SMALLIE SMACKDOWN
While the majority of the field was chasing largemouth at Cayuga Lake , Connell was targeting smallmouth with pinpoint accuracy .
“ Then I go all Roy ( McAvoy ) in my head , where he keeps taking penalty strokes for new drops instead of laying up , just to prove he can hit it over the water hazard . Yeah , that was me in a Knockout Round three years ago .
“ By the end of the day , I was doing the very thing I hate the most during a tournament : furiously fishing down the bank , going through the motions , casting aimlessly . And why ? Because I ’ m chasing a few extra points in the standings .”
Cleaning out the mental clutter
To clean house mentally , Connell started by stripping away the checksand-points and just-happy-to-be-here yarns that were binding his winning potential . Such ideals are great when starting a career but are impediments to winning .
“ Here ’ s the deal : The only thing anyone cares about in this sport is who wins , period ,” he says candidly . “ I ’ ve made umpteen Knockout Rounds , I ’ ve made Championship Rounds , I ’ ve made REDCRESTS – no one cares where you are in the points unless
you ’ re leading the points . What matters is winning . Nobody remembers any of the rest of it . Winning is the purest form of collateral in this sport .”
With that realization , Connell began to wonder : What good is making yet another Knockout Round if you don ’ t have enough in the tank to make the Championship Round and go for the win ?
“ My old strategies were fine for making Knockout Rounds , but they left me stranded there ,” he says . “ I had to find better strategies to play the long game .”
Slowing down and channeling frustration
One of the first goals Connell set was to learn to slow down and , in his words , “ just chill out .”
“ I was always frantically ripping up and down the lake , chasing some pattern or running history places as fast as I could ,” he says . “ It was one of those old defaults .”
The tool that helped Connell pump the brakes was forward-facing sonar .
PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON
He used Lowrance ActiveTarget to win REDCREST and since then has gone to school hard on the beaming game . “ Once I really started panning around on different lakes , I realized there are freaking fish everywhere ,” he says . “ If I would just slow down and learn how to make them bite , I could be so much more efficient . I know everyone may not be a fan of it , but that technology has changed my mindset to working smarter , not harder . As long as I can see fish , why run around like a mad man chasing ghosts ?”
Next on Connell ’ s mental must-do list was to snuff out frustration and anger when things weren ’ t going his way . Pro anglers are often their own harshest critics , so frustration comes with the territory of wanting to be better .
“ Frustration can push you to another level if channeled correctly ,” Connell says . “ But if it gets out of hand , becomes negative and turns to anger , it just becomes super fuel for the downward spiral .”
Connell has found a way to feather his frustration to push him yet keep it from boiling over to fueling his old fastand-furious feedback loop .
“ When I hit my rev limiter , I simply say , ‘ that ’ s it ; we ’ re done , I ’ m out ,’ and I pull up my trolling motor ,” he explains . “ I may have no idea where I ’ m headed or what I ’ m going to do , but here is what I do know : I ’ m not wasting my time anymore casting at memories , fuming mad , while I chase the ghosts of a few extra points .”
When the pieces all fit together
Once Connell drives far away from the habitual vortex that tried to suck him in , he says it ’ s like hitting a reset button and starting the tournament over .
“ Basically , I clear my mind and go practice and it renews my spirit ,” he says . “ By the Knockout , the whole lake has changed , and everything is different . It ’ s time to idle and find a new school or pan around in other areas to see if a new bite window is opening up .”
Connell sees it as an investment in the potential to win instead of spinning out in the same used water . It doesn ’ t always work , but when it does , the pieces come together to set up a win .
Smith Lake was a perfect example of this strategy . In the Knockout Round ,
36 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | DECEMBER-JANUARY 2023