Bass Fishing Tip of the Week 03/16/09: What to Do When Your Tournament Fish Disappear

Have you ever prepared for a bass fishing tournament and found spot after spot with fish biting just about everything in your tackle box only to find out on tournament day the bass have seemed to disappear? You are not the only one as I and probably many other tournament fishermen have experienced this in one form or another.

So the question is what can you do so you don't go home smelling like a skunk? Well here's a list of tips that can yield some fish and occasionally a spot in the money if put to the test.

1- Above all don't panic. Running from spot to spot will often lead to no fish in the boat. Give your spots a good hour or so before giving up. Try different lures and approaches if your first lure/pattern doesn't work.

2- Try to envision the current day and weather. If the wind is coming from a certain direction, cast/pitch into the wind approaching the cover from upwind. This is almost the same as fishing current. An example of this is fishing a pad clump by moving downwind from the clump, cast/pitch or flip beyond the pads into the wind then work the lure toward pads while watching your line for any sideways movement. You can do this with weedlines, stumps or any other structure.

3- If your pattern was fishing heavy cover and you were fishing on a bright sunny day, try fishing around or outside the cover if it is overcast or extremely windy. Bass will move away from cover and have a larger strike zone when the overcast condition exists. They become more aggressive and will roam larger areas to find forage.

4- Try some other spots but give those spots a fair chance. 10 minutes in a spot is not enough time to locate fish. Give those new spots at least 30 minutes of real fishing time.

5- Slow down your presentation unless you are on some topwater schoolers. Pitching and flippin make you slowdown and are great ways to focus your lure presentations on specific targets. Carolina rigs are also effective but try to fish underwater structure such as timber or rock. Work through that structure with extreme concentration and keep your lure coming through or near that structure.

6- To be very successful, don't give up on your go to baits. If your prefishing spots didn't pan out it doesn't mean some other pattern won't work. I've found out that in one day tournaments, constantly switching to new unproven lures will more than not result in lower weight weigh ins. just try some new pattern or structure.

So when your tournament prefishing strategy disappears the morning of the tournament, try some of these tips and I'm sure you'll be doing more catching with less fishing. :)

The Largemouth Herald