Confidence in bass fishing can take years to build but only one day to break it down.
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Chad Morgenthaler knows from his experiences on the tournament trail how building confidence is a gradual process. “It is just like anything else. It’s time and position,” he says. “It’s in many different situations across the nation at different times of the year. Then it is around all the guys I compete against. I have a great network with a bunch of friends. Whenever I do badly in a tournament and they do well, I pay attention. I listen to how they caught their fish and what transpired.”
Morgenthaler then tries to figure out what he did wrong and what he could have done differently. “I just put all of that in the equation, and then when that situation rolls up, I have another trick in the playbook to try,” he says. “Whenever you do that and succeed at it, then you get (confidence).”
The Illinois pro suggests that fledgling competitive anglers should build their confidence at the lowest level (club and local tournaments) before jumping to higher levels. “That is important,” Morgenthaler says. “You have to not only build confidence but also see the local level's success on a consistent basis before you can consider going on to the next step. You must pass junior college before you go on for your bachelor’s or master’s degree.”
Skill helps tournament anglers catch fish, but confidence can make them winners. “Even the guys who fish only 20 weekends out of the year are more than likely going to have the skill needed to do it, but it is the confidence and the things that you cannot teach – that gut feeling of when to do more or try something else – that makes the difference,” Morgenthaler says. “That all comes with the experience and the confidence.
“As you develop your skills and experience, you feel like, in some situations, you can call your shot,” Morgenthaler says. “It is hard to explain without coming across as cocky, but it is just a gut feeling we get, and it is more than an instinctual feeling.”
Morgenthaler recalls the 2013 Bassmaster Classic Wild Card event at Lake Okeechobee as his best example of how confidence helped him win a tournament. “I was confident months before that event ever came around,” he says. “I knew what I was going to do and would live with its consequences. I liked that it was a smaller field, the time of year, and where it was. I knew all I was going to do was flip mats. I didn’t know what the makeup of those mats would be, but I was confident that’s how that tournament would be won. That’s exactly what I did and stuck to, and that is how I won it.”
Of course, victory is the greatest confidence builder in competitive fishing. “You just crave it more, and it is hard to describe,” Morgenthaler says of winning. “Once you win, you can’t wait to do it again. It just pushes you harder.”
There is one caveat to winning, though. “Once you finish first, you don’t have but one place to go, and that is down,” Morgenthaler warns.
Confidence can be deflated quickly, especially if you have a phenomenal practice, but your pattern fails during the tournament. “That is when you are overconfident going in,” Morgenthaler says. “You feel like you are so dialed in that there is no way that something could change that could cause you not to place high in that event, but something does, and you can’t put your finger on it. It is a reality check and a confidence deflator. It makes you realize nobody is perfect and can figure it out 100 percent of the time.”
Dealing with highs and lows is a way of life on a major tournament trail. “It is hard, but that is just part of being a competitive angler,” Morgenthaler says. “That is just a part of the competition, and you must realize that.”
Morgenthaler never sulks for long after a bad outing and tries to keep the low points in perspective. “It is not a life or death situation,” he says. “It is fishing, for goodness sakes. I think I didn’t make a call that cost someone their life. I just made a bad call, and it cost me some money or a championship berth.”
Confidence can be restored if you forget about those bad outings. “You just shake it off and go to the next tournament and do the best that you can,” Morgenthaler says. “You must take a few lickings before you can keep ticking.”
A victory and top 10 finishes in 12 B.A.S.S. events have given Morgenthaler plenty of confidence to keep on ticking in the Bassmaster Elite Series.
