In my last column, I mentioned I was going to North Carolina’s Outer Banks for the second time with a crew of family and friends to surf fish for saltwater species. It turned out to be even better than last time. We caught giant red drum, sand tiger shark and sandbar shark.
The fishing was unbelievable, and the laughs were endless. We got incredible footage I can’t wait to edit and post on YouTube. It will be episode two of season five of The Road Trip.
After the Outer Banks, I pre-practiced on North Carolina’s Pasquotank River, which is on next year’s Elite schedule. It’s a fishery that probably 95% of the field has never visited. I’m really excited about going there.
After that, I stayed with a friend in South Carolina for a week to hang out and get some computer stuff done. I even got to get out on Lake Hartwell for one day.
From there, I traveled to Lake Fork in Texas for a week, and I’m now at Lake Ray Roberts to pre-practice for the Classic before the cutoff. My arms are still tired after the shark fishing trip, but they’ll have plenty of time to recoup. When I pre-practice, I idle 98% of the time.
It’s not easy to do that. I love catching bass and would much rather be fishing the whole time. Pre-practice takes self-discipline. I’ll get behind the wheel and try to find as much sneaky stuff as I can with side imaging.
I’ll be looking for small, isolated things you don’t see on a map that are unrelated to contour changes. It could be a shell bed, a rockpile, a brushpile or some other small irregularity.
To be completely honest, sneaky spots only pay off for me about 15% of the time in tournaments. That being said, I’m willing to put in that much work for a 15% payoff.
I would still search for sneaky spots even if they only came through for me 5% of the time. Tournament weights are so tight on the Elite Series that one or two bass from a sneaky spot could mean cashing a check, qualifying for the Classic or even winning a tournament.
A sneaky shallow brushpile prevented me from bombing at last year’s Classic on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake. On the first day of the event, I concentrated on brushpiles and other cover in 5 to 20 feet of water.
I had only four bass in my livewell with minutes left to fish. I pulled up on a sneaky brushpile the size of two king beds less than 5 feet deep. I made three casts, caught a 3-pounder and had to head in.
The next day, I caught 19 pounds from that brushpile, my biggest bag of the Classic. I spent part of the day looking without luck for other shallow brushpiles. I had failed to look shallow enough during pre-practice.
Rarely do I research lakes before I practice on them. I’d rather come without preconceived notions and look for things that lend themselves to how I like to fish. However, I do look at past tournament results to determine what it typically takes to win on a given body of water.
Another major reason for pre-practicing is to learn how to navigate safely and efficiently. I learned the importance of this when I pre-practiced for an Elite event on Santee Cooper Lakes in my rookie year.
There is so much standing timber there that it took me four or five days to feel comfortable running on plane. If I had come to that event blind and had only the three official practice days to look things over, I would have wasted most of that time learning how to get around.
As with many Texas impoundments, Lake Ray Roberts is full of standing timber. Fifty percent of my pre-practice there will be learning how to run the water so I’m not wasting time idling into pockets or across the lake during the Classic to avoid banging stuff up.
I also intend to get a feel for how the lake sets up. I need to know which creeks have laydowns and other features. That will help me duplicate any patterns that turn up during the Classic.
I need to know the lake well enough that I don’t waste time looking during the three practice days we’re allowed prior to bass fishing’s biggest event. That’s when I need to be fishing to determine where the bass are and how to catch them.
