Murphy's Law of Fishing #3: Regardless of how many hours you've spent with strict concentration on your casting, the second you stop paying attention and aren't prepared, a fish can be guaranteed to strike your lure.

Concentration is perhaps one of the most important traits that an angler must possess to be successful in the sport of fishing. When a fish strikes, an angler must possess split-second reaction time in order to land whatever has decided to eat the bait they are offering. It is impossible though to spend hours on the water without losing one's concentration at one time or another. The moment you take your concentration of your casting however, you can bet your britches that a fish is going to strike.

Last summer we participated in a fun musky tournament with a bunch of our close fishing friends. The winner of the tournament would take home a trophy and a few nice prizes, but more importantly though, the winner would get bragging rights within the circle of friends.

Tournament day finally arrived and the action that day pretty well non-existent. The day slowly progressed into early afternoon and none of us had even had a sniff. Things were not looking very promising. This particular afternoon we were drifting a shoreline which looked promising. Just before we were coming to the end of the shoreline, Adam decided to give my rod a tap with his. It was just enough of a tap to ruin the action of the Suick I was working. I dropped my rod tip to the casting deck of the boat to turn around and give him my "You're gonna get yours!" look when a big splash was heard. I turned towards the splash and realized that it had come from where my Suick was sitting on top of the water. With my rod tip resting on the casting deck I knew I had missed the fish, but I gave a hopeful yank up on my rod only to find out what I knew was already true. The fish had taken a swipe at my lure, but due to the fact that I had stopped concentrating for those few seconds, I was unable to make a proper set to get the fish to the boat.

Not only did I miss the only fish that had hit all day, but I missed any chance I had of winning the tournament as well. We didn't get a good look at the fish, but there were very few fish caught that weekend due to a slow bite, so my chances of winning were probably pretty decent. Come to think of it, I still don't think I've gotten Adam back for that move so I guess I'd better start thinking of something for this upcoming season!