Pre tournament practice and finding fish!!

[Umgettinbetta]

Hey gang! Been bass fishing for 5yrs now and like so many others I struggle immensely in locating fish! My questions are when pre practicing for tournaments or fun searching for bass, after doing your map and online studies how are you guys that are having success go about fishing your "trial sites"?? Types of lures and the approach your applying when searching. I know all things in bass fishing are conditional but how long you stay in an area to figure something out. Are you hitting everything when searching or high percentage spots? I live in the north central Florida area and fish a ton of the local lakes with ORANGE LAKE considered as my home waters. I do have a little experience on the St johns river but it frustrates the hell outta me... Like driving blind. I'm insanely competitive and I want to be a player every time I'm out on the water. I read, watch vids and have a bass university subscription. My bass circle is small, literally me and two buddies and I'm tasked with teaching them lol. Just anything and everything you guys got for me that can help in my approach is appreciated. I fish as much as I can varying from 2 - 4 times a week. I can't speed time as I know so many will say time on water is most important. But I have problems with the day to day... So many of my catches just seem random at best and I have a hard time "listening to the fish". Sorry so long but hopefully I'm understood.

Bryan

[gitzit26]

Bryan
I have fished for bass the better part of 30 years 20 competitively (local clubs and opens) I picked up on a statement you made that I have also felt and that was “ so many of my catches just seem random” look a little harder at those random catches because those are the answers and it’s up to you to decide the WHY. I fish with/against one of the best fisherman I know and we fish opens together and compete against each other in our local club, he is able to pick up on some of the smallest clues and run wild with them when I would look past them, but sometimes it doesn’t work and your better off getting back to the basics which i follow. Those basics are fish my strengths don’t get wrapped up in dock talk or hype of what the guy won on last week, go out fish what you have confidence in and when you catch one stop slow down and think about what happened before when and after you caught that fish because I’d bet that fish wasn’t alone and it wasn’t sitting there starving itself. In practice pre-fishing you need to look at what your learning and think about why those fish are there and where they are headed next because here today gone tomorrow is a fact. Don’t forget to have fun and don’t let the competitive urge kill the fun. Hope this helps.

[Umgettinbetta]

Bryan
I have fished for bass the better part of 30 years 20 competitively (local clubs and opens) I picked up on a statement you made that I have also felt and that was “ so many of my catches just seem random” look a little harder at those random catches because those are the answers and it’s up to you to decide the WHY. I fish with/against one of the best fisherman I know and we fish opens together and compete against each other in our local club, he is able to pick up on some of the smallest clues and run wild with them when I would look past them, but sometimes it doesn’t work and your better off getting back to the basics which i follow. Those basics are fish my strengths don’t get wrapped up in dock talk or hype of what the guy won on last week, go out fish what you have confidence in and when you catch one stop slow down and think about what happened before when and after you caught that fish because I’d bet that fish wasn’t alone and it wasn’t sitting there starving itself. In practice pre-fishing you need to look at what your learning and think about why those fish are there and where they are headed next because here today gone tomorrow is a fact. Don’t forget to have fun and don’t let the competitive urge kill the fun. Hope this helps.

Thanks very enlightening post. I know this is how I am to think about fish catches but here in Florida preferably the lakes I fish, we don't seem to have very many pattern lakes more area/spot oriented. For me it's always just been more of a hopscotch approach to catch fish and I have the hardest time figuring the clues... But thank you for your time and response

[TohoRookie]

I am far from qualified to answer this, but I will give my two cents. There's always a pattern. Even if there's randomness, and I'm not sharp enough to recognize it in the moment. Like everything in life, fundamentals, simplicity work for me when I'm a.) trying somewhere new or b.) not catching anything.
Moving baits like topwaters, jerkbaits, lipless, chatterbaits I go to the following: Points. The mouths of canals. How far off these is usually a pattern. They always relate in some way to these places or depth changes. How is the question. Are they staged up at the first offshore point, or hump? Second? First deep shelf?
If that does not work, I go to dragging baits:
Darkest shade possible. The heaviest cover you can find (I'm admittedly terrible at flipping so I treat it as a last resort).
Or, look for suspended fish on electronics (did not find any last week). Cruising around sucks, but it usually produces a pattern that can last a while if you get on them. Where I'm at, they are not suspended now though.

Now, for attempting to sound like I know what I'm doing, I will likely get skunked tomorrow.

[rjw11111]

Been fishing tourneys for 40+ years, mainly practicing Im looking for areas with fish so I cover alot of water and don"t spend much time fishing the same area. After practice I decide which areas give me best chance to win. On tourney day I fish these areas thourghly hoprfully it works out. I usually do better do better staying in an area and catching every fish I can, but when that doesnt work I will hit spots [brush pile,dock , rock pile etc] I may fish them for a couple of minutes then move to next spot. Dont be afraid to try diffent presentations then you caught fish on in practice every days different. Hope this helps

[Sbassin22]

My approach goes along with the details mentioned above. I use a moving bait that I'm immensely confident in to cover water and find an active fish or two. Then hopefully I can slow down there and pick it apart with another confidence bait. I try to find active fish, so if I have to soak a senko on the bottom to catch those particular fish I'd rather just move. If it's a new lake or section of lake I want to cover water.

Then with each fish stop and pay attention to the details:
See bait around?
Water temp
water color
depth
contours (steep, flat, close to deep water?)
cover
thickness of cover
bottom composition
windblown current or not
what bait do you see in the area
anything in it's mouth or spit up

If you can piece a couple of those together your can find more fish IMO because for me it tells me where to confidently slow down and work an area hard.

[DrewFlu33]

Sort of heading in a different direction...the biggest thing that's made a difference for me in finding fish during practice situations that lead to success in tournaments is having the discipline NOT to fish during practice. That's pretty general and certainly not always the case, but across multiple stages of the year it's made a huge difference for me.

The obvious piece of that is not sore-mouthing all the fish in an area (and I think catching fish in an area educates fish around even if you haven't caught them, to some extent). The less obvious piece for me is how important scouting type work can be. Whether that's visually looking for spawners in the spring, green weed beds, different types of cover, etc. or spending time idling to find the best weed edges or sunken trees or rock piles or what have you.

Certainly there's something to be said for figuring out a starting point so I'm not saying *not* to fish, but the hardest thing to do is to not spend every second you can fishing given the limited time we all get on the water.

A really specific example: I'm out practicing for a 2 day event that's being held on two different lakes. One of the lakes I've fished a bunch, the other I've never been on. Naturally I go to practice on the one I've never been on. So I drop the boat in the water, go to the most likely looking area on the whole lake - an area where deep water swings very close to shore on an otherwise frying pan looking lake. Docks with 10 feet of water on the end of them all through this area, completely different than anything else. The problem is, I start fishing down through the docks and don't catch much of anything. I've got a few docks left and decide I'll try throwing a drop shot around the next one to see if maybe a different presentation will work. While between docks, I toss the drop shot out just to have a line in the water not expecting much. Line takes off swimming, and it's a 4 lber...seemingly randomly out in the middle of nowhere between two docks.

Instead of shrugging it off, I sit the rod down, pull the trolling motor, and start graphing. My first pass I notice something different. There are weeds all along here, but where I casted just happens to be a bare area. Interesting! So make another pass. What do I see? Little craters. So that's why there's a bare area there. Bluegill beds. 7-8 feet of water. So I idle along side scanning with the boat out deeper but with that 7-8 foot range in view. Hey! There's another bare spot. Stop, cast, line takes off swimming before it hits the bottom, and it's another good one. Now we're on to something. Try once more, same deal. I am DIALED at this point. I spend the next 3 hours idling around the entire lake marking every set of bluegill beds I can find without making a single cast for the rest of my time there. I find upwards of 30 sets of beds. In 4 hours total, I feel supremely confident on a lake I've never been on in my life.

Fast forward to the tournament, and I absolutely get my teeth kicked in on the lake I thought I knew. I'm down over 6 lbs going into day 2. Second day, on the lake where I've got them dialed, I end up catching fish only on 3 of the 30 sets of bluegill beds and none on the sets I caught them in during practice (so good thing I graphed the whole lake!), but weigh almost 18 lbs and damn near come all the way back from day 1 to finish second, about a pound out of first.

That's one of the luckiest experiences I've ever had to be sure, but I felt like it was just a perfect example of nothing being random. I never would've figured it out if I hadn't stopped and started graphing instead of shrugging it off and just fishing along. The toughest thing, even knowing that it pays off a lot of times, is not fishing while you have the opportunity to be out fishing. It makes a difference though! Just my $0.02.

[Umgettinbetta]

Thank you guys for the comments... Truly helpful.

[Casslaw]

Great comments so far everyone! One thing, you’re really close to me! I was fishing 30 min from you yesterday!

When you’re fun fishing, move faster! I’ve noticed a lot of people that haven't been bass fishing for 40 years+ kind of stay in the area they think there should be fish as opposed to searching different depths, types of structure, etc to find fish. I feel your pain, a lot of our lakes look like there should be a bass in every single spot!

The thing that helped me the most when I took bass fishing back up seriously again a couple years ago were the electronics. Yes you need to learn what you’re seeing but I’m speaking something much more simple! Mark EVERY fish you catch on your chart. I mark with time, date, water temp, and conditions.

When you do this at first it it seems like it takes forever but when you’re fishing Lake Harris for the 30th time you will notice areas that are covered with your catches...a pattern starts to develop! The more information you obtain the easier to break it down and figure out WHY you caught those fish there!

Then you can take that knowledge and break any lake in Florida down and be able to make that lake much smaller in terms of productive areas. Hit those areas and get your pattern put together earlier each trip. Next thing you know, you’re a stick!

[Dogfish_Jones]

When I hit the water for practice day and it is a lake that I have never fished or rarely do, what I do is look for main structure and really lean on my graphs to tell me if fish are there or not. I might spend half the day just logging in graphing and scanning good spots. When i find that fish are holding on certain type spots, I then will throw what I "think" they might hit. This is where I look at color or the action of the lure I am using.
If i am on a lake I have fished a lot and know well, I will look at other places that might be holding fish and fish them out. I already know of places that should be holding fish during that time of the year. I want to expand my knowledge of that lake to hopefully find what I consider another spot that has served me well overtime.
I will even look at a paper map the days before hand and scan it real good the day before to start a game plan. But most of all, you have to have fun, enjoy being there and trust your instincts.

[dcravey_81]

Sent you a pm

[limitlong]

I have been tournament fishing for the last 35 years so I have a lot of experience to lean on. When prefishing for a tournament I try to cover as much water as possible. I rarely give a spot or area longer than 30 minutes before moving on, while carefully watching my graphs for baitfish or surface activity. I am trying to catch active fish, and if a fish is there, it will bite fairly quickly. While trying to locate fish, I will have about a dozen rods laid out and will fish each throughout the day, if only for a few casts. During the course of the day, I cover a lot of water and it allows me to see if there are certain areas that are better than others. Each lake is different, some are great pattern lakes and others are more "spot" lakes. Time on the water will help you to identify patterns and when you are able to do that, it is a lot more fun. My most gratifying days are when I have to mix up two or three different things in different areas to catch a good limit.

My memory is my strength and I use that to my advantage. Keep a log if you need to so you can remember conditions, locations, etc. Learn something every time you go fishing.

[mastergun]

These are all great advice and ideas. I'm still learning with about 4 "official" years in the bag, I'm just a toddler. The important consistent takeaway I've seen in most of the answers is you don't always need to have a line in the water to practice and spending time graphing can pay off.