Pre Fishing

I have heard a number of guys say they never pre-fish a tournament because
they will go back to a spot and not catch any fish. Some say its bad luck,
others say they don't want to "sore mouth" a bunch of fish.

Personally I think it is a lack of understanding of the changing conditions.
I have a couple spots I have done well at because I knew there were fish
there.

For example:

I had fished a weedbed with no success using finesse baits. I knew there
were fish there, and a lot of them because when I moved up over the bed I
could see them. I went back on a very windy day and fished over the top of
that weedbed with spinner baits and caught several nice fish.

In another location where I had a nice topwater bite earlier in the year I
noticed schools of shad moving through the area, but little or no topwater
action. Well, no feeding frenzy anyway. I fished it with deeper lures
instead of topwater and caught a couple nice fish, and had one killer break
off on me.

I don't see how having been out on the water and knowing what was going on
in those locations could possible have hurt my fishing. I admit I did not
fish them the day before a tournament, but I didn't really think prefishing
was about catching fish, but more about trying to understand what was going
on.

On the Lower Colorado River where I do a lot of fishing of late we have
another circumstance that enters in. The river rises and falls constantly
which affects the water level in all the back lakes along the river. I can
see if you find a good slack water bite in a back lake and then go back in
when the water is rising the fish will have moved, or gotten more
aggressive, or gotten less aggressive. I can see where that or other
changing conditions may make an angler perceive that they ruined a spot for
a tournament by prefishing it.

I disagree with them. No not completely. I certainly would not go out on a
Friday and hammer a spot I planned to fish for money on Saturday. I night
go look at the area and see if I could spot fish in clear conditions or
chart them in deeper water. I might hang out near a point or dock for an
hour or two to see if I could spot cruising schools of bait fish. Then move
on to another area to see what I could see. I might also use a prefishing
day to cut brush into some of those nearly blocked off back waters like this
channel

http://www.yumabassman.com/pictures/...ckChannel2.jpg

that leads into one nice size side canyon, and then through an even more
densely brushed over channel that lead into three more back lakes. I
literally ran my 20' Baker up out of the water in the front going over weeds
to cut through some of these channels one day while exploring. I could not
see the water. My partner was in the front of the boat telling me which way
to turn the motor.

If I know there are fish back there I can take the time to get back there on
a tournament day. Especially on a day when there are a high number of
anglers and all the prominent and well known spots are getting flailed by
amateurs and pros alike.

--
Bob La Londe
Yuma, Az
http://www.YumaBassMan.com
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