Being the best prepared for a tournament

[Highschoolbassin]

So here's my question. If you are aware of a tournament you have on a weekend in the fall and you have the weekend before and a few hours everyday after work or whatever to prefish. How would you prepare for the tournament? Try and find several patterns to adjust for possible changing conditions? Get really dialed into one pattern? Spend a lot of time idling looking for bait and fish? Just curious as to how you personally would go about trying to set yourself up to win? Thanks

[corn-on-the-rob]

Spend the time, find a good plan, and if you have time, create a back up plan or know how to adjust when plan A isn't working. Be careful beating up your fish so close to tournament day too.

[gardnerjigman]

I'd fish a little but idle and graph mostly. Fish to see what baits are getting responded too and what depth zone they seem to be feeding at. Idle and graph to find bait fish and structure. I've never been a fan of prefishing a week out as conditions can change so much. 

[ww2farmer]

I am a figure it out on the fly kind of guy. Especially in the fall. Things can and do change quick, sometimes daily. If this tournament is on a lake your not familiar with, looking around the week before will help, but often, getting hung up on something that worked tuesday afternoon but might not be the deal on tournament day will bite you.

[Catt]

I want to spend as much time fishing that body of water all the way until the day of the tournament or until it's off limits.

This way I know if the bass are on a morning bite, midday bite, or evening bite. I'll also know which is better, the shallow water bite or the deep water bite. I'll also have established which lure presentations are most productive.

If I know what was productive prior to tournament day I can quickly make adjustments to changes in conditions.

[Highschoolbassin]

Thanks you guys. It'll be on my home lake and it'll be a 15 minute drive to go prefish. I'll definitely try and idle around and figure out at what depth the baitfish are at. I definitely think I'll try and break down the creeks into thirds and fish around and look for the most baitfish and activity

[gulfcaptain]

Get yourself a map of the lake, then you can look at areas that you want to fish a lot quicker and make notes.  Once you find fish on one type of cover or structure, go see if you can catch fish off of something similar.  Try and find shallow and deep fish.  The more options you have the better.  And being you're in TN, if it's a generating lake (pull water to produce electricity) this may change everything as they may be current driven which means you will need to find fish that will bite if they aren't pulling water as well.

[Sam]

On ‎2‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 7:47 AM, Catt said:

I want to spend as much time fishing that body of water all the way until the day of the tournament or until it's off limits.

This way I know if the bass are on a morning bite, midday bite, or evening bite. I'll also know which is better, the shallow water bite or the deep water bite. I'll also have established which lure presentations are most productive.

If I know what was productive prior to tournament day I can quickly make adjustments to changes in conditions.Yes

Yes! What Catt said is what I was going to pen.

You need to get on the water and fish and check out the areas via your electronics, BUT only after you study the map of the body of water so you will have an idea of what the lake presents to you in the form of structure, cover, creeks, coves, marinas, docks, piers, pads, grass, etc.

I hate to assume (ass/u/me) the type of water you will be fishing, probably a lake, so you need as much time on that body of water as you can before the tournament. You will not only gain a lot of information but also improve your confidence level.

So plan to get on the water as much as you can and learn all you can before tournament day.
 

[WIGuide]

If I was in that situation, I'd probably fish it pretty hard the weekend before. I'd want to know where they are and what they're doing especially in the fall. Being that it's a week out though, I need to be prepared to throw all that info out. Ideally I'd like to think if you can figure them out on that weekend you'll have an idea what they're doing and where they will go from there. During the week I'd spend more time graphing around trying to find anything similar. 

[Catt]

I know the scheduled tournament date

I have the weekend (2 whole days) prior to that date to pre-fish

I have a few hours every day (5 days) prior to that date to pre-fish

Seriously y'all!

Why would ya not "fish" all 7 days?

In that given time frame you should be able to establish if the fish are on a shallow bite or a deep bite. You should be able to establish multiple structural/presentation patterns and fish the strongest ones on tournament day.

If ya can't then ya got 2 choices, stop tournament fishing or accept the fact ya just gonna be donating entry fees!

[scaleface]

 First , I use to fish tourneys , havent for about ten years .

 

  I just spend time on the water . Sometimes just watching my graph , other times actually fishing . People prepare for tournaments differently . I have a Plan A and B ..

. My plan  A "and there may be more   than 1 plan A's ,thats just the way I work, is specific . I might have a key spot or spots . I may have a key pattern or patterns .  If plan A fails then I dont panic , I go to plan B .

 

Plan B will be more general ,  an area and will be selected prior to the tourney . Plan A has failed and now I'm just going to hunker down and fish, not spend  time running around in the boat . I'll pick a  spot that has a lot of variables in a small section . On a topo map it should have a lot of zigzag lines . Hopefully , fish will be caught and a pattern established .

I have no plan C . Once I abandon plan A and Plan B , I am relying on getting lucky which never worked for me . 

[Catt]

Sitting behind the console while the trailer  is being backed down I do 2 things once the prop hits water.

Frist I start the outboard & second I turn on the graph, I'm reading water temperature at the launch. 

Once on structure & I catch fish I'll idle over graphing the entire area even if it's one I know.

[gardnerjigman]

On Monday, February 15, 2016 at 8:27 AM, Catt said:

I know the scheduled tournament date

I have the weekend (2 whole days) prior to that date to pre-fish

I have a few hours every day (5 days) prior to that date to pre-fish

Seriously y'all!

Why would ya not "fish" all 7 days?

In that given time frame you should be able to establish if the fish are on a shallow bite or a deep bite. You should be able to establish multiple structural/presentation patterns and fish the strongest ones on tournament day.

If ya can't then ya got 2 choices, stop tournament fishing or accept the fact ya just gonna be donating entry fees!

This would harm me more on my home water than help me. Unless you are fishing a large, pro size lake where you can get on those large schools, I don't agree with you at all. 

And before I get key board whipped... how many times have you prefished better than you tournament fished? I know lots of guys, pros included that can prefish 20lbs, but come tournament day they are scraping for 10-12lbs. Just seems you are burning tournament water fishing like that.

 

GJM

[Catt]

40 minutes ago, gardnerjigman said:

 

And before I get key board whipped... 

GJM

That's funny right there;)

Ya aint never shook fish off?

[gardnerjigman]

1 hour ago, Catt said:

That's funny right there;)

Ya aint never shook fish off?

Sure I have, I've also have had fish that won't shake off. *insert C&C Custom Baits end insert*. Lol. 

 

Thought you'd like the keyboard whipped 

[Highschoolbassin]

Wow you guys are awesome! So what are some search baits you guys would have tied on on say 10 rod combos? Have several colors of a few types of lures? A bunch of different types of lures? How fast are you changing those lures while prefishing if your not getting bites? 

[Lawsonfishing1]

I fish high school tourneys in south Carolina an without a boat I don't get to prefish much but when I do the patern I find in practice doesn't work out during the tourniment. what I suggest doing that works for me is do as much research on the lake as posible an pick out what pattern you think they should be biteing an go fishing it if it don't work start fishing the baits you have the most confedence in that time of year an you will catch more fish than something that you are forcing yourself to fish.