What a week! \u00a0Let me begin by saying that I had a fantastic time at this event. \u00a0It was loads of fun, exciting, and I learned a lot. \u00a0Now let me follow that up by saying, I don’t think I’ll be fishing many more state championships. \u00a0Unless it is within a pretty close drive of my home, it is simply not worth my time and money to participate in. \u00a0I used to think that the federation was how I was going to qualify for the Classic someday, but now having participated in the federation tournaments as well as a B.A.S.S. Open… I will have to wait to qualify for the Classic when I’ve got the money to fish the Opens. \u00a0I simply do not like the format of the state championship not to mention the individuals in charge.<\/p>\n
It’s mostly the format of the tournament that deters me from wanting to fish it again. \u00a0Basically, there are two tournaments taking place within one tournament. \u00a0It is both a team event and an individual event at the same time. \u00a0At first I thought this was kind of cool, but after having experienced it… I don’t like it. \u00a0Working as a team with the rest of the Top 6 guys in my club was very exciting and a great learning experience. \u00a0It’s the only time you can really get the other guys in your club to open up and share some insightful information. \u00a0Very cool. \u00a0What sucks though is the fact that when you fish this tournament, you are basically forced to make a decision. \u00a0A) Am I fishing this tournament with the goal of having my team win? \u00a0or B) Am I fishing this tournament to win and try to make my way to the Classic? \u00a0It is nearly impossible to try and do both. \u00a0Unknowingly, I made the decision to fish for the team win. \u00a0If I was fishing this tournament for myself, I would have fished very differently both during pre-fishing and during the tournament. \u00a0Instead, I tried to do what was best for the team. \u00a0Doing so, I believe hurt me greatly in the individual standings.<\/p>\n
The other thing I don’t like about the format is the 50\/50 split of your day with the non-boaters. \u00a0While yes, this is a fantastic way to give non-boaters a shot at making the Classic and furthering their fishing careers, it did not turn out beneficial to me as a boater. \u00a0I fished as a non-boater for a long time and I can recognize how beneficial this format is to non-boaters, but now having fished as a boater and a non-boater for several years… I realize the importance of having my successes and my failures being 100% up to me. \u00a0If I fail, I don’t want to be able to blame the other person in my boat for my failure, and if I succeed, I want it to be because of the decisions I made, not because of the decisions of the other person in my boat.<\/p>\n
So while the state championship may be a great route for some anglers to the Classic, I will tell you all right now, it is not my<\/em> route there. \u00a0The Opens will most likely be my way someday. \u00a0The only other route that I haven’t tried yet, however, is to fish the regional tournaments. \u00a0I may give that a shot on the next go around and see how I like those.<\/p>\n In conclusion, this experience has given me a new view on my fishing and now I need to take some time to pinpoint some new goals. \u00a0Qualifying for and fishing the state championship every year is no longer on my priority list. \u00a0My priority now I believe will be to get myself in position to fish the Opens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What a week! \u00a0Let me begin by saying that I had a fantastic time at this event. \u00a0It was loads of fun, exciting, and I learned a lot. \u00a0Now let me follow that up by saying, I don’t think I’ll be fishing many more state championships. \u00a0Unless it is within a pretty close drive of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-fishing","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":167,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}