Wear Sunscreen - Life Lessons for a Tournament Angler

Many of you may remember a Chicago tribune newspaper article from 1997 that was entitled "Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young". If  not, you may at least remember the song it was subsequently turned into entitled  "Wear Sunscreen". If you have never read , nor listened to it, then you need to stop what your doing read it, then come back and read my take take on these life lessons for a tournament angler.. I apologize now for my poor yet blatant attempt recreating this article.. sorry Mary


"Wear Sunscreen, If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The Long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proven by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advise now..." - Mary Schmich

Not all of those who win cheat, but all those who cheat loose

There will be days that you will be beaten by anglers who are better then you, There will be days you are beaten by anglers who are not , and there will be days when you are beaten purely by yourself!

Have fun

One bite can change your entire day, that bite may come at 7:01am or it may come at 2:59pm, and sometimes there may be very few bites in-between, make each bite count, hook-sets are free

Have a game plan, even if you don't end up using it

Don't worry about the price of gas, run the lake until your time is up or your tank is empty

fish!

Shake hands with your competitors, share in there success and  maybe one day they will be sharing in yours.

read fishing magazines, you will learn more for the articles then all the pretty pictures

Always enter the "big fish" pool, like the lottery you never know when it will be your turn, and when your numbers do come up, you better hope you played

Don't let memories of past catches effect how you fish today. Memories like Fish tales are often embellished.

You only opponent is the fish themselves, don't worry about who you are fishing against, chances are they are not worrying about you

Fishing partners are like spouses, so pick one you enjoy being being with, in good times and in bad (In the early days the bad times may come often)

Pre-fish,  even just for a few hours, as simply being on the lake will provide you with more valuable information then you can get any where else

Everyone looses a fish now and again, you are not alone.. move on

never believe the weatherman, and trust me on the sunscreen...




 - This article was influence in part by the sheer genius that is ""Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young" by Mary Schmich, please do your self a favour and ready her original article, not only does it provide valuable life lessons, but at the same time it will give you a good laugh