InfantryMP

Yes, fishing efficiently and effectively is crucial. I heard a bunch of stories at the tournament of losing "bigs". Safety is always paramount for me now. In my earlier years, not so much, but now it is a requirement for me.

Hey Everyone! I have posted about being new to tournaments before, and changing strategies for my first one. I completed my first tournament yesterday on a lake that I had never been to. I am going to give a run down of my experience for the first tournament, and how it went! Wake up 3:45am. The lake was an hour and 15 min away or so from the house. The derby started at 7. The issue with this lake is there is no parking lot. You literally have to park on the side of the street, and when those spots are taken, then you cannot park there. So I had to make the haul super early. The club guys are great. They literally backed me in and parked my truck for me. I had a great experience with dropping in and even getting out. Wind 20-25 Water Temps 51-53 morning 55-56 afternoon First issue: The wind was blowing about 20-25, and the water on the main lake was moving. I know the photo does not really show it, but there were some large white caps. I only have 17" boat. Needless to say, I was very nervous about the water conditions and making a haul to the far north side of the lake about 1.5 miles up against the waves. I quickly found some coves on the south end of the lake, but still had to travel to get there. I did stop to try to fish an offshore spot, that I saw had what looked like a group of smallmouth, or walleye, but I could not keep my balance enough with the boat rocking back and forth so much. I abandoned that quickly. Cove #1: I made it to the cove about 20 minutes after launch. My 4th cast, I got my first keeper. The mouth of the cove has tall vegetation that came about 3 ft out of the water. There were a couple of pockets there, and I got one directly out of the pockets skipping a white chatterbait with a paddle tail trailer also white. That fish was in probably 2 foot of water super early in the morning. I went 3 hours without a bite and decided to hit up the marina slack water for lunch and a redbull. After eating I decided to fish the boat lifts, etc in the marina while I was there. I am not good at skipping. I could have done it right and where I wanted 1 in about every 3 or 4 casts. Today, I learned some proficiency with it. I spent the next two hours skipping boat lifts. Like literally getting it where I wanted on the first or 2nd try, and eventually it was every cast I was successful where I wanted it. It was a good time, and I learned alot. It also helps when you get bit. On my way out of the marina, I skipped the second to last boat lift (already fished it on the way in), and boat flipped my second largemouth. Cove #2: Here is where the day took the turn for the worse. I think everyone realized that the main lake water was crazy rough and did not want to mess with it. Everyone came back in to the coves, and basically it was just musical chairs of boats fishing behind each other, next to each other etc. I knew there was no way I was going to catch anything else on the pattern I wanted (white chatterbait under docks boat lifts). When the tournament started I was the only one in this cove area. Everyone seemed to travel north (smallmouth territory). So, that is really it. Here are the things I have figured out: 1. If you are thinking about getting in to tournaments just do it. Take the plunge as I did. It was fun! 2. Tournaments make you get better- ie the skipping under boat lifts. I feel like I am a lot better now because I had to be. 3. Wear your safety gear. I wore my PFD almost all day. Took it off in the afternoon in the coves with slack water. 4. Be prepared to lose / break lures or equipment. I lost two chatterbaits, and it was worth it to me for the experience. I also snapped a rod on the ultrex head 5. When the plan goes to crap, just go fishing, you will be surprised on how much that works. 6. The last thing and the most important besides safety. There are guys out there that do tournament all the time, and are very good at what they do. Do not expect to go in and start topping those guys. It could happen for sure, but I wouldn't expect it the first time or two. Once I was out there I just wanted to do well, and by do well I mean, catch a few and see what happens. Do not let the big rigs (New Boats decked out) fluster you. They are great machines of course, but again they do not catch the fish. Results: I placed 8th out of 20 with about 4lbs ish I only caught two, but I only had two bites all day. We had quite a few who did not catch anything all day.

I watch all of his videos. I have 3 molds that I make baits from. It can get very expensive very quickly. I think he has a great personality, and a good creative vision. He does very well with matching too, and it just seems like he is winging it, but he has been doing it for years.

I use the alberto knot. I have dumb fingers though and struggle with all my knots. I have just started using the knot this year, as I haven't been using a leader. I have not had any issues with the alberto yet.

I believe mine is my boat. I have a Triton TR-17 that came setup with 3 HDS graphs, tons of upgrades and tournament ready. There was hardly any wear and tear. Everything was in perfect working order. I paid 5K cash. I have upgraded the TM since, and put brand new batteries in it. I re-wired the trailer. All in all no other issues in the last 3 years.

I have caught bass using a chatterbait similarly to jig. I have casted up to the bank and hopped it up a couple times, and then swam it back to the boat. However saying that, I think there are better baits for bed fishing. Chatterbaits can work very well when the bass are moving up to spawn, but are not yet in the shallows spawning. I have thrown them in all kinds of weather. You can also make some modifications to make them run deeper or shallower as well.

Yea I think I will swap out Shakey Heads and Ned Rigs depending on what is working. I have a ton of neds ( I make them) so I should be good to go with those.

Yes, you are right. I was thinking I was missing something easy. Thanks!

This Sunday is my first tournament. I have posted about doing tournaments in the past, and I am all ready to go an geared up. I have studied the charts of the lake, also did some research online. I have not fished this lake before, and I will not have the chance to do so prior to the event. I came up with what I thought was a solid game plan, according to current conditions etc. However, mother nature threw a curve ball this week....It is currently snowing. The water temps in my area (1.5 hours south of tournament lake) as of yesterday were 59-59.5. The current water temps listed online for the tournament lake is 49. I think I need to revisit my game plan. This lake is a decent size over 1800 acres. It is a well known smallmouth, and walleye lake. Average depth is 24ft with the deepest being 88ft, but have plenty of flats within the 10ft rage. I was going to hit the flats that come off a 20ft to 10ft drop. There are many of these out in the lake. I will look for some structure to fish as well, but I have not been able to get out there and graph. Now, I am thinking with the changes in water temps and weather patterns. I may need to focus on the deeper areas with something like a drop shot, or jig. I was hoping to see the weather continue to warm and maybe catch some that were moving up and staging, but I do not think that will be the case. I am going to have a few deep divers 16-25ft cranks ready as well. To be honest, I mainly fish 10ft and shallower, so shallow water moving baits, flipping etc is my confidence style. I am going to tie on: 1. Shaky Head 2. Deep Crank (16-25ish) 3. Lipless 4. Jig 5. Drop Shot 6. Tube or Carolina Rig 7. T-rig with a 3/4 or 1/2 oz weight 8. A- Rig (3 hooks only 2 decoy) 9. 3/4 oz Spinner bait 10. Another crank or lipless different color What do you all think of the plan thus far?

Yes I group all of my insurance needs together. Multi policy discounts can save a ton of money. I shop around every year for new insurance rates. I have been through Geico and Liberty Mutual and Progressive over the last few years.

I have it. I got it specifically for tournaments because they require it. I also think that any investment you have should be insured. A lot of times, it can go right in to your insurance portfolio for very cheap. It makes it kind of a no brainer in my opinion. I shop around every year for new insurance rates. I have always been able to get my rates for everything lower year after year!

To be honest the best tackle organization I have seen was Jacob Wheeler's garage. He has 3700's full of tackle stacked with what they are. Shallow cranks and deep cranks separate, but on the same shelf labeled. His terminal tackle organization is crazy. He has boxes for each kind of rig. T-rigs, drop shots, trebles etc. They are stacked to the dang ceiling. For his tournaments, he just grabs boxes of what he thinks he is going to throw. For a go box, I would do the same thing he does, except just grab a couple of each thing you think you may throw.

There are a few. The Mike Bucca Baby Bull Shad and Baby Bull Gill. There are some live target swimbaits as well that work in Bluegill. I am sure there are others, but those are ones I know of off the top of my head.

I would throw a hard jointed swimbait like in a shad or bluegill color. Those retention ponds or neighborhood ponds have been good to me with a jointed swimbait like a baby bull shad / gill or something similar. If they see a bunch of worms and creature baits all the time they may not bite as good as something like a swimming bait.

Yea we are trying to track down the fuel delivery issue every time we work on it. I wanted to see it running to see how much fuel was filling the filter, and it is not very much at all. But once it fires it delivers some...I think the fuel pump is bad.

I am helping my father work on his pontoon. He has a Johnson 150 on his, that will run great when it fires. However we have to use starting fluid to get it initially fired. It is being a pain. However, the routine maintenance aspect can never be overstated. That 150 had been sitting for years before my father bought it. If it had been taken care of a little better, and fired up more it may not have this problem. We are not Marine mechanics but we know enough to try to fix it. A lot of times boat owners in my opinion compound problems with lack of preventative maintenance or when they lose interest in the boat, or do not get to use it as much, they seem to just let them go. When problems compound that is when the wallet seems to start to dry up. I have spent $500 on my boat in the last three years for maintenance. Batteries, misc items, and a re-wire on the trailer as I added lights. Its not that bad in my opinion.

The only thing I do not like about MLF is that the MLF guys can go down in Series, but the lower series guys like from the Toyota or wherever cannot just come up in to MLF. I think they had a 3 year deal for people to be locked in to MLF without entry fees etc. Not very many new faces in MLF besides Cox, and a few others that came in.

I have Duracell AGM's that I bought from Sam's club on sale. They also at the time had an 18 month warranty on them. I have not had issues in the last two years with mine. They are less than $150 each depending on the size you need. A couple of them are sub $100 as well.

I have a few of them. They have great action, however I wish the fished a bit deeper than they do. Like was mentioned before, they swim right under the water surface and pretty shallow. I have yet to catch a bass on one, but I have only fished it once, and it was just to see the action the bait had, and to see if it lived up to the hype action wise.

They use MLF boats with all MLF sponsors for this event. They will go back to their own boats etc for the next event. I think this allows for a full run of sponsor ads for MLF to run all week.

Yea that has to sting. It also has to suck for KVD who was sitting there in contention, and then gets dropped three spots in a matter of like 3 minutes.

^I am with Bluebasser. I would not use either if I had a choice, but if that is all I had then the bandito with its appendages moving. There are a ton of other great options out there.

What is the better option for the 2D sonar? I have a Lowrance 2D transducer that is trolling motor mounted. My new Ultrex has the built in 2D transducer. Does anyone know which one is better to use, and maybe why that is? If they are similar or the ultrex is better than I can remove the transducer from Lowrance.

This is good to know. I just installed mine on my TR-17, and I have not calibrated anything yet. Thanks for sharing!

The only reason I do not like to do this is because if the baits come with any scent or oil in them, it makes the boxes all sticky and slimy. Also I am not good at remembering names of colors, so I keep in the package, I will know when I need more. Also I hate how some of the boxes start to get that fade on them. I have been using bass mafia boxes and they are great, but pricey for sure.