Confidence Builder/A reminder of why I do it

[cassidyta]

My last two tournaments have been downright terrible. I managed 1 measureable fish out of both events. I caught several shorts, but kept losing decent ones. In the last one, I broke off two and had my net guy knock one off when he went to scoop it. I had managed to go from 2nd in the AOY standings to mathmatically eliminated over 2 events. For a brief time, it stopped being fun for me. I had managed to become more focused on points than why I was out there in the first place.
So Saturday, I decided to meet up with a good friend to fish a pond. The pond is tiny, maybe 150 yards on length and I can cast the width. The deepest spot is only 10' deep and most of it is around 5'. Rather than taking everything in the arsenal, I took two rods. I had 1 spook, 1 spinner bait, a bag of worms with hooks and weights.
It was great to fish without the self imposed added pressure. I admit that I cursed when I missed the first spook fish, but eventually I settled in and enjoyed watching a sunrise and listening to the birds. Once I began enjoying my surroundings, the fish came easier than they have in a while.
The most productive bait was a 4 inch DS worm.
I ended the morning with 8 fish in about 3 hours and a reminder of why I do it.

This fish wasn't huge, but it was the one that broke the shortie skunk.