SMall laKe praCtiCe Course
really never seems to work out in your favor and spending a full day or two with one bait working on gaining confidence and knowing what that bait does might not be the best thing for your tournament suc- cess. With the rising cost of fuel, i am sure many of you have one or two of these lakes that are close by and many of you have probably never or seldom fish them. take the opportunity this year to include them into your fishing and develop a couple of these lakes into your practice courses. look at them like a golfer has his local nine hole course that he uses to practice. The one thing you will find is many times the smaller lakes go off earlier than the bigger lakes, they warm quicker, clear up sooner and rise and fall with their levels much faster and often times they are days, weeks or months ahead of the bigger reservoirs. Practicing early on a lake allows you to take some- thing you did weeks or months ago on that smaller body of water and it relate it later it to a larger lake you may have a tournament on.
If you are a club fisherman, these local smaller lakes are the perfect place to suggest that your club hold its monthly event at. Sure, everyone wants to fish the popular lakes; but it gets a bit crowded and you guys can really have your own lake to fish an event at most of the time. Many of these places are privately owned and welcome clubs and appreciate the business offering the clubs discounts, prizes or use of their facilities if you use their lake. So keep it in mind for a suggestion to your club for those events that draw 15 to 25 boats. if you’re looking for a place to get the kids out or if you’re a novice angler that may not appreciate a 70- mph run through Potato Slough or jumping from white cap to white cap on Clear lake, these practice course lakes offer a relaxed day without the big water runs that might scare the heck out of your kids or new partners. i, in no way am saying not to go fishing on the delta or Clear lake; i am just trying to point out that by working on your game and spending a little time catching more fish, learning how to break down pat- terns and different waters it will do nothing but help you in your bigger tournaments. i am going to leave you with one more tip that will help all bass anglers if they just practice it-how many of you practice netting fish during your fun fishing or pre fishing days? That is what i thought and you expect your partner to be the perfect net man. You expect them to be calm when it comes to scooping up your ten pounder at the delta even when they get overwhelmed and usually beat them right between the eyes! Next time out practice like it is game day, find your local practice course and improve your bass fishing game. don’t forget to leave the house by 5:00 a.m. on Sat, set the radio to 1140 aM for the Ultimate Bass radio Show and we will have you in the mood to catch some big ones when you get there.
Kent Brown is a long time Western Pro and host’s the Ultimate Bass Radio Show on Sports 1140 The Fan every Saturday at 5: 00 a.m. You can catch the archives at www.ultimatebassradio.com, here on the radio pages of westernbass.com along with getting free podcasts on Itunes. He also hosts the largest instructional, free monthly bass fishing class the Ulti- mate Bass University at Gone Fishin’ Marine in Dixon the third Tuesday of every month.
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