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Before You Win You Must Learn How To Lose

BY: Kong Xiong
Before you win you must learn how to lose , coming off a top 10 finish from Oklahoma Kayak Anglers Event #2 and a 2nd place finish from Tulsa Bass-A-thon jackpot at Taft Lake, I was riding high with confidence where you can almost smell a win in the near future.  The OKA's 3rd stop was at Okemah Lake. I like this lake, I have multiple 90" + days there before and I felt like this was a easy top 5.  Due to Covid 19 concerns, the lake cancelled all tournaments and the OKA decided to go to a statewide road runner. So, my brother Houa and I decided to go do some pre-fishing the weekend before and decided on a smaller lake.  I had a plan going in too, throw the chatterbait, topwater frog and a stick worm. Even with all this preparation, my day was still turned over and up side down. It happens to the best of us.  
Jason Ray showed me new level of slow. Looking back at the tournament, I fished too fast for what was required. The thing about fishing speed is very subjective. One persons fast is another persons slow.  This was very apparent after the tournament when I was joking around with Jason at the boat ramp. Jason is a finesse fishermen mostly where I am power fisherman mostly.  Jason mentioned he would just let the worm sit and the fish will take off with it. I can't let a worm sit that long, two seconds on the ground is too long for me. This wasn't a tackle problem, it was a technique problem.
My Brother Houa caught fish off isolated grass clumps using a chatter-bait. He even let me fish his spots and I still couldn't get any bites. He was using my chatterbaits too that I gave him.  He was making it seem so easy.  I was only 20 yards away from him when he catches what looks like an 16-18 inch fish and throws it back.  Dang I needed that one.  Now I am really confused.  I mean, I taught him how  to use a chatterbait.   We were pretty much using the same thing in the same area.  All his fish were reaction bites. This is where luck comes in, reaction bites are unpredictable. There was nothing I can do about it. 
It was confusing and frustrating fishing around the top 2 finishers of the event.  Both posted over 100 " to receive 1st and 2nd place. I didn't catch a limit that day, I made all the adjustments I knew how to do. It was one of those days where you felt there was nothing can do to change the end results. The fish just hated you for no apparent reason it seems.  I finished mid pack and I was humbled by my favorite sport.  
I have lost count of the days in past years, sometimes, you can blame it on mechanical failures like broken rods/reels, bad fishing lines and holes in the kayak. It can be bad preparations, bad decisions on the water.  The worst tournaments are the ones where you just can't explain what just happened. Over the years I learned to take what positive you can and laugh up the rest.  The sooner you forget about bad events, the better you will perform on the next event.  
I hope you learned something from this little article. If these articles catch some traction, I will do some more articles about championship mindset, proper kayak rigging and tournament preparation.  A little background on myself, I have fished my whole life mainly for bluegills, crappie and striped bass. This is the 4th year fishing in bass tournaments. In that amount of time, I've been able to win a Oklahoma Kayak Anglers State Championship in 2017, many top 10 finishes, won many online tournaments, 3 top 5 finishes in the Angler of the Year.  Also, on the Jackpots side of tournaments I been able to win 11 events in the past 3 years.  I still have a lot to learn and many more people to talk fishing with.    


Kongs 24" Lake Konawa Giant



Kong at the Oklahoma Kayak Anglers Seminar in 2018


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Comments

  1. Houa xiongMay 1, 2020 at 6:50 AM

    Awesome read up!! They call him “King Kong” for a reason. And he’s my brother who keep me on edge. - Houa xiong

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brent WilsonMay 1, 2020 at 1:43 PM

    That finesse stuff will get ya! Recently it seems like I often find myself in the right spot with everyone catching them around me, while I struggle. It's tough, but at the end of the day at least you chose the right location and you found out what the fish wanted, thats a big part of the battle.

    ReplyDelete

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