I am going to be fishing in a tournament in a couple weeks and finally remembered to save enough vacation to Pre-fish. I have the Saturday and Sunday before as well as the Thursday and Friday before the tournament available. Would it be better to fish one area on those days or to fish multiple areas i.e. on day North the next south.
Thanks for all the advice in advance,
Mike
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Depends on the tournament format. Does the format require you to catch both salmon and trout?? Most (if not all) of the big tournaments on the Michigan side will require teams to catch both salmon and trout. Most of the tournaments on the Wisconsin side do not require such things.
Your fishing the weekend prior to the tournament should be used to sharpen your presentation and skills. Fish with your tourney team...you want to know the strengths and weaknesses (if any) of each member prior to gametime. Assign responsibilities while pre-fishing, and also try to establish some sort of hierarchy for decision-making processes when they arise.
Of the competitive teams that I know who fish well in tournaments, it seems that the captain makes the bulk of the decisions, and then the crew share varying responsibilities. Trust in your crew, and if one or more of them need assistance in one particular aspect of your program, then iron out those deficiencies while pre-fishing.
Barring drastic weather changes prior to the event, your two days of prefishing at the end of the week should be concentrated on finding fish in multiple locations at different times of the day. Repeat as much as you can...dialing in a program that works for you and your crew. There are some very large steelhead in the lake this season, so do not discount trying for them should your king bite die off in the mid-morning hours. A 12# steelhead weighs just as good as a 12# king...and there are often more like it around when you find one.
Far too many times I think guys get caught up in what is catching fish on another boat. Each boat fishes completely different, and you are the best guage of what works for you and your crew.
Make a plan, have everything ready to go, and check all of your tackle and terminal connections thoroughly. Create a box of "hammers" that are your "go-to" lures for catching fish. Tournament time is not necessarily the best time for one of your crew to say..."my uncle Harry used to hammer them on a gold/green 4F Evil Eye...let's put one out..."
All that said...remember this one last thing. Fishing is supposed to be first and foremost FUN. Some days the Fish Gods shine down upon you, and some days they kick you in the head. Not sure why this is so, but try to prepare yourself as much as possible ahead of time to eliminate variables which could lead to a poor performance at the scale.
Best of luck..and let us know how you do...
BFG
Official Ohio Delegate to Team Heavy Super-Sized Fishing Specialists bfg@educatedangler.com
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In general if you have the time you should fish multiple spots unless you have someone you can work with. It's a good idea to have an A, B, and C spot.
I think you'll find that this will pay dividends in the long run - more then one time we have gone to our A spot after days of great fishing to have dead water there. Don't count on one spot!
Also as importnat to prefishing is networking - make friends that you can share info with - this multiplies your prefishing and gives you some options when you're on the water.
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Well...I did very well in Frankfort. I fished a couple different areas and found 2 very productive spots which we used to propel ourselves into 2nd place in the Amatuers division and 1st in the 333. A big thank you goes out to Greg (t3pt6k) for helping us out with our coho program when we called and asked for help. I encourage all who can do it to answer the observer's needed threads when you can. I can honestly say that the pointers I have picked up from different captain's has helped me put more fish in my boat not to mention the networking of being able to call someone like Greg, or Gary from Big Weenie (who helped me out earlier in the year with my meat program) and ask for an educated opinion of someone who is on the water a lot more than I am.
Again thanks for the help and advice on the prefishing. It helped set up the most exciting fishing weekend of my life.
Mike
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Alright man, way to go Mike and Scott! What a a great job - glad any advice I could give was useful - 2nd place in AM and a 333 win is awesome (although u didn't beat our best of the year weight - )
Way to go boyz!
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