Tournament Mode

[RNE]

Start deep, which is a relative term, depending on your lake. Deep on Eufuala (Ok) is 15 feet. Shallow up till you contact fish. The bigger, most of the time, the shallower. The little ones hide, they're on the menu too.

Night fishing either is with a very large slow mover such as a 9 to 12 inch black Tx rig worm. Or a noisy affair with a buzz bait or bulging spinner bait.

No fancy moves during retrieves, keep it steady and adjust your speed to match the bite.

I used to hit the water at dark with a full sized, or even Muskie sized, jitterbug. Trust me, you will get the holy living bejeebers scared out of you when a bigun hits that bait at your feet. BTW, might want to carry a couple extra pairs of underwear, a huge splashing strike right at the boat that throws water all over you is not uncommon when using a noise bait.

[bassin butch]

I had a transition into a power fisherman (Cast, reel, move cast reel). Reflecting back: I started this power approach when I go into spinner baits. Prior to this: I fished very slow and methodical fishing almost exclusively soft plastic baits. It took the introduction of Senko's to get me back into that slow approach groove. Since then I cover the water much slower, but still tend to use the trolling motor at speed higher than I should. I cant shake the habit of looking past the cover to the next. I intend to place a note by my foot pedal stating "slow down". Recently I went on an Ebay buying binge for old blue label chug bugs. The chug bug based on past experience can be deadly when fished slow and call me nuts, but no Storm lure is as good as the original old bugs. The best tip I can give is fish lures that must be worked slow, control the urge to run the trolling motor on high.

Bassin
Butch

[Eriebronze]

To be successful in our tournament endeavors, I think and believe that more tournaments are won on confidence in what you are using and the presentation, based on what the fish tell you. I, like others tend to get into the rut of staying too long on one type of cover or structure. It is a constant mental game we play and when we lose sight of that, is when we beat ourselves. Light, wind and water conditions, along with fishing pressure on any body of water, must be taken into consideration.
Our chosen sport, like any other, requires a mind set equal to the task at hand. It's not just going fishing and catching a mess of lunkers. My 12-1/2 cents worth. lol

[Carolina Fisher2]

Carl we have DEEP lakes , i've caught fish when its been real tough in 38-42 ft . Predominately spotted bass ( moody fish ) . The reason I look deeper is the shallows have seen every buzzbait , fluke , shallow running crank , floating rap. etc. etc. . Most people who do real well have 1 of 2 things a brush pile hid or a point no one has found .