Instinct

Have you ever had one of those tournament days where every decision you made was the right one? On the other hand, have you ever struggled just to try to fill your limit and every decision was the wrong one? I have experienced both kinds of days several times in the past and spent a lot of time thinking about why the bad days were bad, but never coming up with anything except excuses.
About two years ago I found a big piece of the puzzle.
I was watching the Bass Pros on TV and Rick Clunn was talking about fishing by your instinct. He stated that we make decisions based on either instinct or intellect, instinct being a gut feeling and intellect being a decision made after the thought process was complete. It was now starting to click! He went on to explain that the way to tell the difference between instinct and intellect is if your decision is based on fear, it is intellect.
After thinking about some past tournament experiences, I realized how true his theory was.
I remember tournaments where I stayed on a spot too long in fear of someone else getting the spot if I left, even though it was not producing well. And days when I left a spot to fish another before someone else got to it, decisions based on fear! I also found that on the tough days, I tended to over think, which took instinct out of the equation.
I also remembered on my best tournament days I didn't seem to feel any pressure and just fished by instinct (although I didn't realize it at the time) and the days ended with good results. One example is, last year I was fishing a Full Throttle tournament on Green lake. I normally fish a weedline that produces big fish, but this day only small keepers were there and we had about a eight pound limit half way through the day. I had my eye on a row of docks all day for no particular reason, but stuck with the weedline for fear of missing the big fish bite if it occurred. Finally I realized my instinct was telling me to fish the docks and I told my partner we were moving. On the second dock I stuck a fish under the boat lift which turned out to be over 5lbs, bumping our weight to over 12 lbs getting us a 7th place check and another for big bass. Had I not listened to my instinct, we probably would have ended up in the middle of the pack.
Since hearing Clunns theory my mental approach to fishing has changed. By being more aware of my instinct I make better decisions, I try to not overthink and if my gut is telling me something - I listen!