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Tournament pre fishing? #13398137 01/09/20 06:43 PM
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Statton48 Offline OP
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Wondering how you better tournament guys pre fish. I hear all the time that we shook them off. If you had one day to pre fish for tournament day, how do you tackle the lake and what all do you take in consideration? I’m just trying to compare what I do to what others do. Good luck this yr guys

Moritz Chevrolet - 9101 Camp Bowie W Blvd, Fort Worth, TX - Monte Coon (817) 696-2003
Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398163 01/09/20 07:00 PM
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I very seldom fish. I spend my time graphing and timing runs. Creating a milk run. Tourney day is for hooking fish.


Eat. Sleep. Fish.
Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398165 01/09/20 07:02 PM
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Burn as much gas as the tank will hold. I catch very few fish in practice. I more or less get a feel for how I can catch them and then try to duplicate that. Once I figured out a plan A, its time to work on a plan B and C. Obviously it doesn't always work out that way and the on the water decisions are what separate the pro's from the joe's, but it is nice to at least have an idea instead of going in blind.


Live Daringly, Boldy, and Fearlessly....Embrace the Challenge So That You May Feel the Exhiliration of Victory.

Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: J.H.S.] #13398181 01/09/20 07:13 PM
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Statton48 Offline OP
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Originally Posted by Josh Seale
Burn as much gas as the tank will hold. I catch very few fish in practice. I more or less get a feel for how I can catch them and then try to duplicate that. Once I figured out a plan A, its time to work on a plan B and C. Obviously it doesn't always work out that way and the on the water decisions are what separate the pro's from the joe's, but it is nice to at least have an idea instead of going in blind.


Sounds very similar to my approach, except I do try to figure out my main pattern for my quickest 5

Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398200 01/09/20 07:29 PM
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I guess Im different. I catch fish in practice. I mean you kind of have to to make sure those fish in that area are biting. I dont wear it out though. If I catch a few, I move on and leave that as a spot in the tournament. I still laugh when my buddies talk about "shaking them off!" Kinda hard to shake off fish that eat a trap or chatterbait. I normally like to have about 2 or 3 spots for a tournament. And make a milk run.

Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398235 01/09/20 07:54 PM
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I go to the obvious spots, the ones I know guys will be lining up for, and completely wear them out. If I need to throw a dropshot or a ned rig to catch every last fish then so be it.

Then on tournament day I'll fish my spots and hope for the best! Lol, jk. roflmao

All I really do is cover as much water as possible and put together a milk run for tourny day. I do catch fish, but after a fish or two I mark a waypoint and move on.

Last edited by EastTexasBassin; 01/09/20 08:04 PM.
Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Sinkey] #13398252 01/09/20 08:09 PM
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Originally Posted by Sinkey
I guess Im different. I catch fish in practice. I mean you kind of have to to make sure those fish in that area are biting. I dont wear it out though. If I catch a few, I move on and leave that as a spot in the tournament. I still laugh when my buddies talk about "shaking them off!" Kinda hard to shake off fish that eat a trap or chatterbait. I normally like to have about 2 or 3 spots for a tournament. And make a milk run.


I agree with this. Maybe I don't fish any one lake enough to get the feel of it some of you seem to have. I don't see how you can practice and not stick a few. Especially on a lake you don't fish a ton. Now once I prove a pattern has worked in a few places, I will back off and just graph, but the pattern has to prove itself via fish in the boat first. On a shallow flipping type pattern I will switch to a screw lock on my plastic instead of a hook. Hard to graph fish that are deep in grass or hard cover in shallow water.

Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398257 01/09/20 08:12 PM
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Also need to check the size of the fish in the area by catching a couple.


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Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398268 01/09/20 08:18 PM
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I just don't have the self control to shake them off or only look when I'm pre-fishing. Granted I don't fish many tournaments anymore so I don't really pre-fish much but when I do I usually just end up going fishing and then sucking in the tournament... roflmao


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Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398333 01/09/20 09:16 PM
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I tend to figure out a decent bite prefishing, go back to work for a few days, forget what I did, then end up fishing with my timing off and do horrible in the tournament. Last year sucked for me. Left a sour taste, I’m not fishing tournaments this year. Time to learn how to fish again!

Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398382 01/09/20 10:06 PM
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You hear all the time man i killed them prefishing. What that means to me is you don’t have confidence in your abilities come tournament day. Nothing wrong with sticking a FEW but if it’s the day before I won’t check a spot long enough to get more then a couple bites. If I can get bit in an area I have the confidence I can come back the next day to catch them so no reason to set the hook. Does it always work heck no but at least I know I didn’t set myself up for failure.

Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398457 01/09/20 11:18 PM
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Depending on the lake, if I know it, know the seasonal patterns of that lake and water conditions are somewhat normal a lot of the time I don't practice...


#MFGA
Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: EastTexasBassin] #13398464 01/09/20 11:29 PM
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Originally Posted by EastTexasBassin
I go to the obvious spots, the ones I know guys will be lining up for, and completely wear them out. If I need to throw a dropshot or a ned rig to catch every last fish then so be it.

Then on tournament day I'll fish my spots and hope for the best! Lol, jk. roflmao


The David Dudley approach to practice? roflmao


Kyle in NC

PB 11.1



Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398467 01/09/20 11:31 PM
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if fishing plastics use this instead of a hook

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Owner_CPS_Centering_Pin_Spring/descpage-OCPSS.html

If hard baits, bend some cheap hooks in on the bait then change them out for a better hook on tourney day


Kyle in NC

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Re: Tournament pre fishing? [Re: Statton48] #13398474 01/09/20 11:35 PM
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I don’t really look for fish. I look for the other things that tell me fish are in the area. I might hook one but I’m not convinced unless I see the right stuff. I’ll spend half to a full tournament day in an area where I did not catch fish if the conditions are right. Our lures can be deceiving in tournament fishing when it comes to practicing.

Now when I was in southern Louisiana this was not the case. There are fifty thousand areas with the right stuff but the only way to find the fish in it is to cover water and set the hook.

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