“ We all have these pieces to the winning puzzle in our box , but they ’ re just pieces . To me , the mental side is putting these pieces together in the right order at the right time to solve the winning puzzle .”
PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON
Whenever pros win multiple events in a short period of time , statements like “ tournament fishing is all mental ,” “ the best bass fishing is found between the ears ,” and “ the mind is the best tacklebox ” become cliché . When asked about his trio of trophies , even Connell plays the mental card , saying “ At this level , 80 percent of this game is mental .”
But what does all that mental mind talk mean ? Where is that nitrous switch located in the brain ?
Well , that ’ s where it gets a little more complex . Fortunately , Connell is extremely well-versed in breaking down the mental side of the game and is willing to share what he ’ s learned about winning at the top level of bass fishing from his amazing three-fer season .
“ At the Bass Pro Tour level , we all have great equipment ,” Connell begins . “ We have tremendous mechanical skills , we have volumes of knowledge and experience , we have confidence in our abilities , we have a desire to be the best . We all have these pieces to the winning puzzle in our box , but they ’ re just pieces . To me , the mental side is putting these pieces together in the right order at the right time to solve the winning puzzle .”
Mental conditioning
For Connell , one of the big steps in learning to win has been identifying old fishing habits and conditioning he adopted early on . Along the journey to becoming a pro angler , Connell says he picked up puzzle pieces that served him well at the beginning of his career , but they ’ re not universal ; they don ’ t always fit together to form a winning picture for changing fisheries , changing technology and , especially , changing tournament formats . The longer these old pieces – or habits – hang around in the box , the more they clutter the winning mindset . At times , some of these habits need to be identified and culled .
“ I ’ m not going to say they ’ re bad habits , because they ’ re not ,” Connell explains . “ They ’ re habits we form while maturing as anglers . When I started fishing tournaments , I fished numerous evening derbies – sometimes four to five a week . I found success in those events with a high-speed pace , fishing as fast as I could to land on the juice before the clock ran out . The more I fished like that , the more it wired my brain to fish that way .”
34 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | DECEMBER-JANUARY 2023