Bass Fishing Tip of the Week 04/05/09: Marking Your Fishing Hot Spots

Marking your fishing spots while prefishing is an important aspect in any bass tournament fishermen's repertoire. Using your GPS on visible cover is one thing but marking offshore spots is another. Here's what I do to get the most from my GPS and marking those tiny offshore spots.

1- After you've dropped your trolling motor during your prefishing, make sure you have your marker buoy on the front deck within easy reach. A typical buoy is shown below.

2- When you've got one hooked, immediately grab your marker and toss it toward the general direction where the fish struck. Don't worry about losing the fish since you are prefishing anyways.

3- Work the area more thoroughly and mentally note any further strikes or fish and from which side of the marker these fish/strikes have been coming from. Also note the depth from where the fish are striking for further pattern development.

4- Once you are satisfied that the fish spot is worth marking, troll over to your marker and mark the exact spot where the marker sits on your GPS.

5- When tournament time arrives, go to your spot then when you arrive zoom in to the highest zoom your GPS will allow. Troll to your marked spot on this high zoom setting and precisely toss your marker on the spot.

6- Fish the area around the marker that you "mentally noted" during your prefishing.

Follow this fishing spot marking tip and you'll be much more successful in future tournaments and you'll be doing more catching with less fishing :)

The Largemouth Herald