Sitting at home one evening contemplating whether or not to go down into the basement into my tackle room, or as my wife calls it “a mini Bass Pro Shops” to work on tackle management and my annual cleaning of the reels. However, before heading down I decided to check my e-mails. I received an e-mail from a young angler who has some experience fishing local club events and does relatively well in them but wants to make the step to the bigger larger tournament circuits. I get asked this question at shows regularly and I thought that I would write about making the jump to the larger circuits and what are some of the other questions that I’m asked when answering the original question.

The first question during this conversation usually goes something like this “I have a small boat, do I need a bigger boat to fish the bigger circuits?” Well, the answer to that is it depends on what circuits you are doing. If you are fishing a circuit like the BASS Opens or the FLW Berkley Series which are multiple day events on much larger bodies of water like Lake Erie, Lake Champlain, Potomac River, Santee Cooper Reservoir, the list goes on and on. These bodies of water are large where you can end up going 10, 20 plus miles to your fishing spot to get away from the traffic. Meaning with the larger events, the fields are larger. Anywhere from 150 to 200 boat fields and along with these larger bodies of water come rougher conditions. Unlike the weekend warriors, tournament anglers do not have the luxury of only fishing in nice, calm sunny days. You could be out fishing on Lake Erie or Lake Champlain with 4 to 6 foot waves. So the quickest answer is yes you will need to a larger boat. 19 to 21 foot boats with 200 plus horsepower motors become the norm for fishing these events.

The other thing that anglers do not factor in when contemplating making the move up is the increase in financial outlay as well as time away from home. These events are not all within an hour from your home. Therefore, traveling expenses will increase. Lodging/accommodations, fuel for the boat and truck will increase or be incurred as you are now further away from home. Which is something else to factor in during your decision process on whether or not to make the jump to the larger event circuits?

I digressed a little here. However, the above is all true but the one thing that I wanted to talk about is the buying of excessive tackle. I have seen in the past and it happens a lot is anglers spending a pile of money on tackle that is usually totally unnecessary. Having been a tackle store owner in the past I have seen anglers that want to fish the larger team events go and spend a lot of money on tackle because they think that is what they need to do. The key for any angler is to perfect a technique before moving onto another one. What I like to do is when I am out on the water I will bring specific bait with me and I will force myself to only use that particular type of bait the entire day. For example, pitching/flipping, I will bring only my flipping stick and nothing but jigs with me. I will go and flip and pitch all day long so that I can become familiar with what a jig does once it’s in the water. As well what it feels like when I get a strike and try to imagine what the jig is doing in the water every time that I move it. Then and only then once I have figured out what the jig is doing and have a firm understanding will I try a different technique, say drop shotting or throw a swimbait.

So to summarize, if you are going purchase new tackle make sure you become familiar with it’s application and effectiveness before going out and spending a pile of money on bait and/or technique that you are not comfortable or confident in throwing.

The first thing that I do when I’m going to be fishing a new body of water is I will look for a quality map of the lake. Now is some cases the particular body of water may be very large. The Great Lakes as an example of a body of water that can/is very intimidating. What you have to do in that instance is break the lake day into seasonal patterns. By seasonal patterns I mean pre spawn, spawn, post spawn (spring time), summer, fall and winter months. Although in Canada we do not fish for bass during the pre spawn or spawning season but if you fish lakes/rivers or reservoirs in the United States you may be faced with fishing during unfamiliar seasons. By breaking the lake down into more manageable sections it takes away that intimidation factor. It also can make pre-fishing more informative because you are not fishing unproductive water.

There are some anglers like New Jersey Pro Mike Iaconneli that will gather maps from different sources and cross-reference them with one another. Some maps have better contour lines than others, while others have better detailed information about the bottom composition of the body of water. So by gathering multiple maps you can get the most information about that body of water before ever leaving home. You want to do as much of this work as you can at home. This way your time on the water is just solidifying what you have figured out during your at home preparation time.

Once you get to the body of water and you are out in the boat. The next step that I do is go to the sections that I have selected during my map study at home and go over these areas while watching my electronics intensely looking for any irregularities in depth and in surface temperature. By doing this you once again eliminate any unproductive water and you turn big water into more manageable water.

Another thing that I do while I am not is I will look at old magazine articles, or look on the internet for information about that particular body of water that I will be fishing. I will then take all of that information that I found in article, the internet, newspaper articles and I will look for some key words. These key words are the type of bait that was used, the conditions on the water or conditions of the day. I will take all of these key words and put them into a notebook. For example if I look at an article or website and it says that bass were caught in 1-3 foot of water on black and blue tiki-sticks fished weightless. I will take this information and write it in my notebook. Note just because a specific bait was used in the article, doesn’t mean that the fish are still there or that they will even want that same time of bait. These are just general information that we are getting for this body of water.

Once I have all the information that I need, I am finally ready to head out to the water. Here you are watching your electronics to see any sudden drop offs or submerged flats. Another thing that you should do is not to be afraid to make a long run.

I think that if you spend a little bit of time doing some at home work before you get on the water, you will be better prepared to systematically dissect any body of water that you will be fishing. Which in turn will improve your success with finding fish during the pre-fish period but also you will gain confidence going into the tournament day(s). Confidence is half the battle sometimes. Give it a try this season and I’m pretty sure that you will have a more productive pre-fish and perhaps a better outcome tournament day(s)

Until next time, take care and good luck.

By Peter Larmand

The spinner bait is probably my most favourite lure to throw and the conditions above mean that I would be fishing my strengths. Fishing your strengths is what you want to be able to do whenever possible. It’s when you fish with more confidence and that usually means catching more fish.

With the ripple in the water it limits light penetration so the bass will be out cruising looking for baitfish. This will allow me to fish horizontally and since there is very little light penetration I want to keep my bait higher up within the water column. Meaning I want my bait within the top 1 to 2 foot range.

Another thing that I want my spinner bait to do is create as much vibration as possible. I can do this by doing a couple of things. I can fish with a single Colorado blade as opposed to a Willow or Indiana blade. I can also change to a larger blade say a number 5 Colorado blade instead of a number 3. Another thing that I can do if I’m using a willow leaf blade is to spread apart the top arm of the spinner bait. This will also generate more vibration. However, you will get better vibration from a single Colorado blade.

Now you might be asking yourself, what colour of blade and skirt is best for these types of conditions? I like to use dark colours during these conditions. Blues, blacks have worked best for me. I would even change my blade to a painted blade. I specifically will use the Booyah Moon Talker spinner bait in a ¾ oz black and blue with a black painted single number 4 colorado blade. If I have to, I will change the blade as necessary.

By putting some of the ideas mentioned in this article the next time that you are out fishing in these conditions, you will increase your chances of turning a miserable day to a good day on the water. See you on the water.

By Peter Larmand June 18, 2007