T
hey are the fortunate few - those an- glers who get to spend days, maybe even weeks on a large body of water in anticipa- tion of an upcoming tournament. These are the anglers who are arguably “in the hunt” to win a tournament before blast off even begins. They know the changing conditions. They know the water’s color and temperature in different parts of the lake. They have learned where hidden under- water features lie, out of sight of the visiting angler and saved only for those deep in the “know”.
It’s the visiting angler who is at the distinct disadvantage here. or maybe the “local” angler who knows the lake well, but just hasn’t had the time to spend on the water getting reacquainted with it. These are the people i am writing this article for. These are the people i am hoping to reach and plant the seed of an idea of where to start and how to logically approach these situations maintaining an attitude of self- confidence and positive thinking. i have been traveling around the western United States, mostly Northern Calif., Nev., and ariz. competing in Pro-am’s for the last several years. even though several of the bodies of water visited were relatively close to my home town, due to my busy work and fishing schedule, i rarely - if ever had the opportunity to pre-fish the lake until just a couple days prior to the start of the tournament. dealing with this handicap has taught me several things that have benefited me in my search for “money” locations.
Lets start with the obvious disadvantage of having to compete with the local angler who has been living on the water. over the years, it has been proven time and time again that the majority of these local anglers will “tank” come tournament time. The reasons will vary from having to share the water or fishing community holes to having just too many spots picked out, too far apart that it gets into their heads, they lose focus and fish ineffectively.
of course, overall the advantage still goes to the locals, all the same; but there is absolutely nothing we can do about that, so don’t even try and compete “against” them. don’t let them get into your head. don’t spend too much precious pre fish time looking for that “secret spot” that even the locals don’t know about. don’t try to cover the very backs of every creek channel or spend your time looking in every bay or on every point for that magical school of winning bass. let the locals have it and focus only on what works for you and what is within your area of comfort. Fish for “your” fish. of course, your pre-fish should start well before you leave the house for the long drive to the lake. Call a buddy. Call a buddy of a buddy. Call a local tackle store. Get some type of information regarding how tournaments are usually won this time of year. Find out average water temperatures, lake levels and what stage the bass are in- albeit spawn, post spawn, summer patterns etc. Find out if there are any specific baits or colors that have been on fire there; so at least you can show up prepared for conditions all the locals may know about.
Once you have spent some time researching the lake and gathering information, pull out a topographical map and go over it carefully. if it is a storage reservoir, make sure you are accounting for current water levels and then look for textbook locations that correspond with the seasonal patterns at the appropriate depth. if it is early spring, focus on northern exposures that get the most sunlight or look for large flats in creeks near deep creek channels where fish might stage and even spawn. Mark some of these places in different parts of the lake. don’t go crazy though. Unless you have an excellent topographical map on your graph, you will need the paper map to search out under water structure while on the lake and you will want to be able to still read it. it’s actually pretty ironic to note, if people knew where most of the tournaments were won, they’d
Issue 3
June 2012
17