How Do "You" Practice for a Tournament?

So how do you practice for a tournament?

When I fish a tournament I try to find out as much as possible before I get there. Read message boards like this one and see what is going on. Your first day at the lake, visit a local bait & tackle shop if there is one. Most of the time you can just use your ears and will hear the locals talking but strike up a conversation when you have a chance.

Once you get on the water, have the kitchen sink tied on. Throw everything you can think of. The goal is to eliminate stuff you will throw on tournament day. Fish different spots in the same area and see where you pproduce fish. Pay close attention to cover. Are the fish holding tight or just around. What type of cover produces if any. If you produce fish, locate another area on the lake with similar conditions and see if that too produces fish. The key is cover water and try to narrow down your approach for the 8 hours you will have on tournament day.

Most importantly monitor the weather and water release schedule if the lake is used to produce energy. Nothing can screw up a pattern more than anything than a complete change in weather (ie) cloudy during pracrice, blue bird on tournament day. Monitor your wind as this often can dictate how and where the fish will be. Lastly, there's nothing worse than finding a shallow water pattern only to get to your spot on tournament day and see the water sucked right out from under you.

Just remember, if you find a pattern and something in the conditions change, you have to change too. The fish don't take off and swim to the other side of the lake. THey are still there but perhaps pulled off to a drop off or back to a secondary point on a lead in bank.

Have confidence in your approach and trust your instincts. Remember you only have 8 hours, take advantage of every minute of it.

Good luck.

Skeeter

Also only prefish during tournament hours. A lot of the fish you catch will feed on certain banks at certain times of the day so watch what times you catch your fish. Like Mr. James sometimes it more of knowing what will not work. If you have prefished and did not catch anything well you should probably not fish it but if you do fish it you know not to fish those same areas the same way.