-ups for your back-
might fail, let me add a couple
ups.
more just to get your mind
And this last one from a California Top 40 level
turning. My own failures in recent
pro, also at the U.S. Open. Said Tony Lain of Menifee,
U.S. Open make good starters. Both are related to
“Let me tell you about failure.” It was the 2014 Open
something as simple measuring fish already caught.
and as the last day approached, to his mind came an
Pride, I’m afraid, caused the one, and while the
irrelevant question, “Why go home with a quarter
second was more unusual, the fact is when I look in
tank [of fuel] in the boat?”
the mirror, I see the guy who failed. In the first, I did
He explained. “I filled the tank each morning, and
not have a regulation, flat metal measuring board, but at the end of each day I would have quarter tank of instead, a stick-on tape conveniently placed along the gas. So ahead of the last day, I put in ¾ tank, for the
gunwale.
same run going to Gregg’s Basin. Why go home with a
It was not a perfect measuring device, and as
quarter tank?” he reasoned.
placed, it did not allow the fish to be laid flat. Yet pride
And then it happened. “I knew I was in trouble,”
said, “I’m not going to have to worry about “barelies.” when the engine hesitated. “By the time I got towed In the end, I tossed one that actually measured (when to Temple Bar, it cost me two hours of fishing. I still the mark was later checked). It would have helped my finished 6 th , but no telling what might have happened.
AAA quite a bit. And the failure was all on me.
The moral,” he said, “Don’t change your routine. Now I
But what’s worse than failing once? Doing the
top off the gas and do my thing.”
same thing, this time two years later, with a metal flat
So like it or not, bass fishermen fail. They do it all
board and a stick-on in place. Late in the day the fifth the time and in many different ways. But how you (or
fish (at first look) comes over. It is fat, making it look
I) respond is the issue. Do we tend to gloss over the
shorter. But in the rough conditions earlier in the day, result? Siemantel recommends something better.
the metal board bounced up and out of the boat. So
Look in the mirror and say, “I failed today, but I had
back to a new stick-on tape, knowing it was just a tad the potential of being a hero.” With that, he adds, “If
long from checking previously. But the fish wouldn’t
something went wrong, fix it.”
A LOT CAN HAPPEN between cast and landing a fish. Or just going out to fish and coming back with your
catch, as pro Tony Lain painfully
reports.
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