Planning for tournaments

[shiltsy]

Going into my second year of fishing club bass tournaments. It's been a blast and I've done ok, but I don't feel like I have a solid proactive approach going into the tournaments and definitely haven't been able to identify patterns.

Here are a few things I'm trying this year to get more methodical, along with some questions:

1. Start by to determining fish "mood" and general locations based on water temp, weather patterns, weed growth, season, etc... For instance, pre spawn fish in 60 degree water after 4 days of stable weather would likely be moving shallow and feeding aggressively.

2. Identify the predominant forage for the lake. Anyone have hints on how to find this when fishing many different lakes? I'd love to match the hatch, but I don't know what's hatching!

3. Find structure changes, weed variation, weed transitions, etc.... I can do the structure thing with my GPS/lakemap, but not sure the best way to find some of the weed variations without spending hundreds of hours on a body of water. As much as I'd love to, I just don't have that much time available.

4. Once I have a basic plan of attack from steps 1-3, time to select some lures/presentations. Again, I have plenty of options, but would like to be more methodical rather than tying up 8 rods and throwing the kitchen sink.

Anyone have any other thoughts/resources that they wouldn't mind sharing? I know there's no substitute for being on the water, but I really think a better up front plan (that I stick to) would be helpful.

[BassNut33]

This will be my first year of club tournaments so I would be really interested in hearing what everyone has to say. As far as finding out the forage the DNR has great information on their HSOforum using heir lake finder option. I have gone to other states websites not a one compares.

I use it for all the lakes I fish.

[Fever]

I am far from a tournament professional but I have fished in a league for the past 7 summers. I have learned alot and have had to change my way of thinking several times over. First, the advice you receive on this should depend on your club's rules. For example my league fishes wednesday evenings from 6-9pm on a randomly drawn lake in the west metro area of the state. The lake is drawn from a jar of possible lakes at 3pm so pre fishing is really unpredictable. Since we only fish for 3 hours and there is usually 10-15 boats time is major factor. I used to try to find the spot on the spot, fish slow and methodical with vertical presentations. A few times it would work and I'd have some success but for the most part I'd find myself in 4th place. Weird but its crazy how many times I've gotten 4th place... Anyway, when I started "power"fishing, or covering more water I started having a bit more success. I will typically throw a shallow crank while my partner throws a spinnerbait and when we can, we flip or skip docks or pockets in weed growth with jigs or t-rigged tubes or worms. When we start catching fish in an area we try to put that day's pattern together as far as lure, line, color, speed, depth. Etc. and it really does work. When people say; Let the fish tell you what they want. This is what they are talking about. In central min lakes I believe your dominant forage fish is the sunfish, perch, crawfish, and bullheads. Depending on clarity a person could use anytype of bait that mimics these and do well in most lakes. Smaller profiles in spring and larger as the water warms and summer progresses. Yes, I do have some fav deep water spots saved on the GPS but I will try to cover water first to get my limit in the boat before I upgrade. Our Limit per 3 hours is 3 fish per boat rather than 5.

[Deitz Dittrich]

#1- I think you are over analyzing. Weather may be the single most important. If the weather has been stable for a few days, that can be the best most active fish. They will also be more active as the baro drops. While a pay attention to water temp in the spring. Once the spawn is done I may never look at it again.

#2- bass are opportunistic feeders, if there were enough dog turds in the lake and it fed them, they would feed on them. Here in MN, I think its safe to say that sunfish and small perch may be the main forage. Crayfish to some extent as well. But I think small sunfish are the main one.

#3 Break the lake down. You do not need to search the whole lake. Look at the map and find the areas that look best. And search just that area. As for finding weed changes, just got to use your eyes. main thing, break the lake down into high quality zones.. As the season changes those high quality zones may change.

#4 There are no secret lures. None.. Billy Bob Bass will eat 1000 different lures if you put it in front of his face the right way. Your job is to find the most efficient way to catch him. A deep diving crank bait is not affective in shallow milfoil. But a jig dipped in the pockets might be. Take the weather(how big the strike zone will be) the wind and where the fish is located, then choose the lure that would be easiest to get to that local.

Extra= Keep a journal. Maybe even journal every hour on the hour. You will be amazed at the patterns you are coming up with yourself.

[thatoneguy]

+1 on DD's journal idea. I haven't fished tournaments yet (wishing there was a club in the LeeCh Lake area!) but I did start keeping a journal last year and I was amazed at how helpful it was.

[RK]

Hiya -

I don't fish tournaments (don't have anything against them...just don't enjoy them) but I do take a pretty systematic approach to fishing new water - or water I haven't fished lately - that is probably applicable. A lot of it I learned from listening to guys like Rick Clunn, the Lindsay brothers (a couple guys that dominate Canadian smallie tournaments) and KVD describe how they prefish. Principle is the same whether it's new water or prefishing: find fish quickly and identify patterns. It's also an approach I use regardless of what species I'm fishing.

It all starts with the In-Fisherman F + L + P system. It works, and I've used it so long it's just how my head works when I pick up a fishing rod.

1.) I always start with studying a map and any other lake information I can find (LakeFinder is invaluable). I look at survey data to get an idea of what bass populations are like and what average fish size is, water clarity, which helps me get a guess on weedline depth, bottom content, etc.

2.) Divide the lake into logical sections. Especially if it's a big body of water, I try to cut the lake down into manageable chunks. I'll then start to focus on the lake sections that provide year-round habitat. I think those areas tend to have the highest numbers of fish overall.

3.) I then start to think about seasonal patterns, and look for lake sections that have the most options for the likely seasonal patterns. As an example, a lake section with a long main lake point and a couple offshore humps will be a lot more interesting in August than it would be in June.

If you think about it, just those three steps can eliminate about 80% of the water a lot of the time. It allows you to really pick apart what's left in a hurry.

4.) I try to pay attention to weather trend for the couple days prior to fishing. That'll give me an idea at least of what fish mood might be like.

5.) Once I get on the water, I look at the sections I've decided to start with and think about what potential seasonal patterns may be available, then try the best looking spots that fit each of those patterns, and fish them quickly. My late friend Jack Burns used to call this "pattern sampling" and it's a great way to get a start on developing a pattern. He started pretty much every day doing this, even on a lake (Lake of the Woods) he fished every day and knew like the back of his hand. Basically, you cherry pick the best looking spots in the section - the best point, the best inside turn, the best rush bed, or best set of docks - and quickly fish them with a reaction bait.

Even if I catch fish, I won't stop and fish the area with something slower until I've run through my list of options. Then I kind of take stock of what I've learned, and decide which patterns I think have potential and want to spend time developing more.

As Deitz pointed out, this is where taking notes really helps. I keep a notebook in my glove box, and jot things down as I move from spot to spot. Fishermen are good at lying to themselves, and you can really fool yourself if you rely on memory alone. At the end of the day you can think back and say "well, I caught 6 fish on a crankbait and only 3 on a spinnerbait" but may not remember that you fished a crank for 2 hours, and a spinnerbait for only 45 minutes... Or, that you only caught two pitching shallow weeds, but they were both quality fish. So which one was really more productive? I also make notes on the map - weedgrowth, stuff like that. GPS is great, but going analog really helps jog the memory.

Once I get an idea of what patterns may be happening, I'll start broadening my search to find similar areas elsewhere on the lake. Ideally you get a couple patterns that are viable - it's pretty rare that only one thing is working, and it's always nice to have options when a pattern craps out, which they can do.

Bottom line for me though, it's all about being methodical and developing patterns. I guess since I'm trying to learn the lake rather than get ready for a single event, patterns matter a lot more to me than spots, because spots aren't necessarily consistent over time. But even for a tournament I'd think patterns are more reliable unless it's a really short event, especially if you have a couple of them available. A pattern can also really, really help you find secondary spots that get overlooked because you can look for something specific, like an inside turn or small weed point.

Anyhow, that's probably more than you wanted to know, but that's more or less my approach.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[bemidjibasser]

+2 on the journal. I have kept one since the late '90's and can pretty much set my rods up before I get to a lake that I have fished several times by paging through past journals to identify the patterns that should be prevalent.

I keep a list of: Air temp, wind speed/direction, water temp and clarity, sky conditions(clouds, etc.), barometer, area of the lake, depth most fish were caught, cover(weeds rocks, etc.), bottom content, retrieve speed/style, strike (how were fish hooked/ how did the fish hit), time of day, lure (type and color), number of fish caught on each lure including any large fish or oddities that occur

I record these in my fishing log for each trip on the water along with what my partner for the day may have caught and how as well.

It takes a little time, but is absolutely worth it to me.

All of that being said, nothing can will help you learn faster than time on the water...

[grab the net]

Your basic plan of attack seems pretty solid. If you know your lakes ahead of time, and I assume you do if this a Bass Club format with weekend t's, pre-fishing as much as possible on that body of water before the prescribed off limits is best. However, 20 hours of pre-fishing for a club T isn't feasible for most of us. Unfortunately there really is no substitute for TOW. When in doubt fish your strengths, enjoy the day and after a few years the pieces will fall in to place.

[Superduty]

Lots of good advice from everybody. RK mentioned it but I will reitterate.

1. DON'T LIE TO YOURSELF! We all tend to overestimate an area's potential. It's important to recognize a solid pattern or area vs. getting lucky.

2. Fish your strengths. You might be better off doing something you are good at vs. doing what you feel is the main pattern on the lake.

3. If it ain't working...Quit doing it! I've been guilty of trying to force a pattern or area when I would have been better off starting over.

4. Fish today's conditions. Yesterday might have been great. You probably found those fish by doing what was right for the conditions. Today is usually different than yesterday.

[shiltsy]

Thanks for the great feedback, everyone... I'm going to digest this and build a pre-fishing checklist. That will help me focus in on a plan going into any fishing trip. I'll send a link to it once I'm done....

[TonkaBass]

Fish during practice as hard as you would fish the actual tournament minus the catching all the fish. Practice is a time for just that. Do everything you want to do, even if it seems off the wall and dumb. Tournaments are won by stupid things found in practice. With that said, I like to take a lunch break during practice sometimes to clear my head, but when i am fishing, I fish hard.