tournaments

[alycat]

It's a little late in the season but one way is to start acting like each time you go out that it is a tournament. Start at day light and fish for 8 hours. at the end of that time judge how manny keepers you had and weigh them. And don't just fish one lake fish as many lakes around you as you can. This should get you ready for next season. In the next few months look around for a club to join and fish their tourneys till you feel ready to fish bigger tourneys. It takes alot of work and study to get good at tournaments. We fish over 15 differnt lakes. And do 2 tourneys a month. Good luck and tight lines!!!

[kent]

Depends on what you want to do. If you want to fish a team tourney, which is most common, find someone with some experience willing to partner up with you and learn that way. That's how I learned and probably most did as well. Another way is to go as a non boater as someone else suggested. FLW has a BFL division on Cumberland that has this format. You draw out with a boater at random and fish with them that tourney. I bass fished and tourney fished off and on for about 10 years. The last 2 years I fished BFL on Ky/Barkley and learned more about those lakes in the 1st year alone than I did on my own. I think either approach will work just fine. Most of the rules are common sense, nothing complicated no matter what you fish, and are listed on tourney flyers. Just start small and have fun with it, don't get discouraged if you aren't an overnight success. I still pretty much s**k, but even a blind squirrel finds an acorn evrery now and then.