signed up to fish a local bass club, and I'm pretty nervous about running on all these lakes I've never been on. I checked boatlanes.com but none of our tourney lakes are on the list. So, aside from "slow and easy" how can I possibly know where it's safe to run? Idling across Texoma doesn't seem very conducive to a successful tournament day.

As of now my only plan is to make a coupe of scouting trips before tourney day. But even then, I still worry. I'm not the type that wants to run wide open everywhere, but I'd like to have confidence running on plane. Thanks for any advice- very much appreciated.

Lakes are:
texoma
Bridgeport
Lewisville
Bonham
Murray

Start by telling people the lakes, then people can give advice.

Added the lakes to the OP. Thanks =)

Back off trailer, hammer down

Find a guy in the club to help you out before each tournament. Most guys are pretty good about telling people how to run safely on a lake.

Never get into a hurry. When in doubt shut it down. Idle if you have too

get a good paper map

trim her high, let her fly!

Well try to find a map of said lakes and just try to familiarize yourself with them, they will show you hazardous areas. This is also a great way to start getting ready for your tourney. Find the places on your map that look like the areas you want to fish and go from there. Also a pre-fishing trip would not hurt if you are unfamiliar with the lakes, this way you can take your time and map it our on your GPS so you can haul butt on the day of. Of course there is always hiring a guide which will kill two birds with one stone, learn the lake and find some fish.
Good Luck!
JR

Bring it up in the pre-tournament meetings. They usually share that kind of information freely.

Those lakes have a lot of room to run. Get good maps.

Lake maps show most obstructions. I have been on Texoma and Murray of the lakes you mentioned. All depends on water level and watching your depthfinder. You see a steep incline coming...shut it down. Murray is full again, but if you ran it a year ago when water was 8-10 feet low, good chance you hit a submerged cliff of rock if not careful. Best advice I can give you is follow someone else who left before you...if they didn't hit it, you shouldn't either. Follow the bubble trail or their calm water path. If it is windy, idle and take it easy if in a hazardous area. Don't run Fork or Tawakoni either one unless you know it well. And make sure you have full coverage insurance...just in case.

And always wear your life jacket. :-)

That is how I have always fished new lakes.

I hate the guy who buys a bassboat and is scared to idle or troll thru a stump field, you got a bassboat use it.......

WFO!