PART 2: MISTAKES
Manage adversity and limit failure
PART 3: DURESS
If you can’t handle the pressure, you
might not belong in the big leagues
80
From the obsessive trait (see sidebar) also comes the
unique ability to perform under extreme duress. Financial
debt, medical issues, sudden bad news – these are the hur-
dles that pros face in addition to what’s going on out on
the water.
David Dudley
WELL
Another cornerstone that can be developed is not
allowing mistakes and failures to snowball out of control.
This is a mental trait that Cox says he has improved upon
greatly over the last two seasons.
“Stuff is going to happen, simple as that,” Cox says.
“Lines will break, fish will jump off, you will run aground,
there will be other competitors on the places you want to
fish. You name it, and it will happen, sometimes all in the
same day. How you react to these disasters is crucial.”
Step 1 is simply recognizing that bad things will happen.
Then you can learn to deal with it.
“I used to be so shocked when these things would hap-
pen to me,” Cox reveals. “I’d think, ‘There is no way so many
bad things could happen to one guy in one day.’ I’d play the
woe-is-me card a lot, letting it just derail my whole day.”
These days Cox is much better at remedying mistakes
and fending off failures. It helps to try and identify the
cause of the problem, then either correct it or learn from it.
“This is a perfect example: At Hartwell this year, I broke a
2-pounder off,” he recalls. “Several years ago, I would have
pitched a fit, retied and probably broke the next bite off, too.
But instead of freaking out, I immediately checked my line
and found that it had been frayed down in the spool. I got
out a new reel with fresh line, retied and caught a 5-pounder
on my next cast. I took the failure of losing that 2-pounder
and turned it into a positive. Making that a habit is huge.
“These days I don’t get upset at mistakes and failures as
long as I fix them quickly and don’t let them pile up,” Cox
says. “That’s something I have learned to do on my own,
and I can see the results.”
In the end, dealing with mistakes and failures is easiest
for the resilient, yet resiliency can be improved upon and
achieved with the right attitude.
“Adversity is just a fact of the fishing life,” Morgan says.
“All the guys mentioned in this article have a super-strong
streak of dealing with adversity very efficiently and effective-
ly. When things went wrong early in my career, I wanted to
hack my boat to pieces with a pocket knife. But taking time
to get upset is a waste. You have to control your emotions.
“I’m all about rhythm, staying smooth and keeping con-
stant pressure applied during the day,” he adds. “When
something knocks me out of rhythm, my immediate
response is to quickly pick that rhythm back up. I’m going
to lose fish. Period. But so are others in the field. If five
people lose a bass at the same time, who is the first to get
back up and regain his rhythm and tempo to get the next
bite? That’s the guy I strive to be.”
Each of our pros has experienced some kind of severe
challenge in his career and has still performed at a high level.
In the realm of bass fishing, being at a financial disad-
vantage relative to other competitors is usually one of the
initial challenges anglers face.
Today, Dudley is FLW’s all-time leading money winner
with more than $3.4 million in earnings, and Cox has
earned nearly $1 million – more than $520,000 just in the
last two seasons. Yet, neither had a padded bank account
when he started, and both incurred considerable amounts
of debt while pursuing their fishing careers. They got over
the hurdle because both have been able to focus and close
in big-money events when the financial strain was highest.
“I really don’t know how to explain that one,” Dudley
says. “All I know is that when the chips are down and my
back is up against the wall, I just become more determined
than ever to find that password to unlock that ‘vault of
knowledge.’ All this stuff is connected: Building confidence
in that vault is something than can be gained, but my
determination to keep trying passwords over and over is
something that’s just in my nature. I don’t quit.”
“I think that’s something that you’re either capable of or
you’re not,” Morgan adds. “I’m not sure that one can be
learned. When you look at the incredible performances
Dudley turned in when he was at his lowest point financial-
ly, it’s just amazing.”
Learning to Win: Fact or Fiction?
So, the question remains, can an angler learn to win?
Cox says he is proof of the affirmative. Early in his
career, he saw several prime chances to win evaporate
because of poor decisions or the pressure of a major
event. Now, with multiple major wins on his resume, he
sees exactly where he went wrong.
“Some of it was lack of confidence,” Cox concedes.
“Some of it was repeating mistakes instead of