Tournament

[stellarfisher]

I will be in my first Bass tournament next week and was wondering if anyone has anything that I should know before I go. I have never entered or even seen a live tournament proceedings, so any help would be appreciated.

[buzzsaw]

Don't have any fish in your livewell when you start.

[Deitz Dittrich]

get there early and be ready to go...and if possible dotn take up any dock space.. the tournament will go fine, its the loading and unloading all the boats that can be a problem at times!

Best of luck, I'm sure you will do fine.. please post how you did and what worked for you. No need to mention lake..

[blakjack23]

Don't forget to have a tagging system to keep track of your fish and also a bag to transport them.

[stmichael]

Do not have any live bait in your boat...this is depending on the rules, typically though, no live bait.

[Wayne Ek]

Which tournament, what lake and what species.

[CASTnBLAST]

RELAX

[deepportage01]

don't let anybody tell you how to fish, just fish the way you do best. I have had people who I thought to be better fishermen than me tell me that the fish are deep 12-15 fow only to find out to late that they were not deep but shalow and in cover so just go with the gut and a little smarts.Good luck the tournament thing can be fun

[PerchJerker]

I go into tournaments with 1 of 2 game plans.

Game plan #1 is to try to catch a lot of fish and sort through smaller fish or the wrong species, and hope that by the end of the day you'll have put together a good weight. This is definately the fun way to go because you're catching fish but is not always the best way to place in the money.

Game plan #2 is to concentrate on what I think are big fish patterns or locations, and stick it out. This takes a lot of discipline and can mean long days, not many bites, and a lot of time to 2nd-guess your strategy, but you're fishing for "the right fish" that will put you in the money. Even so, getting the big weight doesn't happen that often, and this approach is generally a lot less fun than game plan #1 unless you get some fish early.

As I've fished more and more tournaments I find that I prefer to settle on 1 of these game plans and stick with it for the whole day, vs. jumping back and forth during the day. I might change from day to day depending on how the tournament is going, but I usually don't change during the day.

Above everything else, have fun, don't put pressure on yourself, and don't let yourself get frustrated. Lots of worse things you could be doing with your time. Good luck.

[ScottND]

Use new line and sharp hooks. Preparation is key! Know the lake and talk with locals and bait shops.

[stellarfisher]

Thanks for all of the information guys, those were great points that helped me prepare.