Fear in the sport of fishing! by Pam Horne
Let’s talk about fear in fishing bass tournaments….what is it, who experiences it and how do we combat it??
What is FEAR?
An unpleasant strong emotion caused by anticipation of awareness of danger. I worked in a prison for 17 years and we taught the definition to be…consequences of the unknown. Everyone experiences fear to some degree, whether they admit it or not. It’s not necessarily the act that causes fear, it’s what comes after the act that causes us unease. Even some of the best anglers can experience fear. They may have fished a thousand (1,000) tournaments, and won too many to count so what would they have to fear? What if they lost and lost badly, didn’t even catch a fish? That could cause some unease or fear. New anglers coming into a new circuit or tournament series think they are fearing the actual act of fishing the tournament when they are fearing several things….am I good enough to compete with them? Will they laugh at me? Will they think I’m an idiot?? That’s where the actual fear comes from…..not the actual tournament or fishing, but what comes after.
So how do we combat that fear?
Many anglers get a horrible case of not-so-pleasant stomach problems before the tournament. I used to get butterflies that felt like woodpeckers before a tournament. Just recently, as in the last six (6) months, I’ve noticed that I don’t have them nearly as bad. So what changed? I think the fact that I fish almost every weekend either for fun or in a local tournament has helped tremendously. I still get antsy and jittery but that’s more adrenaline than anything else.
I think we find out how strong we are by pushing through pain, fear, and grief, so the more we push through, the stronger we become. Just as we fear that we are not good enough to fish competitively, the more we fish, the better we become. Sign up and join the Lady Bass Anglers Association and overcome that fear that everyone is experiencing in some form so you will not be feeling anything that someone hasn’t experienced or is experiencing at the same time you are.
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