Do tournament fishermen just throw some clothes in a bag, put some tackle in the boat and just take off for a big tournament? No, they don’t! There is an extensive amount of planning involved in being a successful tournament fisherman.
Early preparation
When a fisherman receives the dates for a tournament trail, he has from four months to one year to prepare for those events. Planning starts now!
First come the phone calls to secure lodging for each tournament. This is usually a time-consuming and somewhat tedious project, but it is necessary in order to secure adequate parking, proximity to the launch ramp and lodging price – be it at a hotel, motel, house or campsite. All of these need to be considered for each tournament site. Most fishermen have regular roommates to split the cost of the lodging, which also needs to be discussed.
Area chambers of commerce are good places to get any needed information about each tournament site. At the same time, maps can be ordered from local tackle stores or from the chamber of commerce.
Pre-planning
Pre-planning usually occurs less than two months from the date of the tournament. It might consist of checking the Internet for fishing reports on the tournament site. It could also include calling fishermen or acquaintances who fish that body of water regularly and picking their brains on what the fishing should be like during the competition dates. Calling up and ordering lures, rods and reels from your sponsors is also part of pre-planning. Make sure you leave yourself enough time to get everything you need to properly fish a tournament. There is nothing worse than running around from store to store to find that one magic bait you can’t live without and doing it the night before the tournament competition begins.
Crunch time
One week before you go to a tournament it becomes “crunch” planning time. Call your place of lodging and confirm your reservations – and make sure you get the name of the person to whom you are speaking. Try to request a ground floor, which will better accommodate your battery charger needs.
Check what extra baits you may need and make sure everything is packed away in your truck so that you can find your extra baits easily. I use four soft duffel bags to store extra plastics in, one with plastic worms, one with lizards and craws, one with Slug-Gos and floating worms and another with tubes and miscellaneous plastics. I use one large Rubbermaid container for extra Plano 3700 storage boxes filled with baits, both soft plastic and hard baits. All my extra hard baits I put into a single container. These are baits still in their packages that go up on a peg board wall when I am at home so I can see what I own.
Next you get all the rods and reels ready that you are going to bring with you. Sometimes you might be fishing two or three tournaments back to back, which is a necessary consideration when packing your tackle for a trip.
Don’t forget your tow vehicle; whatever maintenance is needed should be accomplished before you go away. I always make sure my truck has an oil change before I travel.
Maps
The most important part of pre-planning and the most essential aspect of tournament success is looking at a contour map of the body of water you will be fishing. I take a map and put it up on the wall of my office and study the map from the end of the previous tournament until the upcoming tournament occurs. It is amazing what you can learn just by looking at a map for a few minutes a day. This enables you to sometimes pick out hot spots that can be overlooked by the casual observer.
At the lake
As you are driving to the tournament site there is still planning to be done. Each practice day needs to be planned. After doing map work you should have an idea of what you should do in each of your practice days.
Take one section of the lake each day and break each section down into workable parts that can be practiced efficiently in the time you have allowed yourself. Figure out where the fish should be located for each calendar period and concentrate on those areas. Before each day of the tournament you must have a game plan as to what you are going to do during those 8-10 hours of fishing time. If your time is not used wisely then you are just wasting your time out there. Planning to use your time efficiently is another article in itself, but it is a vital ingredient to achieving the perfect tournament.
Post-planning
Post-planning is an area that I believe is overlooked by the majority of the fishermen out there. I feel that a log of each tournament – whether it be written or put on a computer – is an invaluable aid to any fisherman. That way, if you go back to that same tournament site, you not only have information about lodging, food, tackle stores, etc., you also have important fishing facts to help you plan your next tournament there. Knowing what you did on a body of water from year to year is extremely important.
Planning is not something that can be ignored, and there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Take your time and make sure to follow the steps that I have outlined and watch your tournament success soar. Good luck, and good fishing to all.