Getting Started...

[Brent Bartman]

So I've got everything ready to roll to start fishing local tournaments this coming year pretty hard. I'm active duty Navy so my ability to travel and make every tournament is limited but I'm still going to try and do it. I have entered some local tournaments and was competitive in the ranks. i wouldn't consider anything a win or a loss since only bragging rights was on the line. Almost every lake in about 50 miles from my house is HP limited so I'm using a 16 ft jon with a 9.9 that is pretty decked out for a jon boat. my question is how do i make the jump to the bigger tournaments. are guys out there fishing in jon boats against guys with 70k Rigs? Or do do most people take the hit buy a decent second hand bass boat and try there shot. i plan on fishing every tournament i can and maybe in the next few years take a shot at something like Walmart BFL Piedmont or Shenandoah divisions. any thoughts or am i way off in my dreams. i'm looking for some criticism here constructive or not. give your thought's 

[Bluebasser86]

Fish as a co-angler and see if you're competitive there before making the plunge into buying a bass boat to compete with the other boaters, just my $.02. 

[reelnmn]

What's your long and short term goals and how important is return on your investment?

 

In my local club guys own small aluminum boats, 70k bass rigs, and ski boats. But we are talking <$40 entry fees and 10-15 boat field.  If you want to move up and will have coanglers fishing with you I suggest looking at moving to a bigger boat or fishing as a coangler.

 

If your intention is to measure yourself against the competition then go out the same days as the tournament and weigh your best 5.  See how that stacks up to the competition at weigh in.  If your goal is to improve and learn new techniques then fish as a coangler.  The latter was what I chose to do this year.  My personal opinion is that the ROI is not there for me to justify fishing the BFLs.  I mean a top 10 in a 100+ boat field as a BOATER and your lucky to win $500.  Between $220 entry fees, gas, hotels, food, etc there is just no way to recoup money.  I chose to fish the Rayovacs.  Higher buyins but a greater payback.

[BrianinMD]

ROI and fishing tourneys does not go together very well. If the goal is to make money open a business, just buying a boat and going tourney fishing won't do it. As they say, to make a small fortune in fishing, start with a large fortune.

 

And fishing tourneys should not be based on money, everything else in life gets twisted by money. When debating the boat thing about enjoyment, time away, and having some fun with life. Way more important than making fishing about money.

[CDMeyer]

First of all, thank you for your service. Second I would not be ashamed of your boat, if you have the talent and are willing to put in the work, then go get it. Enter tournaments that you believe you can be competitive in..... Then go get it and trust God

[Lund Explorer]

So I've got everything ready to roll to start fishing local tournaments this coming year pretty hard. I'm active duty Navy so my ability to travel and make every tournament is limited but I'm still going to try and do it. I have entered some local tournaments and was competitive in the ranks. i wouldn't consider anything a win or a loss since only bragging rights was on the line. Almost every lake in about 50 miles from my house is HP limited so I'm using a 16 ft jon with a 9.9 that is pretty decked out for a jon boat. my question is how do i make the jump to the bigger tournaments. are guys out there fishing in jon boats against guys with 70k Rigs? Or do do most people take the hit buy a decent second hand bass boat and try there shot. i plan on fishing every tournament i can and maybe in the next few years take a shot at something like Walmart BFL Piedmont or Shenandoah divisions. any thoughts or am i way off in my dreams. i'm looking for some criticism here constructive or not. give your thought's 

 

A few points I would make here.

 

First, it shouldn't matter whether a win brings you bragging rights or a handful of C-Notes, it's still a win.  What the winner gets at the end of the day is often determined on how much they shell out at the start of it, combined with how many people are entered.  How your career in tournament goes will only be limited by your abilities and possibly the size of your wallet.

 

Secondly, only the truly insane are going to blow $70k on a rig to start fishing tournaments.  My advice is to find a decent used rig that is big enough to handle the size water your new tournament schedule requires.  This requirement isn't in the rules, but is based on what you need to safely navigate the body of water and reach the areas you want to fish in a manageable amount of time.  Recently a member here posted up a used Ranger that I think looked like a very good deal, and if I was looking at getting back into tournaments would have had me interested in it.  Here's a link to it:

 

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/145943-2003-ranger-185vs-for-sale/#entry1628990

 

Finally, I'll touch on this whole front seat -vs- back seat debate.  If you want to determine how your day on the water is going to go, then you need to own the boat.  If you want to sit in the back end and take your chances of drawing someone that knows what they are doing and more importantly will give you the chance to compete, then by all means save your money and roll the dice.  My personal opinion is that it is hard enough trying to catch a stringer big enough to compete with in the front of the boat, and I can't see any reason to add to that challenge, what I would call the "Luck of the Draw!" to it.

 

Just my opinion!

[Catt]

I've won tournaments on Toledo Bend out of a 16' long, 50" mod-v bottom, with a 25 hp Suzuki.

The #1 problem you will have is weather so you'll need the option to trailer.

Know your boats abilities & stay within them!

Other than that you'll be alright

[MikeJames]

Boats don't catch fish.

[Catch and Grease]

#JonBoatLife

[EmersonFish]

Nothing wrong with a jon boat with a 9.9, but depending on the body of water, weather, etc, on the circuits you are considering fishing, of course there will be times it's less than ideal, and other times when it's even worse. Also consider that if you are ever fishing a tournament as a boater where there will be non-boaters, you'll have to be able to accommodate them and their stuff. The "second hand" boats you mentioned are what a lot of regular guys fish out of. You can find some pretty nice boats at reasonable prices if you are patient. Your issue is it sounds like your typical fishing is done on horsepower limited lakes, so a bigger boat might be an investment for occasional trips to tournament waters. You'll have to decide if it is worth it to you. And don't make that decision based on potential earnings from fishing.

FWIW, when I fished tournaments, it was out of a 2000 Tracker Pro Team 185 with a 90 hp outboard. There were plenty of tournaments where we had the only aluminum boat. At the weigh-in line, when the fish were in the bag, no one could tell what kind of boat the fish rode to the weigh-in site on. I will confess however, there were days on the lake where a nice, wide glass platform seemed like it would have been worth every penny. But I still have that same Tracker.

[Brent Bartman]

My goals are to be successful and win also to learn everything I can. I don't want to say fishing isn't fun but when I go out I can seem to satisfy my itch. That itch seems to be competing. I want to compet at a more competive level. I'm just worried my current rig will not work for anything higher than the local HP limited tournaments. What I have gathered from you guys is go out fish a tournament as a non boater and get a good feel for the circuit and make an informed decision from there

[ww2farmer]

. are guys out there fishing in jon boats against guys with 70k Rigs?

Not a Jon boat, but I fish out of a little tin bass boat, and regularly take the money of guys with shiny new Rangers/Nitros/etc..... On my local waters and tournaments, not anything big. But still, if you can fish, you can fish, and if you can't, you can't. The boat matters little to the bass. My only disadvantage on the lakes we fish is speed, but i do just fine fishing "used" water, infact, it's probably made me a better fisherman having to learn how to fish behind people who have out run me to spots and gone through them first. Wind blows me around a little more, but I have ways of combating that, I put a bigger than needed TM on my boat, and have a pair of drift socks, and know how to handle my boat in the wind.

[gulfcaptain]

#1, the boat doesn't catch the fish, it's a platform.  Your fishing skills are only as good as you are.  In the bigger tournaments, fishing from the back to get your feet wet isn't a bad way to get a "feel" for a the bigger tournaments.  Time is the factor on smaller under powered boats.  If you have 8hrs and want to run 100mi to fish, then it's going to be an issue.  If you are going to fish with smaller boats and hp, I would be looking up and doing my homework on where I can fish closer to the take off spot.  But if you think you can be competitive, go out on a strange body of water you normally don't fish.....give yourself 8hrs and see what you catch and what the weight is?  Set a goal for yourself and see if you can hit it.  And if you're wanting a bigger boat, do some looking around there are older models out there that are nicely priced for what you get if you do the work and look.