Yesterday I participated in my first NY State Federation tournament on Chautauqua Lake. Prior to the event I met my boater to discuss the plans for the day and he said without a doubt we will be fishing docks the entire day. Nothing more, nothing less. With that said my preparation for the night was easy. 1 rod, 1 senko and I was good to go. Of course I had other rigs set up and prepared just in case things changed but this was going to be my rod of the day.
Before this event I have had little opportunity to fish docks so skipping was not my forte. What made things worse were the conditions. On and off wind, rain, along with on/off sun/clouds. At times it made it impossible to even skip without a big bow forming in your line.
Some lessons from yesterday which I felt compelled to share with my fellow co-anglers.
1 – Docks are NOT easy to share with the boater. Generally the angle the boater needs to run the trolling motor leaves you fishing “sloppy seconds” on docks he already fished. Especially in weather which is forcing him to keep the trolling motor constantly running. You need to have that expectation going in or you will get frustrated quickly doing this all day.
2 – Take every opportunity to hit a dock your boater is not fishing. This does NOT mean cast it over his head to one ahead of him. Keep alert and there are hidden gems which he is not fishing. An example: At one point my boater was committed to a particular dock. Something which had worked for him in practice. He ended up nosing the boat in to fish it making it inaccessible to me. I peered to the right and there was another dock which stuck out further. One pitch right in front of the dock landed me my biggest Largemouth.
3 – Always try to fish something different than the boater. My boater was fishing a 5” black/blue senko wacky all day. I made it a point to fish everything but a 5” black/blue senko wacky. I fished other colors in the same size, downsized to a 4” and even upsized to a jumbo. The different color landed me my first two. The smaller one landed me my second and at the end of the day the jumbo landed me my last two which included a nice smallmouth close to 3lbs. Most of these were places he had fished just prior.
4 – You will LOSE hooks and lots of them. To get the lure where the fish are you need to skip and pitch to places which can and will hang you up. I must have lost at least 18 hooks. Partly because I sucked at skipping and pitching and partly because of the weather. I am sure it was more the weather. LOL J
5 – Control your nerves. In weather like today it was difficult conditions for everyone. At one point I was so frustrated I had to stop fishing, eat something and reset my mind to get through the day. Between not catching fish, the rain, the wind, feeling “back boated” and losing hooks left and right I was overwhelmed and extremely frustrated. That “reset” was important to get me back in the game.
By the end of the day I had a half-way decent skip and reverse skip cast added to my arsenal. My boater was fantastic. He taught me a ton about skipping docks. Explained exactly what he was looking for and how he fished them. I learned a ton from him and thanked him for the day.
So how did I do … I ended up placing in the money (13th out of 100 co-anglers). Not too shabby for my first State Federation tournament.
