[d a]

What do you guys do when the two or three spots you found pre-fishing don't pan out on tournament day? For the sake of discussion, let's say you found a top-water bite pre-fishing that lasted until 8:30am. Tournament day you go to your first area and don't get bit right away. How long do you stay with topwater? How long do you stay in the first area before moving? How long do you stick to your plan before bailing out and trying other areas and techniques? Or do you stick to the same areas and try other techniques?

I've had just this problem in my last three competitions and not fared well in any of them.

 

[Guest]

I stick with the game plan.
most times I get worried and change, this time I am not.

Now if you ask what do you do the day before the tourny.
Stay in bed dont get pissed off at a good friend, and what ever you do dont hit metal objects with your fist. no matter how pissed you are.

do you think the ER will make a cast for my hand to fit a rod and reel?

Delw

wow 10 mins to type this out and no spelling errors. :roll:

 

[jasonR]

delw, do you need anger management? Another rule to add is DONT KICK A PUNCHING BAG underneath, where there is a big block of hard sand. Ouch.............
As for the tourney situation, here is my take:
If you are confident the fish are there still, scale down and use some finesse. Chances are either the weather changed or the increased boat traffic bummed them out. I htink it is actually better to pre fish on a crowded weekend instead of a week day, b/c the tourney is usually on a weekend, right? Find them in prefish on the week days and fine tune the bite on the week-end, and you should stand a pretty decent chance.
Jason

 

[Franklin J]

I say stick to the plan, just as long as there are no severe weather changes (heavy rain\thick cloud cover\high winds like Lake Mead)..........

 

[Guest]

Jason your correct about the weekends.
I have found that sunday is a good day monday is fantastic tuesday is good and so is wednesday.

Then thursday slows down and friday slows down. sat. just stops

Now that being said I throw the same thing all week long, come sat I do the same thing. however I have noticed that if I change my tactic just a tad it works better than what I threw all week.

I have noticed more and more people fishing the lake on monday - thursday over the last 2 years. I real feel that the sound of all the rops during a tourny sat morning affects the fish. I also feel that everyone out there prefishing and tossing pretty much the samething educates(if you will) the bass.

HAHA Anger Managment I dont think they would accept me.


Delw

 

[Skunked]

Delw,
I wouldn't be so sure about Anger Management not accepting you. Job security is important these days... :twisted: :lol: :wink:

 

[Spidey]

Toad and I don't fish tourneys much. Rarely actually. We thought we were ready for the CDC. We have been boating some decent fish, averaging over 5 pounds. Saturdays biggest was almost 8 and Sunday was 5 plus. We really stick to our plan. We also stay on a spot longer than the average person. We really cover our area from different angles. Oh, now for the advice. Take Jan with. She knows her shit!

 

[d a]

Gee thanks Spidey! One thing I DO know is don't hammer the sh*t outta your fish for two days before the tournament!!

 

[Spidey]

We tried other spots that we normally will catch fish but nada. What choice did we have. Fish someplace that skunks us or go to a place that has been producing for longer than a month? Also, We would have fished other prime spots but Jan was already fishing with you.

 

[Getthenet]

When pre-fishin is good but game day ain't I usually just cry alot To be totally honest I've done better in tourny's when I don't pre-fish.....Instead of expecting some method to be working I just go and try to figure out what's working that day......I think I concentrate more on what I'm doing that day.....Works for me......sometimes anyway.....other times there just ain't no fish in the lake :wink:

 

[RookieBoy]

We usually stick to the game plan. When pre-fishing,if we find a fish, release the fish and leave. Don't freak out the hole. I'm sure others will pass through there as well and create more pressure during this time. The less pressure the better. During the tourney, we return and try to repeat the results. if the topwater fails, work the mid-range depths and drops. If the fish still play hard to get, go to the bottom and drop shot. The fish are there, somewhere, just work your favorite spot over and over. If we still struggle, we push off to other spots . We'll always return to that favorite hole before the end of the tourney, just to make sure we didn't miss anything. :wink: