I have fished sml tournament since 2004 and believe that most of the bass will not be spawning that early. As far as being back boated, I try very hard as a boater not to do this,I was a co-angler for a few years and hated that. I have even had a bad tournament and tried to put my co-angler in the best spots! Also try a shaky head you can always catch some behind the boater no matter how bad he or she positions you. One thing is always try and help out the boater with gas money, I always did but for some reason I have had very few that has offered me a dime even though I help them out as much as I can!