Everyone has limitations especially when outside forces block their path. The only way to maneuver past the objection is to build up your confidence by preparing for the worst. It might seem like a negative viewpoint in an otherwise optimistic mental attitude, but sheer optimism can poison a plan by clouding the truth. It takes careful planning and proven tactics to succeed. Even after hours of preparation, the best-laid plans can fail. The failure can only be followed with an unmerciful bout of knockout fishing to mend the wound. The comeback experience is an unforgettable full color movie that plays back through my mind.

On the night before the start of the 2004 North American Ice Fishing Championship two-day tournament, Tony and I had decided to fish for the big bluegills first thing in the morning. We had failed by fishing the big fish spot instead of the numbers spot in tournaments in the past. Day one was shaping up to be one of those days that starts off slowly and makes you question your decisions.

We spent too long on the first spot with no fish to show for the effort. When we got to our numbers spot we found out quickly that it had been fished by others with a different plan-get the first fifteen in the bucket and then upgrade. The only fish left were very small gills and even they were spooked. I was troubled. Continuing to search for the fish by probing with the auger was time consuming and without guarantee. We decided to head back to spot one before proceeding to our third option. We wanted to see if the big boys decided to have a meal-preferably the one we were about to serve. Tony caught one nine-inch bluegill.

We headed to spot three where others had fished all day but not the on holes that were my best. Tony fished a familiar hole near the crowd and I inched off near the three decent holes that had produced an average of 7″ gills the day before. Normally that size would be too small for a smile but, with only a few minutes to fish before the weigh-in, the three gills would end up making all the difference in the world. The bites were almost undetectable without a spring bobber and they were so quick without repeat that I had to almost strike before the fish hit the jig. We had only thirteen fish, two shy of a limit and a weight that was shameful compared to our previous tournaments. After receiving several empathetic looks of disbelief without an answer of reprieve, we tucked our tails in our coats and headed back to the hotel.

What are you kidding me? We stopped at Christopherson’s bait shop on the way back to the hotel and picked up jigs that Tony observed being used to catch crappies. The one glimmer of hope was seeing crappies in the morning on the camera on our big gill spot. The jig that we purchased I used for the entire day two of fishing. Tony and I had not really caught a lot of crappies pre-fishing. In fact I had only hooked three in the ten days of pre-fishing and Tony a couple more. Although we knew they were being caught at night, locals didn’t fish for crappies during the day. That’s what makes day two an intricate part of the story. Although we were virtually in last place at 58 out of 60 teams there was still a chance that a limit of fifteen crappies could catapult us to a top ten finish and a respectable come back proving our ability to fish and our unwillingness to give up the fight.

We planned on rebounding our performance by catching the crappies we knew were near our blue gill spot. Remembering our near limit catch on a spot that produced only two crappies before the 2003 NAIFC tourney convinced us that it could be done. Just by chance fellow competitors Jake and Justin stopped in to find out what had happened to us on day one. We were busy spooling four-pound test on our reels in preparation for the deep swallowing crappie. I asked Justin how he was threading the little atom skimpy plastic on the jigs since he bragged catching a limit of crappie yesterday near our spot. I decided that I would give the jig a try first thing in the morning before switching to a horizontal mormyshka presentation.

DAY 2
I had a great deal of adrenaline running through me that reminded me of the days when I competed in cross-country running. I was a great runner during practice with the team but competed below my ability on all but a few meets because of my lack of focus and inability to channel the adrenaline over the course of the race. Since then I had crossed a barrier and developed confidence in my abilities and the will to come out in front of everyone fishing around me. It was a common occurrence fishing with Greg “The Prowler” Wilczynski on our local spots in Illinois. With his sensitive spring bobbers crafted over the years to perfection, it was rare that we didn’t out-fish everyone in our area.

After drilling holes and with about half of the teams within forty yards of us evenly distributed along a weedy bar that had highways traveled by the fish between the weeds, I discovered that one of the holes had a pocket in the weeds similar to a crossroad. I also noted that all of the other teams surrounding us were much shallower. In fact I was the on the deepest spot. I dropped the camera in all the holes and spied no crappie. I instructed Tony to fish his favorite hole while I took the deeper line hoping the fish were just outside our spot spooked deeper because of all the morning augers shinning light on the bottom.

The first drop of the jig with the orange skimpy tail caused two bands of red to appear on the vexilar several feet from the bottom. Crappie no doubt. I stopped the jig in front of them and they seemed uninterested. I took it away with a pull and gave it right back to them, bam two crappies in the cooler in less than five minutes. Now if that doesn’t get your heart racing, man it felt awesome. Tony looked over inquisitively and I showed him two fingers. He raced over for the specifics and went about fishing like I had never seen before. It had opened the door to his confidence immediately.

Later in the tournament a fellow competitor and friend asked what color I was using. I told him but commented that I was sure it was the action of the Little Atom skimpies and the special C-9 scent that interested them not the color. When I ran out of the orange to my surprise the same color in a different plastic did not entice the crappie enough for a bite so I put on the red skimpy and bam, crappie after crappie until I had also run out of the red. Proof positive that there was something about the skimpies that made them superior to the other plastics of the same color. Not only do the skimpies have the secret C-9 formula that makes them so tasty but the unique action of the tail, because of the small diameter, ribs and flat tail, give it a distinct wiggle of softness and realism over the competitors. It will out-fish even the plastics that have an imitation body that is thicker and less supple than the skimpy. It didn’t hurt that I had figured out the exact presentation that the crappies wanted (information that will have to be withheld until after the 2005 NAIFC since the tournament is located on the same Lake Mary MN).

Tony and I gave up on our spot with an hour to fish and checked on spot #2 and #3 without catching another crappie. If I had to do the day over again I would have checked spot #1 with some time left since it was our honey hole. We headed off to the weigh-in feeling confident that we had fished our hearts out and possibly were into the top ten as we had projected. The more time we spent talking to the other teams in line the more anxious we became. It seemed that there were only two teams with a limit of fish. As we waited to weigh our fish the weights and numbers of fish were low. There were six teams behind us. When we finally got to the scale, it was announced that presently we had the largest catch of the day. It turns out that we ultimately had the third best catch of the day, two teams with a limit of fifteen and one other team with eleven to match our bag.

The weight came up on the digital screen and it was one pound heavier than we expected. There is nothing like hearing your name and “in the lead” in the same sentence. We had heard the same statement the year prior that resulted in a fourth place finish, but this time the crowd was much bigger and the cheer was much louder. We had come from fifty-eighth place to first. The biggest come back ever in the ice team record books. As the final teams weighed in they all surpassed us because they had a much better weight in day one. The winner of the tournament was the father and son team of Phil and Jeff Morse. They, too, had a miraculous comeback from thirty-eighth place. It’s no secret that they too were using Little Atom plastics. It wasn’t the skimpies that made the difference from them it was…. Guess you’ll have to dig that information out of them your self.

Fishing on game day catching fish that others cannot on the same spot with TV cameras, officials and other teams looking on can be a satisfying super rush that puts your mind and body in the zone. It takes confidence in your equipment, a steady determination of planning and systematic goal setting procedures to put your self in the position to compete at the highest level. Take every aspect of your fishing seriously, break it down into parts that can be managed, and follow a regiment that maximizes your potential. Sometimes following your plan to the end is hard even if you haven’t caught any fish in the first four and half-hours out of five in a tournament. Just ask the Bussain and Dahl team about that last half hour of their tournament win on Devils Lake 2005. Apparently they too have been using little atom plastics and lures for a long time.

Mike McNett