Wanted to know your opinion's about different styles of pre-fishing.
While planning pre-fishing days, I always do them a few days before the tournament. However, I have friends that pre-fish all the way up to the day prior.
Wanted to see what you guys thought about this.
Does pre-fishing the day before tend to blow up your water or even make a difference ?
We have to pre-fish just before in some events. It can help or it can hurt. I generally will not fish my good water the day or two before an event. If I do, I just shake off any bites to see if fish are still present. Pre fishing is about learning what the fish are doing, not catching fish. Time on the water always helps. If nothing else you can eliminate things that could have been a distraction during the tournament. On thing I have learned though is to never get too locked into a plan based off pre-fishing. Even on tournament days I will usually spend some time just fishing.
The best bet is find where your nemisis is fishing and go catch every fish out of his water (See story on Dee Thomas catching all the bed fish at Oroville)
Another good one is have a family member anchor their boat or boats near your good spot and keep other competators from pre-fishing.
Or, round up fish and release them in to a lagoon near Mossdale that they can't escape from unless it it a huge tide. Then come tournament day, go catch them!
These are some of the classic stories I have heard.
To answer your question, I agree with Dewayne, don't hassle your water the day before.
Don't be lame. It's just fishing; you are not the new mesiah you know! Check your attitude at the door Mr. Spinners on da boat trailer.
I agree with everyone else that has posted on the pre-fishing opinions. I am more just checking spots for the right conditions on the day before a tournament. Usually I will locate fish the weekend before or sooner and spend the day before the tournament searching for new water or preparing for upcoming weather.
The spring is the most known time in my opinion for fronts to move in quickly, pressure to change, and winds to switch. I think the main homework is figuring all that out and preparing for what will happen if the weather switches or not.
All the fish that bite the day before the tournament I shake off unless it is on some completely new areas i am trying and even then after the first catch I will shake them off.
I do my best not to pre fish before a tournament if I do I am trying to expand a pattern or verify a pattern but not covering the same water.
I try to get out a week earlier or if its the delta 2 weeks before.
Dont hit your honey holes there is no point in harrassing these fish, they are honey holes for a reason.
My prefishing starts with maps and satellite images thinking about seasonal movements of fish. I start circling areas that I think will be key starting points, enter those WP in my GPS and off I go to the lake.
I like to pre fish by looking for bait depth, and fish mood, looking at how they are currently relating to bottom or feeding activity and try to figure out where or what they will do if a front comes through etc....
I am really trying to prove correct or incorrect my hypothosis that I made before launching. I will try to expand a bite if I find a good one and see if I can really get it dialed down.
Once I get home I go over the maps again looking for more areas that have the elements that I want.
I know this sounds tedious, and perhaps it is, I dont fish large tournaments, just club events and I am knew to NorCal so I try to really study areas and get to know them. There are times when the pre-fish bite is just BOOM gone and now I find new awekenings on the water, when this happens my map studying comes kicks me up a notch and I know I have seen areas like this on the map.
I have learned that fishing your water the day before a tournament hurts you not helps you. Dan and I kicked ourselves in the butt a couple of times last year for fishing our water the day before a tournament. Here is what I suggest and do, I will prefish the day before a tournament but I will visit new areas with the same type of conditions of where my good spots are. Dan and I figured out last year at Shasta where ever a certain type of rock structure was we would catch fish. The fish just wanted this particular type of environment that day. So do yourself a favor and fish the day before but don’t touch your water. Find some other area's for a back up plan. Also the spots that are producing for you may be producing for someone else as well. This is why I always have back up areas. There is nothing like pulling up on a point that you had got some real good fish on and see another boat posted. This can hurt the average angler’s confidence quickly. Have confidence in every decision you make on tournament day. I look forward to competing against you this year.
This kind of relates to what I was asking earlier in the week as well.
I will check "my" water with my graph first, I also want to see if I can fiqure out what kind of mood they're in. I won't set on them, you know when there's a better fish on there.
When I'm fishing new stuff and am getting bit I would like to know what's down there.
With all this being said-I seem to do better if I keep an open mind come tournament day and adjust accordingly. I'm never ever going to say I have some fish fiqured out. That's not lack of confidence, it's having been fooled to many times. That goes both ways, I've thought I had a lock on them and can't get bit. I've also been real unsure of things and come out close to the top(never won a decent sized event, some small club stuff but that don't count).
I too would like to see some advice on prefish. How do some of you fine tune things to get the better bite, etc...
Thanks for starting the thread boss...
Find a dead and rotting one of about 12 lbs floating somewhere and bring it in to the scale. They only deduct .2 lbs for dead fish. But because its a sight fish you must make sure you hooked it on the inside of the mouth to make it legal.
You dont ever want to cheat
Last edited by Jim Conlow Sr. on Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:26 am, edited 1 time in total.
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One of the best things I learned from Dee Thomas when prefishing is I won't touch my favorite spots or areas I know from past that I plan to visit, 1, dont want to be seen there, 2, don't want to mess with the fish.
So where will I practice? On your water!! As nasty as that sounds but I will probably go to areas I have no intentions of fishing and stick every possible fish in hopes of dialing in my pattern. Although if I stumble upon a little secret hunny hole then I might opt to quit fishing, mark the GPS and go to another of your spots and stick as many and as fast as I can... HA HA..
But I don't think pre fishing the day before hurts your fishing..... But then again im not usually fishing my hunny holes during pre fish.
I just read your post, how funny is that, I said the same dang thing in regards to Dee, he taught me that many years ago........
Fishin' Dave wrote:The best bet is find where your nemisis is fishing and go catch every fish out of his water (See story on Dee Thomas catching all the bed fish at Oroville)
Another good one is have a family member anchor their boat or boats near your good spot and keep other competators from pre-fishing.
Or, round up fish and release them in to a lagoon near Mossdale that they can't escape from unless it it a huge tide. Then come tournament day, go catch them!
These are some of the classic stories I have heard.
To answer your question, I agree with Dewayne, don't hassle your water the day before.
If you ever catch some jerk-off sticking fish on your water the day before.
Call all your good buddies who are not fishing, and have them follow that boner and harass the hell out of him all day.
He'll think he has the tournament won until 10 boats pull up, box him in, and start peeing on his deck. Pass around the ex-lax brownies and hang cheek off the side. "I'll give you something to take to the scales".
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