(Editor’s note: Starting immediately, FLW Tour pro Adrian Avena has agreed to make regular blog contributions approximately once a month on FLWOutdoors.com. Going forward, bass-fishing fans will be treated to a wide array of blogs from a host of different FLW Tour pros on FLWOutdoors.com leading up to the 2014 season and beyond.)

Every anglers’ dream is to roll up to the spot they found during their practice period, take a few casts and catch nothing but “ga ga ga giant bass” like Dave Mercer will say. Unfortunately, more times than not, these types of days do NOT happen … at least for me.

A perfect example of this was the weekend I spent fishing on Lake Conroe during the Toyota Texas Bass Classic.

The TTBC, is a three day event, which starts on Friday, and runs through Sunday. All contestants are given three days of official practice, Monday through Wednesday, with a pro-am tournament on Thursday.

In just five hours of fishing the pro-am, I along with my partners Michael Nesbit and Merrill Zubizarreta, caught three fish weighing 20 pounds, 12 ounces, including a 9-pounder. This not only won the tournament, but swept top prizes for big bass awards on both sides along with combined heaviest weight by 3 pounds!

However, just a few days later, Keith Combs was crowned the 2013 TTBC champion while I recorded a stringer weighing 50 pounds less than that. In the end, I wound up finishing just a few places out of last place.

We all have poor events, and I promise this will not be my last. But my point for this blog is to tell you to not get discouraged after a bad day on the water. Sometimes the worst practices of your life turn into a winning tournament performance while some of the best practices can turn around and bite you like this one did to me.

In the end, the most important lesson is to make sure you learn something from each and every tournament – regardless of the outcome.

To keep up with Adrian Avena’s offseason exploits, make sure to check out his website at www.adrianavena.com.

You can also follow Adrian Avena on Facebook on his Fans of Bass Pro Adrian Avena Facebook page.