pre -fishing tx

JoeMo · Post by **JoeMo** » Sun Oct 06, 2002 10:24 pm

Hi Conley- Great that you were able to incorporate some of the Pro Staff tips into your tactics for the championship tournament that you have been practicing for. The level of talent in the PS Team is phenomenal. All you guys have my utmost respect & admiration.

Thanks and keep us posted when you fish that tournament.

MMT · Post by **MMT** » Mon Oct 07, 2002 5:12 pm

Good luck Conley. Let us know how you do.

postcard · Post by **postcard** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 1:22 pm

As the scout motto 'be prepared' suggests, or the quote, 'do your homework' indicates, those who are and those that do will have the advantage over those of equal skill on a particular body of water. If you or your partner don't regularly fish a certain lake, figuring out the most productive structure or pattern can be daunting and very time consuming. Time is not in great supply before a weigh-in.

Pounding productive areas heavily for a few days before a tournament, may put too much pressure on those areas unless the pattern is strong and fish magnets are very powerful.

The question has arisen - is prefishing fair; does it give an unfair advantage over those who cannot prefish due to time restraints? Guys in my previous club were jealous of the top 4 guys because they always prefished together and usually always finished with over 60 lbs. total-weight each.

My feeling is that when money is involved, a legal, competitve edge is in order. If a team wants to spend the time and money to hit a tournament lake or river, so be it.

Bassmaster had specific rules against prefishing, yet some pros sent scouts to sites to help eliminate unproductive water. (I was called by one 8 years ago from a roster of BASS life members or a fishing buddys list. I don't know if the rule exists anymore for pro tournaments.)

As was stated, just because you did well a week or days before a contest, doesn't mean you'll find and catch fish the day of the tournament. Prefishing is about probabilities and confirmations (lures, depth, water quality, fish activity in general, structure etc.)

If I had the time, I would always prefish.

MMT · Post by **MMT** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 2:34 pm

I think that on waters that one is new to, pre fishing is a must. For a small club tournament, unless it has importance like a Classic.....maybe not so important. I fish in a small club. This season we held 8 qualifiers and a two day Classic. I did not prefish for these events. Many guys did. I won 4 events and the Classic and never finished below 2nd place. I think it is due to my knowledge of some of the waters we fished but even if I was not as in tune with them, I couldn't possibly find the time to prefish. On a huge lake, I feel it would be imperative to scout out spots and fish locations.

mofish · Post by **mofish** » Wed Oct 09, 2002 5:37 pm

Let me give you a little run down of how I prefished last weekend. First off we put the boats in the water. (The championship I am fishing in is a team tournament) My partner went to the upper end of the lake and I stayed on the lower end. I got into the water and turned over rocks and found a few craws and got the color pattern that best matched the ones I found. Second I spent about 10 to 15 min with the trolling moter on high looking for schools of bait. Noted the size of the shad and perch that were in the area and the colors that would be close. Then I started fishing a Top Water (Spitin Image, Thanks to MMt's report.) and caught a 15 inch spot on my second cast. Two cast later another about the same size. Were? right off the boat ramp we had just launched our boats from. I kept this in mind and moved to another spot. Fished with the Spittin Image some more and caught another spot off another concreat boat ramp. Then I caught a 3.5 black off the same ramp. I went from ramp to ramp and caught a total of 10 fish with the top water, till about 1030 am.

I then started fishing docks with a fluke type bait, made by Big Bag Baits called Lil Shad. I caught two more off the docks. My day was pretty much done after 11:00.

My partner on the other hand caught all his fish after 11:30 on the docks in deeper water. All in all it was a great day on the water. I have the morning bite and he has the late bite. We would of had about 17 pounds with our 5 bigest fish combined .

JoeMo · Post by **JoeMo** » Thu Oct 10, 2002 2:42 am

Frank- I also think I would like to prefish anytime I can make it. I like the idea that I would at least be up to date with water levels and weed growth- things like that.

MMT- Congrats on winning your Classic. You've done very well this year. So has your Club.
Prefishing smaller waters can have an adverse reaction by putting the bass down. Again, as long as you are familiar with the small water
you probably don't need to prefish.

Conley- After reading your post, I'd say you have an excellent chance to do extremely well. I like the fact that you searched out the forage. (Reminds me of a guy I fished the St. Lawrence River with. His first stop in Ogdensburg, NY was at a tackle shop where he went right to the bait tanks and checked out the 'dad's colors!)

Good luck to all of you in your tournaments.
It's the most fun you can have standing up.
lol

mofish · Post by **mofish** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 2:50 pm

Ok guys results of the Championship Tournament on Texoma. First day of the tornament my wife and I had 3 fish weighing 4.99. That may not sound like alot but at the end of the day we were in the top 20. Second day brought quite a few changes. One the wind changed out of the north at 30mph all day long and dropped the temp to the 40's
we were blown completely out of our spots. We managed to catch one keeper and finished 24th in the money. All in all it was a great tournament and my wife did great. We would of had 5 fish the first day if I had not messed up on netting two of her fish, but thats the breaks of fishing. You can bet I got a new net now.

One more championship to go on the 26th and 27th I'll let you know what happens there when its over.

Thanks
Conley

jeffohioteam1 · Post by **jeffohioteam1** » Tue Oct 15, 2002 4:10 pm

the way i prefish is to stop prefishing atleast 4 days before the tx starts, this gives any fish you caught in practice a chance to be ready to feed again. in practice i am definatly looking for patterns and other areas of the lake that are the same as where i am successfull in practice. i also try to find as many ways to catch the bass as i can so i know all what i can and can't do in the tx. you do not want to be practicing while the tx is going on. i also have back up areas just in case the wind becomes a factor, and where i fish (lake erie) the wind is almost always a factor.