How good are we???

Hi Peoples,

Ever wondered how good a fisherman we are??? Ever sat there and watched a TV show and pondered if you had the goods to outfish any of the pros you see flickin lures on TV??? I'm a very competitve person so i usually do. Problem is that with video editing and other production values its hard to assess. Also the pros make it look easy at times so its hard to gauge for real. I do know however that some people i see making a living out of fishing are hacks...

I have fished a few tournaments. My best was a second place in a sydney comp and i recently came 5th in a Hawkesbury comp. While its far from blazing glory comps are a funny way to assess your skills. In a social scene fishing is quite different and i feel i could hold my own against most (usually only sp's). But why is a comp a different story?? Most pros get a week to pre-fish a spot, work out the patterns and devise a sound gameplan. Weekend warriors who enter most likely rock up on gameday and make decisions on the fly. The tourny boats hit the gun spots at 120kms/h and coupled with a pre-fish are mostly unbeatable. But thats whats required to win.

Also my ability or inability to catch fish with multiple techniques is a factor. I would consider myself proficient at catching bread and butter species on lures e.g. bream, flathead, jewfish and whiting but seem to struggle with kingfish on poppers. Therefore a complete angler will have better skills to use across all diciplines of fishing. Its hard though to keep up with all the new lures that hit the market. I have 1 day a weekend usually to go out and experiment. The time it takes to perfect a lure at a rate of 1 day a week is negligable. Fact is its far too slow. By the time you have perfected it two new lures have hit the scene.

But thats fishing. Unless your a pro or extremely rich or live on the water its hard to be a jack of all trades. So basically it's not a question of are we the best?? but a question of are we the best we can be??? In the end its fishing...and the more i realise that the more im discouraged by fishing comps. Its a social sport meant to be enjoyed by family and friends.