What is the best way to learn how to tournament fish?

I have only fished in three tourneys starting last year and all were on Fork. What a way to start right? One was by myself and the other with a partner. I am wanting to know what steps to take in order to understand a strategy to become good at this.

thanks, BMB

Join a club in which the members share their knowledge and genuinely try to help newer anglers learn. Identify the guys who are good fishermen, pay attention to what they say and do, and learn. Don't just go out and fish their spots, but try to learn from their mental approach as well as their tactics.

If you get a chance, go fishing with anglers who are better and more experienced than you are...and pay attention.

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Get in touch with James Biggs. He teaches you that and much more.

Joining a club is great if you are fishing in club type tournaments. But from your post I take it fished some open tournaments at Fork. If you can afford to do the James Biggs thing or with other teaching guides.

Get a partner and fish Bass Champs or Media or JC Outdoors. Fish individually in Media or JC Outdoors. But fishing by yourself if you aren't already catching a lot of fish does not help you learn that much.

Join a teaching club. I am in one a good one and our members, particularly the co-anglers really do learn a lot. But then we fish on Thursday which may not be good for you.

Get on the water, fish your strengths. Start on one lake and do well on it, then branch out. Several clubs and tournaments concentrate on just one lake. Back in the day I use to go to a lake and do nothing but ride around and see where people were fishing. I would make a note of it and and at some point go back and see what they were looking at and try to determine why this or that spot. LEARN YOUR ELECTRONICS. More than anything this helps eliminate water. Downside is maps don't show brush piles. Make your own brush piles.

Go have fun and fish like you know how.
Think about it too much it turns into work.

Practice and time on water will also help, do some mock tournaments. Have a clock running and act like you are fishing a tournament for the day, you can weigh and release or just guess weight throughout the day, but this is mainly to help with time management

century bass club no boat needed

Fast Track
- Fish with great fisherman. Mr. Biggs is a great start.
- Fish Draw Tournament Circuit as a non-boater.
- Pick one lake as your home lake and only fish it when you are applying what you have learned from the first two above.

I had been fishing for a couple of years with a buddy in team tournaments years ago and had a blast but felt like it was taking me forever to learn things. My brother talked me into joining Century Bass Club since he was fishing in it and because it was a draw club he said it was great fishing with different guys. I can only tell you that after that first year I learned 100 times more than if I had kept fishing like I was. Then after a year or so since I did have a boat I started being a boater and I still fished as a co angler in tournaments like Redman, BFL, Anglers Choice Pro Ams etc. That's when I started really having fun and really felt like I was truly getting better. I was still learning different styles of fishing from a lot of guys some of which were actual touring pros and then spending more time in my boat trying to put those things I learned to use. The main thing that will help you more than anything is just the actual amount of time you spend on the water. Also it is good to have someone like James Biggs that is taking a different approach and not just teaching you how to catch fish like so many great guides in this state but teaching you the mental part of searching for bass and patterns for catching them. I am probably past the time of really putting in the effort to get better but I am hoping to get with James sometime in the future because I think it would be an awesome day on the lake.
I am much older now and don't own a boat but I am really looking forward to this year because I am still fishing Century as a non boater and also will be fishing Ray Hubbard Bass Club which is a team format with my son in law.

All sound like great info. Thanks for the tips. I think that is another problem from what you mention is electronics. I just bought my bug last year and got a new graph but being new to the boat world do not really feel like i know how to read it. I tried youtube and the internet but do not feel it helps me personally.

I will take note of what you all have shared and try to apply it and see what it nets me. I did all the Big Bass tourneys on Fork last year and only caught 2 fish the entire 3 tournaments fished all of 1 pound each. It was pretty humbling and humiliating. Then again, I have always been a bank fisherman up to that point last year so fishing deep is a whole new ball game for me too.

Thanks again!

Nothing beats time on the water especially if your locked into a lake. Take notice of seasonal patterns. I don't tourney fish anymore but when I did I would get a paper map of the lake I was fishing and try to eliminate water based on seasonal patterns. I still study paper maps to this day prior to hitting the water even on a lake I know. Sometimes looking at it might trigger something I might not think of on the fly.

Catch 15lbs every time you go out.

I'd be glad to speed up your learning curve.

Let's go sometime. I live on fork and fish a lot by myself. I'm no pro by any means but I can catch one every now and then.

Catch 5 fish and bring them in alive every time

It's a learning curve. Enter a couple small tournaments and analyze how you do in each one

I realize the mystique of fishing Fork is something you ( and everyone else ) wants to figure out, but 1 thing you'll get from fishing bass clubs is the knowledge of fishing other lakes. You will also build confidence in yourself. I was a Fork /Ray Roberts guy primarily due to the proximity of Frisco, but after fishing with McKinney Bass Club for 2 seasons, my favorite lakes are now Athens, Palestine, LOP & Monticello. IMO, Fork is a tough Lake to learn. It's gets even tougher with 1200 boats zooming around on tournament day. And even spending 50+ days a year on Fork, I still have more than my fair share of ZEROs.

As mentioned above, not only do clubs provide fishing skill improvements, generally theres sharing information not only about patterns and lure selection and each club will have an electronics guru or 2 to help you with your set up. Plus the cost per tournament is much less than those $100-$300 big fish tourneys you've been fishing. For instance, MBC is $30 annual for membership and $40/tourney. Bass champs, BLT, Texas Team trail are all great trails, but IMO you won't learn much from others going that route. And YEs, I have fished both BassChamps and BLT.

If you have any questions about MBC, please send me a PM and I'll be glad to answer any questions or point you to our officers.

Jeff

Try the BFL as a non boater. You will be surprised of the education you will get out of that experience. You will not only about how tournaments are ran but how to fish different techniques. It s a great way to learn

join a club that has a non boater draw (McKinney bass club is a good one) and then you can get a good start as to learning from different people how to fish tournaments.

I guess I have a dumb question...

What is there to learn about tournament fishing? It seems like common sense to me.

1. Try to catch the 5 biggest fish you can.
2. Understand and follow all the rules of the tournament.
3. Realize tournament fishing is gambling. Chances are you're going to lose more than you win.

I understand how to fish and that I need to bring in the biggest fish to win, but my point is with all the running around and "spots" to get to and time of day and lures to use, etc...how do you accomplish this. Being new to owning a boat and never fishing deep per say I am just curious how to be better at fishing in these things. It is tough to know all the ins and outs of actually being on the water vs. standing on a bank most of your life.

I am a do it myself and learn kind of guy over a read about it or watch youtube to learn.

Now I understand your question. First of all, there is no substitute for time on the water. To learn, you've gotta be there doing it. Maximize your time while you are at the lake....meaning that when you plan a trip, make it a daylight to dark trip to get the most out of it. It costs a lot less to stay on the lake than to drive home and then drive back to the lake.

You can educate yourself a lot nowadays right here online. Watching videos, reading articles, etc...that will help speed up the education process, but be careful not to fill your head with too much information that will only confuse you.

My simple advise is this - learn the basics of fishing and fish behavior (where they are supposed to be at that particular time of the year) and spend time learning to catch fish. There is nothing better than learning something yourself. The beauty (but also most aggravating thing) about fishing is there is no right answer to catching fish. For example, lots of guys think the only way to catch a fish during the spawn is to sight fish. Not true, there's plenty of fish to be caught away from the bank. Spend time on the water.

I started by fishing a few low entry fee tournaments. Like couples tournaments, rattle trap tournaments etc. Those got me familiar with tournament fishing and I started understanding how the process worked. Once I figured that out I fished a full season as a coangler in the BFLs. I did it with the sole intention of learning how pros (and I use that term loosely) approached tournaments. I had some good boaters and some bad ones but I took it all in.
This will be my first year as a boater in the BFLs and my expectations are pretty low. My goal for the first one is to just catch a limit. And when that starts happening regularly I'll build on it. Good luck!

Doing well in bass tournaments is the hardest thing I've ever tried in my life. I feel like I've accomplished some fairly difficult things in life but nothing has been as slow and frustrating as competitive bass fishing!