Fishing tournaments are staged events of strategies. No doubt, fishing skills and lure selection along with a working knowledge of bass behavior are essential elements, but getting to fish the water where the bass are located is a strategy within itself and is often the determining factor as to who wins a tournament.
If you have ever fished a tournament and ran as hard as you could to a spot to fish, only to find it covered up with several boats … then you know what I mean.
Or let’s just say you are out for a day of fishing for the pleasure of being outdoors, only to find that your favorite fishing hole is occupied by your buddy. Grrrr!
Well, you’re not alone. Finding a fish is difficult enough without somebody fishing the fish you found. What to do? Read on.
I know that getting to your water is important in a tournament or just fishing on a Saturday morning, but where do you go when all the holes are taken? Here is a simple tip. In the morning, even if you get to your fish first, you still have to deal with the afternoon — that time of day when the sun is high and hot and your confidence is low because you think the fish are deep because of the heat and sunlight. You are at your wits end where to fish. You are desperate. If only you had some dynamite or a telephone crank! (Just teasing!) Where to go?
You go where no one is fishing.
I know that sounds stupid. Of course you have to go where no one is fishing. But you need to modify this approach: You go to the banks where you’ve seen other guys fishing and are not fishing there now…but then again, you really don’t go exactly there. You go near there.
After a while bass will get tired of seeing crankbaits, plastic worms and spinnerbaits, which look like nothing found in nature and they will move on, tired of the disturbance. Where do they go? Away from where the other guys are fishing:
- They will move out to deeper water and suspend
- They will move out to the first cover
- They will move out to the first dropoff
- They will move left or right to cover
And that is where you go to fish. Where no one else is fishing. So, you watch the other guys, then go where I outlined above, and more than likely, you will find the fish you are looking to catch. Not a strange strategy, once you stop and think about it. Try it this weekend.
Good fishing to ya!
by Jimmy Houston
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