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Ok a while back I wrote a little piece about not being able to pre-fish for tournaments. So this year I fished every tournament with out pre-fishing. With changes to my work schedule and all I was not able to pre-fish, but I proved that by using what basic knowledge I had about bass fishing that Kelly and I was able to finish in the top 5 of our region. Now I’m not saying that this is the way to do it but it did work for us and I kept good notes of what work for us this year and thought that I would share them with you. If I would have had my way I would have pre-fished for each tournament, if we would have no telling how well we might have done. The point I want to make is you can fish in a circuit and finish well if you don’t have time to pre-fish.

First tournament:

February, Lake Lewisville.

Weather: 27 degrees sleeting and wind blowing at 15 to 20 mph.

Not the best conditions in the world to fish in, every cast I would have to dip my rod in the water to keep the guides from freezing solid so that I could cast.

I decided to fish for spotted bass (Kentucky Bass) because I knew how tough the bite would be on a day like this. I fished a crankbait along the bridge pilings knowing that a lot of spots hang near these pilings. I would fish the crank as close to the piling as I could, most of the time banging the crank right into it. Seem like all the bites would come right after the bait made contact with the piling and I would pause the bait. This resulted in two 15” spots through the day, and on a day like this it lead to a 4th place finish. I also caught two large mouths that were too small by flipping a jig and letting it swing back and bump the pilings, but like I said they were to small.

March Lake Bridgeport

Weather 60 degrees thunder storms heavy rain.

Again I go with the crankbait. I know that I can catch fish on this lake with a crankbait because it’s a slot limit lake with a 14” to 18” slot any thing under 14” can be kept. My plan was to get 5 under and then go for the bigger fish. We got our 5 under fish in the first hour then spent most of the rest of the day under docks avoiding the lightning and heavy down pours that were the norm for the rest of the day. Had several fish in the slot that had to be turned back. No big fish for the day. Finished 10th but more important we got our points that kept us in 4th overall.

April lake Amon Carter

Weather 65 degrees and sunny

Man what a struggle I had on this tournament. I started off with topwater baits and went to the old reliable crankbait but they were just having nothing to do with it. Caught several short fish but no keepers. Switched to a spit shot Zoom Centipede and finally caught one. Not a big one but a keeper. Finished dead last of the folks that caught fish. But I got my points we dropped to 6th overall. This was one that I should have pre-fished for most fish were in pre spawn and spawn but I could not get to any of the bedding fish because someone was already on them.

May Lake Whitney

Weather Wind, Wind and More Wind

It blew so hard that we had to hide most of the day in the backs of coves. This was Kelly’s day to shine. She caught all three of our fish on crankbaits. All the fish were shallow around some kind of stickups. Try as I may I could not buy a bite with anything that I threw. So what did I do I switched to a crankbait just like hers. That didn’t even help. We finished in the top 10 and two of the teams ahead of us 0’ed lucky for us. We move back to 5th overall.

June Lake Bridgeport

Weather beautiful day for being on the lake 80’s and 90’s and no wind.

Started the day with my Zara Puppy and caught two keepers right off the bat. Then switched to the cranks and caught a 15” smallmouth. Fished rocky points almost all day and it worked great we had a limit although small limit but it was a limit and more points. Stayed in 5th for the year.

July Lake Eagle Mountain

Weather same as last tournament. Just beautiful to be out fishing.

Had three nice fish all caught around some stumps that I found by accident when I hung up on them. All the fish were nice and healthy. Cranks produced all the fish. Banging the crank into them was the key.


So if you look back at all this if you tie on a small crankbait, a split shot centipede and fish points, stumps, and rocky points with deep water near by You CAN CATCH FISH. You may not win a tournament but when you are after points in a club type tournament hit the high percentage spots with a small crankbait and you should at least catch a fish or two to help get those needed points.

This coming year I think I will make time to pre-fish! But you can catch them and who knows you might even win a check or two!!

Hope that helps some of you.

Good stuff Conley. We should all list our results when possible, may help others find the right path. All my adult life I have treid to convince more anglers to use crankbaits, there's no better bait for locating structure (even if we snag), no quicker way to get a limit and we just can learn so much more about the depths and bottom make-up of the lake or river with the crank.
As for pre-fishing it's great. but sometimes can be our worst enemy. If you pre-fish and do well, and then on T-day they won;t bite or have moved, we most likely will stay in that area too long, wasting valuable fishing time, and like you said, too many times someone else has found those fish or a local may have even caught and kept them. Keep up the good work Conley, it's appreciaited by all. Johnnie

I have my thoughts on Pre-fishing. Most folks go out one or two days before a tournament and catch fish!! Why would you want to catch fish one or two days before a tournament??? I have no Idea why you would want to do that!

Those are fish that you will not catch during the tournament!!

Now the correct way to Pre-fish would be to bend hooks over on cranks or my favorite is to put a piece of tubing over the hooks so that there is no way to stick them. You can do this with spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and jigs. The tubing keeps the hooks from hooking the bass but when its tournament time you just remove the tubing and the hook is still good as new.

You might want to catch a fish every now and then to see how big they are but why catch them? If you find a spot that has fish then look for other areas that have the same kind of structure and or cover and mark them to go to during the tournament.

I laugh at those folks that go out and talk about how many fish they caught during the pre-fishing and then can't catch them during the tournament, they caught them all pre-fishing and sore mouthed them and they are not going to bite again for a while.

I like to go the week before the tournament find some fish and then look around that area and figure out were the fish will go if they are not on the exact spot the day of the tournament. Most of the time the fish are there they have just relocated due to weather or fishing pressure. IF you are smart you spend your time finding all the structure around the feeding area and focus on were they will move too. That way come tournament morning and you catch a few and then they stop biting you know were to look for them when they move.

Now that is the Conley Staley Idea of Pr-fishing. Does it work?? I wish I could say it works everytime but I just have not had the chances to prove it yet. But I know many Pros that do the same thing. How do you think they catch so many fish in multi day tournaments. They know the area and were the fish will be at almost any time during the tournament day. That is what you need to get from pre-fishing.

Have fun with that one!!


Johnnie you are right there is no better search bait than a crankbait. You can find every little thing that snags a bait but that is were the fish will be.

I have said it before, I have not said it Kelly did, a crankbait looks like a bait fish, Bass eat baitfish, why would you throw anything else? Thats Kelly's thoughts on a crankbait, which buy the way is all that she will fish with.

Kelly's one smart lady. I don't necessarily agree that any crankbaits looks like a shad, but it does fool some bass into reflex strikes which is close enough.
I only pre-fish areas I've never fished before and one good keeper from an area says-get out of there- and look for more places. Most of the time, the fish move anyway or are caught or spooked by other anglers. I do like to have a starting place though that has held fish. I have a hard time leaving a known fishing spopt and it costs me every year. Stubborn and bullheaded at times! Johnnie

MoFish great information in your post!! Everyone needs to listen to what you are saying. Used to be one of those guys who went out in catch fish the day before my tournaments. Big Mistake, now I will find my primary fish and leave them alone.

Yes I still pre-fish as much as I can, work allowing but I start looking for fish in other areas of the lake for my backup plan. I just like you will bend over my hooks and not hook the fish just go find them and shake them off.

I also document everything that happened that day in my log book on the computer, that log has paid off for me in all of my tournaments.

I just fished the Missouri Federation State Champoinship did not do as well as I wanted but not to bad overall. I was spending all of my time putting other fishermen on fish for there touraments, made it hard to find fish for everyone else and still leave mine alone.

By the way I finished 29th overall out of 250 and our team finished 4th in the club standings and now we move on to the next level of the Federation Bass Club World Champoinships, were we have the chance for 6 new fully rigged Triton boats.

So pre-fishing is nice but you can resort back to your basic knowledge and just go for it. It has worked for me very well..

Good Fishing Everyone