Newbie advice

[basssmasher*]

Heres the deal, I came here becuase you all give the bEST advice on fishing over all other fishing sights, so here goes.. Im a non-boater joining a club, and they dont draw lakes until the thrus before the sun tourney. seeing im new to the lakes we will fish but not new to bass fishing, what advice can one give me being in the back end of the boat? is it like i throw something totally diff than the boater or same rig diff color? i love fishing tubes and not the best at spinnerbait/cranks, my choice i wanna fish plastic but I know I have to adapt also.. help please!

[RK]

Hey teejay -

Don't fish back boat in tournaments really, but just based on fishing out of other people's boats from time to time, I think the main thing is to try to have the tools available that can keep you versatile without having to bring the kitchen sink. Unless you know who you're fishing with ahead of time and can communication with them and find out a little about their style and how they like to fish...kind of have to be ready for anything. So pick baits that are pretty versatile like jigs, spinnerbaits, swim jigs, etc., that you can fish in a variety of cover conditions and at a variety of speeds. You still have to fish to your strengths of course, but you might have to adapt what you like to do a little. Hard to fish plastics really slow if the driver likes to move at Mach 2...just as an example. But you can pitch and snipe the same plastic pretty quickly with a few adjustments.

Main thing though - don't bring every rod and tackle box you own

BTW - been meaning to track you down, but your PM box is full. Drop me an email at kimm dot rob at gmail dot com. Gotta talk to you about some fishing down by Sanborn.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[luv2senko]

If the boater is fishing slow enough, there is no greater back of the boat bait than a wacky rigged sinking worm. Otherwise if you are a plastics guy, just see what the boater is throwing and just change it up a bit. If he's throwing a green pumpkin tube, throw on a black/blue creature bait. If he is going fast throwing a shallow crankbait, follow behind with a lipless crank and burn it as fast as you can.

I think 6 rods is the max you need and you can probably get away with less. Try and get your tackle into something small enough that will allow you to fit it in an average storage compartment.

And whatever you do, just barely dip the bottom of your shoes in the lake before you get in the boat to prevent the spread of exotic dirt and sand into a bass boat.

[KickNBass]

The hardest thing for me is to work to the rhythm of the boater...i.e. when to cast. My buddy who taught me a lot of what i know is a deep water guy and if you didn't throw at the same time as him, you were in for a long day because he was a cast, jig a couple times and then foot on the trolling motor we're moving guy.

The other thing is paying attention to where he throws. Try to hit spots he misses.

One of my favorite back of the boat baits is a swim jig. You can cast it anywhere and catch fish. If the guy is working slow, you can fan cast the whole area deep to shallow. Find stuff he misses. If he's working fast, well, they work great fast too...

[grab the net]

Are you fishing with or against the boater? A wacky rigged senko bait is just tought to beat at this time of the year, front or back of the boat. If your running and gunning, a chatter bait with a plastice trailer is next, you can burn or slow it down, great reaction strike bait. Swim jig is a must a this time of the year also. Bluegill color with a twin tail trailer will do you right. Don't bring more than 4 rods, once you get dialed in you will probably only use two. Fish your confidence bait or technique, you will do much better that way than trying to experiment on the T day.

[MuskyBug85]

The back of the boat is a neat spot.... I fished from the back for the first time in a lot of years this spring when I fished the Bassmaster southern opens as a co. The biggest thing I learned was to fish what you believe in, what I mean is in florida I always read that they catch them good on a lipless so when I went down there I fished a lipless while my pros fished everything else and low and behold I caught fish, that was a pre-spawn tourney and being that up here we can't fish pre spawn I read as much as i could about pre spawn fish and applied what i learned. The next one was on Lake Norman in North Carolina and I was drawn with to guys that wanted to fish the river so we fished a bunch of water that looked just like the water they fished during the classic so I dug out a senko and fished it texas rigged real slow that my pro was beating up with a swim jig and once again i caught fish. I think that we often times get spun up that we are fishing used water in the back of the boat but think about the classic all those guys were fishing the same water and sharing it with each other, well for that matter look at the pictures for last weeks FLW they were all fishing shared water there too and and those guys managed to put together sacks up to 20lbs. As a co-angler the biggest tip i can give you is fish what you know, practice is for learn techniques tourney day is for catching and fish slow. your boater is always going to leave fish, just make sure your bait spends time in the water not in the boat thinking about what you should be throwing. And don't fret about fishing water he just fished, if it looks good throw there, you might know something he doesn't.

[Deitz Dittrich]

My advice.. fish your strengths.. If you like fishing a tube.. by all means, FISH A TUBE.. Dont worry about matching the color or bait or even NOT matching the bait the boater is throwing.. Throw what you think you should be throwing, You already stated you know how to bass fish.. so do just that.. Bass fish!

I have been in many back of the boats and tied on a dropshot or something and had the front boater look at me somewhat confused only to catch a ton of fish. Keep an eye on where the boaters casts, often try casting to the same area the boater has casted, sometimes that fish just needs a little extra time to see something.. Or also keep an eye to see what they may have missed.

The only time you are going to be in trouble is if the boater is set up to throw spinnerbaits or Cranks and has the boat a lot way off the structure/cover. then you will have to adapt.

[bryguy247]

In my experience as a co-angler, just make sure you know what kind of fishing your boater is going to be doing ahead of time, just to make sure you have the right set up with the correct line, rods, and baits. One time I didn't get enough info the night before we went out, and the only thing I was told by the boater, was that we were fishing shallow.... Ok, I had a tube on, a swim jig, a wacky worm, texas rigged breature bait, and a shallow running crank bait. All with 12lb or less line, I was thinking clear shallow water and maybe some flippin. That morning we got to his spot, and it was lilly pads as far as I could see, and we were in the middle of them. I would have given anything for one of my rods to have some heavy braided line on it. Anyways, Lesson learned. I bring a lot of stuff with me to an event, and ask alot of questions the night before. After the meeting the night before the event is when I decide how I will be set up. If you do have one setup that you have the best luck with or always use because you are confident in it, BRING IT, no matter what.

Great info from everyone on this!!

It's a lot of fun! Good luck to you.

[Bigguyone]

Depending how deep you end up fishing a splitshot rig can be very effective from the back of the boat... Similar to what was mentioned with the dropshot and weightless rigs.

I have found the back of the boat to be pretty strong myself for most things except flipping...Maybe its my personal issue with flipping more than likely :-)

[basssmasher*]

Thanks for all the input guys!! I appreciate it!.. To answer a question am I fishing with or against the boater, this is where Im confused a bit, as i was told it was team AND individual fishing, I think after the 5 events, the top ten point getters fish in the mega tourney.. Does this sound like it may be right? Also, I'v not fished splitshot/dropshot rigs too much so very little confidence there.. lol If I had my way id be pounding docks with deep water near by and shorelines with loth of cover, but I have NO clue what we wil be fishing.. lol

[grab the net]

Another thing about the back seat, it can be an advantage in real windy conditions. The guy on the trolling motor is constantly making corrections staying in position, that leaves you to just concentrate on the fish. It sounds like you and your boater will be a team, and keep the points individually towards qualifying for the championship. That makes it nice as you can truly work together to put the best bag in the boat. Good luck and let us know how you come out.

[basssmasher*]

sheesh, just noticed my typing in my last post was horrendous!! Good thing I'm a better fisherman than a typer!!