It's No Accident This Partnership Clicks

I read here awhile back about a young man who had asked a veteran tournament angler how he should pick a tournament partner. With only a touch of humor in his voice, the veteran replied, "About as carefully as choosing a wife.

"Depending on how many tournaments you plan to fish and how much practice time you plan to devote," he explained, "you may spend almost as much time with your tournament partner in a given season as you do with your life partner. Needless to say, besides looking for someone who is a good angler, you also have to be able to get along with your partner. Remember that you are going to be spending eight or nine hours a day in the boat with this person during tournaments, plus the time you spend prefishing. That is more than enough time and opportunity to clobber each other, especially when the fishing's tough, so choose wisely."

The veteran went on to point out that when it comes to a tournament partnership, "You also need to have 'chemistry.' By that, I mean you should work well together as a team and be able to trust each other... . Come tournament day, each partner must be able to trust the other to only take them to spots where there is a good chance to catch good fish. You need to have as much confidence in your partner's spots as you do your own, or you won't fish effectively, and then you're just wasting your time.

"This chemistry also should involve the way you fish. For example, if both anglers only can cast a certain way or only from the front of the boat, they may find they're constantly getting in each other's way. Ideally, you want a partner who complements your fishing style, rather than mirrors or interferes with it. There is something to be said for a partner whose strengths, when it comes to certain fishing styles or techniques, are somewhat different from yours. This difference adds to your team's versatility, but in the long run, it's better if you both prefer to fish in similar ways, or one of you probably is not going to be very happy a lot of the time."

While some people prefer a partner with less experience than they have, the vast majority agree that the best situation is when partners are of basically similar or equal skill levels and experience. That's the case with Wayne Hayes and Al Napier (see photo above). Both have been fishing for a long time, and they've both had their share of partners over the years. As a result, they are "comfortable" with each other and work well together.

There's no denying that latter statement, even if based only on the success they have enjoyed since May 2017, when they started fishing the Dewey Mullins Memorial Bass Tourney Series as a team. That year, Wayne and Al racked up a total of three first-place finishes in the latter half of the season. And they put the cherry on top of their sundae by walking away with first place in the 2017 Classic, where they amassed a record-setting figure of 32.69 lbs. over the two days of competition. Did I mention they also claimed the seasonal lunker award last year as well? Their prize-winning fish tipped the scales at 6.82 lbs.

Wayne and Al once again proved their competitiveness in 2018 by securing three first-place finishes in a row during the latter half of the year.

Like a fine wine, a good team only gets better with age, and Wayne and Al make that point every time they hit the water together. They're short on dock talk but long on quietly winning.