Tournament Addiction – By Jason Houchins

Tournament Addiction

Have you ever been sitting in your boat waiting for a tournament to blast off and thought about how much money is around you in boats? And then you look at the tow vehicles and wonder how much they cost? Now add the tackle, rods, reels, and gear and you start to wonder about the sanity of everyone around you, including yourself. What is so alluring about tournament bass fishing? Are we all nothing more than high stakes gamblers that go to a lake instead of a casino to get our fix? I wish I had the answer, if I did then I would be a millionaire. I would unlock the secret of what makes all of us tournament anglers tick. All walks of life tournament fish, if you could bottle it up, it’s the perfect product that appeals to all. Tournament fishing has no bias, every age group, every race, every gender, and every class of people are involved. Why? This is not about the cost of stuff, I’d rather not give my wife anymore proof that I spend too much money fishing. This is about the question, why we do it! We all know the guy who can’t buy groceries, but shows at every tournament. We also know the guy that has more money than God and will spend a thousand bucks to win a hundred. I know we all know this guy too; “I tournament fish cause I enjoy it, I don’t care about winning.” He tells you this while he’s sitting in his $70,000 boat with two TV screens, spooling up his $500 reel. I mean can’t we just all be honest about it? For me it’s definitely about the rush of competition. I’ve always been competitive my whole life, no matter what I’m doing. I may only show it to a few people who are close to me, but it’s true. I hate to lose at anything, it eats me up and drives me to work hard to try to succeed. Fishing is no different, I want to win every tournament I fish. I don’t care if it’s for $5 or $50,000, I still want to win. I also honestly believe that most anglers who fish tournaments feel the exact same way. What else would make us act the way we do? It’s sure not for money and if someone tells you that, they are only fooling themselves. I mean simple addition and subtraction blows that out of the water. It has to be for the prestige and satisfaction of accomplishment in an event. That’s really what all of us want from life in general, being satisfied with accomplishment. I also believe with tournament fishing, it’s a constant challenge where the competition changes from day to day and so do the fish. I guess at its core it’s just like any other sport, except anyone can play. The problem with all of this is…..You will lose way more than you win. The numbers are in favor of this. Take KVD, possibly the greatest tournament angler of all time, how many tournaments has he actually won? KVD has fished 269 BASS events and won 20 of them. That means that he actually wins only 7.4% of the time he fishes! To be fair to KVD, he is in the money 82% of the time he fishes. But it is something to keep that in mind, and if you win 10% of your local events you’re doing really well. With all of this being said, I have totally come to the realization that I’m an addict. I’m a drug addict, and my drug of choice is tournament fishing. That’s what I do, that’s what I enjoy, and I really don’t want to be without it. Sounds like an addiction to me! My name is Jason, I’m 41 years, old and I’m a Tournament Addict. Who’s with me?

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