Breakin’ new Down water
A
part of being a competitive angler is uti- lizing every advantage offered for any given situation. to be one step above the competition, you must be a little more prepared than your competition is willing to commit to. i am a firm believer in doing as much homework on any and every given lake i fish; so that i will be fully confident in my technique when i hit the water. Not everyone has the benefit of be- ing able to fish up to the day of the big tournament, so it can be tough on any angler to know what it is they want to do once they get their line wet. There a variety of reasons that an angler’s on the water pre fish time can be limited. Sometimes due to off limits, work commitments, finances, personal obligations and the list goes on. When fishing in the FlW College Fishing circuit, we do not have the luxury of being able to pre fish up to the date of the tournament. We have anywhere from
a five to nine day cutoff period prior to tournament day that we are “blacked out” from the water. Unfortunately in the Western division, i do not have any local events on lakes that we can become familiar with; so that makes it even tougher to really get a good understanding of the lake and what the fish are doing. This is where good homework really comes into play. However, with access to the internet, it is very easy to become familiar with patterns and trends of unfamiliar lakes.
By JusTin gangel
Story & Photos
PRIOR EVENTS
My first step for learning a new lake before even stepping foot on the water is to look into past tournament results. There is usually a great deal of information shared by pros and co-anglers alike for any given lake. its easy to find what time of the
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