Tournament Mode

[johnnie crain outdoors]

Here's a problem I'm going to work on this year. When I fish a tournament, I go into what I call a Tournament Mode. I use fast moving lures and keep the trolling motor going nearly all the time. I think just being "on the clock" changes the way I normally would fish. Not too much since I fish fast all the time, but just enough that I feel it costs me fish.
It seems at times, I'm trying to catch every fish in the lake instead of fishing for a limit of keepers. There never seems to be enough time for me to cover all the places I want to fish and how I want to fish them.
This year I'm going to slow my retrieves when possible, saturate each piece of cover more thoroughly and try to catch a limit of fish and not worry about catching lots of fish. It seems I'm always "on point" making long, fast casts and crankin' like a mad man. Going to put a sign on my trolling motor "SLOW DOWN AND THINK"!!! Hope I can stick to it.

[RNE]

Johnnie, I think all of tend to fish too fast in tourneys.

One of the hardest things for me to do is forget the constant tic-toc when the TD calls my number.

I am as, if not more than, guilty of skipping micro-structure within larger cover. Getting into drumbeat, ‘cast-crank-cast’ mode.

Fishing fast may be just fine if you have a pattern that works with it. But I’ve lost count of the times I worked a pattern in futility and watched someone come in behind me.

Mumble obscenities as they worked the same pattern with more concentration, deliberately slower, through the same area I just finished with, and caught fish I flat out missed or over- sped my bait by.

I watched a Bassmasters tourney on ESPN last weekend, (Isn’t TIVO a wonderful thing!), Iconelli put it very well when asked about his pattern for the day.

“I’m going to move just as fast as I always do, but fish slower.” He worked a micro -worm most of the day, his casts were quick, but his presentation was not.

Unfortunately I often find myself yanking a slow bait out of the ‘zone’ if I don’t get bit quick. Or, moving a crank-bait about twice as fast as I should when it gets tough.

The tendency is one of our worst enemies, to start speeding up when we get that “one o’clock and I ain’t got but two keeper blues.” Often it’s better to slow down under that situation than speed up.

But human nature being what it is, we have to fight the urge almost every time.

One of the myriad of differences between fishing and tournament competition.

[carl]

I have just the opposite problem, I spend too much time on a spot. Drives some of my partners crazy. This year I'll be working on fast moving baits. Carl

[johnnie crain outdoors]

If we could only find that happy medium we'd all be beter anglers. When my Brother Ron and I fish together it nearly kills both of us, he's a slow motion-work every twig angler and as said before, I'm a mover and shaker. Somehow we both usually catch fish, but I nearly go insane waiting for him to disect a piece of structure, especially a large tree!!!

[johnnie crain outdoors]

Strange about crankbaits, I can work them painstakingly slow when needed, but I'll have a worm or jig skipping acroos the surface at times. I guess I have more confidence in the crank at any speed.

[mofish]

I've trained myself to relax more when fishing tournaments. I fish fast with a crankbait until I come to a dock or laydown then I switch in to low and pick it apart with a worm or jig.. Its worked so far.. The wife on the other hand is like you Jonnie. She has crankbaits going all the time. It all she will fish with. When we get to a dock or laydown she just sits down and drinks a coke or some water because she knows I'll be there a bit..

[brendanc]

Good topic...

I think something that is critical in determining how you "should" be fishing is how quickly you can identify the mood of the fish on a given tournament day. To simply say that you are going to speed up or slow down, really might not address the issue you may be having. As I am sure you have all experienced days when you can't reel a crankbait fast enough and the faster you reel, the harder the fish try to pull the rod out of your hands. Other days, you have to do the complete opposite and even dead stick the lure to get a strike.

The combination of boat movement and lure presentation will vary on any given tournament day. We as tournament anglers must quickly determine which way is the right way and we must rely on knowledge, experience and the fish to help us figure it out.

You can move your boat slowly while casting and retrieving at lightning speeds. You can also move your boat quickly and work a lure extremely slow (with practice).

I find it most effective when searching for fish (in practice as well as during a tournament) to start off the morning moving quickly and gradually slow down until I connect. Then try and duplicate that tempo. Al Linder often takes the approach of determining which type of presentation the fish want... Vertical or Horizontal. When I started making an effort to figure this piece of the puzzle out, it cut my locating time in half. You can go right through a school of bass and never get a strike. There are two ways I try to figure this out:

1) Alternating Presentations: 5 casts with a vertical lure, 5 with a horizontal.

2) (My favorite) Use a search lure that can be fished both ways... i.e. A Jig-N-Pig. Swimming a jig and then hopping or crawling a jig can be a great way to locate fish.

Anyways, that's my "35 cents"...

Good stuff from everyone!

Brendan

[johnnie crain outdoors]

Thanks Brendan, I guess we are all as individual as the bass. Some slow, some fast. I think I just get a little too "coffeed up" before tournaments, even after all these years! Of course, I do have a hyper-active thyroid gland that causes me to move in fast forward all day and night, even with pills I'm still herky jerky.

[Carolina Fisher2]

Do any on you have a problem with depth , I love those sat night tourneys , but the problem with them is there has usually already been 5-6 tourneys on the lake before I get there so I start shallow and work deeper and deeper looking for fish that most people have missed , problem is I go to deep alot of times . Finding that happy medium has been hard for me , I know they will bite that worm but I should be throwing that topwater .

[carl]

That's a tough one because of the fishing pressure, and what kind of lake you're fishing. In general I'll start at the mid depth range, 8' or so, until the sun goes down then I start to gradually move into the shoreline. One night my partner and I worked a small cove with a nice grassy point off the main lake. I was bouncing a jig off a ledge in about 12 feet of water. Must have caught 25 bass, but because of the slot none of them were keepers. My partner on the other hand thru a texas/worm in the grass and scored a 4.5 which won the fish off. In my opinion color doesn't seem to play a major role in night fishig. I've hooked many a fish with dark colors. One night I was throwing a 12" black texas/worm and hooked a hog. Hope this is some help,Carl