Lucky or good?
By Kevin ShortIt's like this y'all c'mon
This is 10 percent luck
20 percent skill
15 percent concentrated power of will
5 percent pleasure
50 percent pain
And 100 percent reason to remember the name
Fort Minor — Remember The Name
Read something the other day that jogged one of those remaining memory cells in my brain. Harold Allen, aka The Legend, had answered a few questions regarding the '09 Elite Series season thus far and the TTBAOY race as it has stacked up to date. You can check it out here.
Now the Legend, well, he's the Legend. He's a guy that plays hard, lives hard, and always has a big worm tied on (make up your own jokes). The Legend has seen it all, done it all, been through it all, bought the T-shirt, wore holes in it, and uses it to wipe down his boat. The man's a Legend, hence the name. Does he know what he's talking about? Yep, he's pretty much spot on.
Two things in the interview jumped out off the monitor at me and rattled those eight little cells that make up my memory bank. The first was luck in the game of fishing and the second was Steve Kennedy eating a sandwich. Luck came up a few weeks ago in a text message pissing contest between the G-man and myself.
G contended that K-Pink was "lucky in Iowa" to win the Genuity River Rumble.
K-Pink replied that Iowa was a matter of "being good."
G texted back with "it's good 2 b lucky."
K-Pink dropped the hammer with "G wishes he was good enough 2 b lucky 2 have the trophy living in his house."
Haven't heard from G since. Text message over.
How much luck is involved in fishing at the highest level? Some, but maybe not in the way that Joe Public thinks. Those who have fished tournaments long enough and hard enough know there is a very fine line between having your game on and being absolutely lost on the water.
Everyone who has fished a fair amount of derbies at any level knows that there are days when you know exactly where the fish are located and exactly what they want to eat. Then there are days when you would swear there aren't any bass in the pond. At the weigh-in though, someone brings them in. What's the difference?
The difference revolves around TOW or Time On the Water. TOW in professional fishing is everything (unless you're Steve Kennedy — more on that later). TOW gets an angler tuned into what's happening on the water and reduces the luck factor. TOW also increases an angler's skill set both physically and mentally.
On the physical side, TOW gets your body conditioned to the weather, boat rides, casting and holding a rod all day long, and simply standing on the deck of a boat, say, in the middle of Lake Erie, all day. A less conditioned angler can do all those things coming right out of his air-conditioned office cubicle, but he's probably going to hurt the next day.
On the mental side, TOW gets an angler tuned into what the conditions are under the surface of the water. Where the fish are located, what they want to eat, what time during the day they are the most aggressive, and how they can be caught. TOW also gives an angler the confidence, by putting together all the pieces of the puzzle, to know that fish can be caught.
An angler can have all the right skills, spend his TOW and the fish can still take a dump on him. But do they really crap on him? Maybe it's more along the lines of dude didn't have it all figured out or didn't change with a change in conditions.
Luck? Sure, there is an element of luck involved in any game. The baseball takes a weird hop on the way toward Jeter's glove for an easy play on second base. If Derek reacts in time, he's a hero and gets the out. If he misses, it was a bad break — bad luck.
Similar thing applies in fishing. K-Pink goes out on Kentucky Lake on Day One and sacks 20-plus pounds. On Day Two he goobs it up and brings in 9 pounds. Bad luck or inability to adapt? The latter, thank you.
Then there's Steve Kennedy. SK is probably the "luckiest" guy in the Elite Series. This is a man that practices, at times, four hours a day. If he practices at all. Some days he stays in his bus. Some days he stays out from daylight 'til dark. Most days he catches the screaming blue dog poo out of them. How can that be? Is he "lucky" or just damn good?
JDG. SK is probably the best angler on the Elite Series that we'll never see at the top of the list — unless he changes his ways. For the amount of practice SK puts in, he does phenomenally well. If he spent as much time on the water as Skeet or KVD do, neither one of them would stand a chance. There wouldn't be an AOY race because SK would be lapping the field. He's that good.
For all his lack of practice, does he just "luck into them" during the tournament? Don't think for a minute that's the way it works. SK is one of those guys who just understand fish. He seems to have the ability to pick up on what's happening on any given body of water as fast, if not faster than, anyone else. He also keeps his bait selection relatively simple and looks for areas on a lake or river where he can catch fish using those baits with which he is highly proficient. Smart guy.
As an angler, would you rather be "lucky" or "good?" Being good will carry an angler a lot further than luck and that's what we see on the Elite Series. This is a group that day in, day out, on every body of water we visit, some, if not most, figure out how to catch them. This is a group that spends their time on the water to minimize the luck factor and shift the game in their favor. And then there's SK.
For more info on Kevin Short or to contact Kevin, check out his website at www.kfshort.com.
