Casey Tutorow is shown here with his tournament partner, Andrew Han, with a couple of great fish caught from his new SeaArk ProCat 200. Tutorow believes strongly that confidence in yourself, your partner, and your boat will pay big dividends in your fishing.
The Confidence Factor in Catfishing
Learn to trust your gut.
by Ron Presley
Successful catfish anglers have confidence in their boat, their equipment, their bait, their partner, and themselves. Anglers that lack a high level of confidence are not likely to perform as well as those that do.
Sports psychologist, Dr. Jim Taylor, says on his website [drjimtaylor.com] that “Confidence is the single most important mental factor in sports.”
He goes on to define confidence as “…how strongly you believe in your ability to achieve your goals. Confidence is so important because you may have all of the ability in the world to perform well, but if you don’t believe you have that ability, then you won’t perform up to that ability.”
The good news is that Taylor says confidence is a skill that can be learned. I think this is an important recognition for catfish anglers who for whatever reason don’t fish this tournament or that tournament because of a deceived lack of skills and a low level of confidence.
Catfishing can often be a mental game. Anglers are facing various decisions all day long and having confidence in their decision making is essential. The physical skills can be grasped and when they are, the mental skills can be mastered. And that includes confidence.
Tournament angler Casey Tutorow views catfishing similar to how Taylor views all sports. Like Taylor, he believes that the skills that lead to confidence can be learned.
Tutorow also notes the importance of having confidence in your partner, your boat, your equipment, and your bait. Each one of these is another element affecting your confidence. Time on the water is key in mastering these elements of confidence.
Confidence in Your Partner
“Tournament catfishing is a team sport,” stated Tutorow. “Teams are typically made up of 2 or 3 anglers. Teams spend a tremendous amount of time together traveling and fishing. When teaming up with somebody I would recommend that you look for someone who you get along with well. It is always nice to have a good friend as a partner.”
“Tournament catfishing can be stressful at times. Being able to communicate and make decisions together is huge. If you don’t work well together as a team then you should just stay at the dock in tournament fishing.”
Confidence in Your Boat
Boats are an important choice for tournament anglers and dependability is a must. Tutorow has long chosen SeaArk as his boat of choice. It is the one that gives him the confidence he is looking for.
“Your boat is your number one tool on the water,” explains Tutorow. “Having the confidence that it is going to hold up to all the conditions you meet up with is critical.”
“In tournament catfishing, you will see all kinds of boats. I run a SeaArk ProCat 200. I just recently upgraded. Before the 200, I ran a 1672 SeaArk. I’ve had great luck and experienced great durability out of these boats.”
“SeaArk is an industry-leading company for a reason. I would highly recommend to give them a test ride if you haven’t been in one before. Having confidence in your boat will help keep you at the top of your game.”
Confidence in Your Equipment
Catfish get huge. That fact alone is reason enough to carefully select your equipment. You don’t want to hook that catfish of a lifetime only to lose it to inferior equipment. Advice from friends on equipment is a starting point, but using and testing equipment yourself cannot be beat when it comes to building confidence in your gear.
“Not only having confidence in your own ability but your equipment is key,” instructed Tutorow. “Some of these big catfish are bruisers. You never know when you might hook into the 100 pounder you have been chasing. I recommend top quality products and gear. Time on the water in different situations will help make your choices related to equipment and help you become an all-around better angler.”
Confidence in Your Bait
It is not unusual to hear catmen taking about bait, weeks in advance of a tournament. Social media is filled with queries about where the bait is. It is a known fact among catfish pros that fresh bait is a confidence builder.
“To be a good catfisherman you have to be a great bait fisherman,” instructs Tutorow. “We spend hours, sometimes days, catching bait leading up to the big events. If you don’t have good fresh bait when targeting trophy catfish, you are starting at a disadvantage and it can affect your confidence.”
“Good, bloody, fresh, natural, bait is the best thing you can use. Bait is the number one thing you use to coax that fish into biting. It is extremely important to make sure it’s as fresh as possible.”
“If I don’t have fresh bait I don’t even want to go to the river,” said Tutorow. “The one exception is in the winter in colder water. I don’t notice as much of a difference and I will use frozen bait.”
Confidence in Yourself
The final part of the puzzle is having confidence in yourself. Some anglers are naturally confident, while others have to learn it. Thankfully, as pointed out by Dr. Taylor, confidence is a skill that can be learned.
Tutorow is a believer in mastering multiple techniques as a builder of confidence. The more methods you have mastered, the more confidence you have to tackle that next tournament and whatever Mother Nature throws at you.
“I encourage people to pick a technique and practice, practice, practice,” instructs Tutorow. “Then when the next tournament rolls around, and the water is 20 feet high, you know how to pick up your bumping rod and get out on the water. Or, you know how to deploy those planer boards when necessary. Being comfortable with multiple techniques and having the ability to change when needed will give you more confidence in different situations on the water.”
“Confidence in fishing is one of the most important tools to have in your tackle box,” Tutorow said. “If you don’t have confidence in your partner, boat, bait, equipment, and strategy or technique you won’t be as successful as you could be and you might find yourself discouraged when having a tough day on the water.”
Given his job and family situation, when Tutorow goes fishing it is typically in tournament competition. Even though he is competing against the other anglers he is also competing with himself and it helps him develop his strategy for the tournament.
“I want to strive to get better,” explained Tutorow. “Every time I go out fishing, I try to put pieces of the puzzle together. I check weather reports, solar-lunar calendars, water temperatures, and current flow rates.”
“I collected all the information I can,” continued Tutorow. “Then I try to think back to past experiences and develop my gut decision on the fishing.”
On one occasion Tutorow and Han fished a tournament out of Hovey Lake with access to the Ohio River. As they travelled to the location, they discussed the current conditions and considered locking through the dam. Their confidence in making location decisions paid off.
“We discussed past experiences in the truck,” explained Tutorow. “Our discussion brought to mind a spot upriver that we thought would be holding fish this time of year. It just seemed right to us and at takeoff we headed to that spot. When we arrived, we caught 11 fish in the first hour. They were all 8 to 15 pounds. We fished for a few more hours and caught several more but nothing bigger.”
“We decided to move upriver,” continued Tutorow. “We drove by an area I had never seen before but it looked really good. It was a big outside bend with a lot of rock structure. My gut told me there had to be some big fish in the area. We moved down to the rocky area and within two hours we caught a 67- and 28-pound fish. We added another 28 pound over fish. Having confidence in ourselves and our decisions paid off.”
Tutorow believes that time on the water and all those experiences that go with it are important to confidence building. Which in turn leads to trusting your gut when needed. Just like the science suggests, he believes confidence is something he has learned and you can too.
“I believe confidence is something I have learned,” concluded Tutorow. “I gained confidence from success. I gained success from time on the water and drive. I believe that years of experience in anything you do in life will help you learn to be confident in the tasks you are required to perform. As you spend time on the water and learn to trust your gut, it will pay off big time.”
