tournament pattern fishing

[Nick_Barr]

how do you figure out a pattern?

[ernel]

The way I fugure that I am on a pattern, is to catch a few fish in one spot. Let's just say on a secondary point 1/3 of the way back in a feeder creek. Let's also say that I am using a DT-10 crankbait. And for the sake of argument the lure is hitting the bottom and running at it's maximum depth. O.K. now I have caught 3 fish from this location and I want to see if this is a pattern on the whole lake. First I would move a little bit further back into this cove to see if I can draw a strike. If not, then I would look on my map and find another secondary point that has close to the same water depth, and same distance in a cove or feeder creek. If I go to this cove and I catch some fish here as well, I would find a third spot to test as well through the same process.

If I go  to my second spot and I do not catch fish, then I would have to look back at my notes from the first spot. Verify that water temp is the same at both locations, bottom composistion. Did I see bait fish at one location but not the other. Was there some type of isoloated cover on the structure that the fish were holding on at the lures depth. If there was a stump row near the end of the first point in 10 feet of water but not the second, then I would try to find  some type of hard cover on a secondary point in 10 ft of water.

Now if I can go to a spot that has the same charecteristics as the fist and catch fish, then I am establishing a pattern. If I can go to a few more spots that are simular and catch fish, then I am on a pattern.

In order to pattern efficently, you wil need to take all the information about the first few fish that you catch in a spot and remember it. Also you need to do it quickly, because if it as early in the morning when you caught your first few fish and late morning approaching noon when you find your second spot, the fish may have pulled tighter to cover or pulled out a little deeper. If this has happened, then they may not bite at the time that you are there, because they may not be as active. Then you would have to find the pattern within the pattern.

All the secondary pattern may be is just switching to a deeper or slower bait or actually having to hit the cover in order to draw a strike. It may mean that the lure has to pass on a certain side of the cover in order to draw the strike.

This is how I would do it for a tournament. I would not want to stick every fish on the point before the tournament began. If I were fishing for pleasure, I would stick every fish I could before they stopped. Then go to the second spot, and so forth and so on. Then later in the day I would return with a different lure to see if more fish had moved up or if some of the other fish were agressive now.

Patterning a lake is not that hard, but it does require you to think and act quickly once you are on fish. Finding the fish the first time would probably be the hardest part of it, espsecially on a strange lake.

I am only stating my opinions and other folks may have different ways. Take all the info you get and use what you can and disregard the rest.

[Shad_Master]

I think this is the essence of pattern fishing, but this only works if you are driving the boat.  If you are a non-boater in a tournament and you are fishing with somebody who thinks they have found a pattern, then you try to imitate what they are doing.  But if it isn't working, then you try to compliment what they are doing.  This happened to me last year on a tournament where my boater assured me that he had caught fish in every direction in a clump of standing trees.  After making three passes through the area with only sub-limit fish to show for it, I took advantage of his back lash to cast out of the trees and into the grass along the bank.  I caught my first keeper of the day and as we moved from one clump of standing trees to the next, I caught my next one.  Throughout the day, I managed to catch a limit of 15"+ fish on the grass line while the boater was moving from one set of trees to the next.  I only took 3rd place in the tournament, but 1st and 2nd also reported that they were catching fish on the weedline in various parts of the lake.

[Will]

Look closely at the depth, structure, cover, and presentation you catch fish at. Once you catch a couple look for similarities. Such as if you are fishing a dock are all the fish coming from a certain corner of the dock.

[Chris]

Developing a pattern is just a learning process to figure out the lake and what mood the fish are in. You need to catch fish to find fish. I try to break it down into two parts first I figure out if they want a vertical or a horizontal presentation. Next I try to figure out what kind of cover or structure are they holding at. Then try to refine the pattern to catch more fish or bigger fish. After that duplicate the pattern in other areas or find secondary patterns.

[Glenn]

Check this article out:

http://bassresource.com/fishing/establishing_pattern.html

;D