This season has offered an example of how big a role pre-practice can play in your tournament results. I don’t always have time to visit every tournament venue prior to the off-limits period, but when I do, I typically find it helps me determine a starting point for when the official practice period begins.
This year, I’ve had a weird start. Usually, I’m a little ahead of the ball compared to where I am now.
I think some of that is because I didn’t get to pre-practice for a couple of the events and get myself prepared for when I got there for practice. Between moving and the family stuff we had going on, I just haven’t been able to pre-practice this year. I kinda felt like I was behind the ballgame on a couple of practices.
Despite those limitations, I had a great event at the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Elite, even though I’d never been there. In the following Elite event, I had some history at the Arkansas River and that probably hurt me.
I feel like I was practicing behind the seasonal timing. I got there and I didn’t think the phase of the fish was going to be as progressed, but the waters were 70 to 74 degrees and a lot of those fish were postspawn.
I practiced more for spawning fish, and I think a lot of the areas I spent a lot of time in were already done. Considering the time it took to lock down to the Kerr pool where I fished, my miscalculation didn’t leave a lot of time on the table to expand.
Because I hadn’t pre-practiced, I didn’t know exactly what areas had grass and what didn’t because I’d never been there when it had actual submerged vegetation. Where I ended up fishing had grass, but I found it on the third day of practice, late in the afternoon.
I never got to start in the grass. I didn’t know how good it was; I didn’t know where the sweet spots were. I just knew there was a bunch of grass, and I had a few bites. Some of the other guys had sweet spots, so I felt like I was just a little behind.
The Arkansas River was one event where I would have loved to know every creek with grass before I got there so I could have started practice in them. You can’t cover the three pools where we could fish in three days of practice, so that’s one I wish I could have back for sure.
I fished around several guys who caught them. Multiple boats around me caught a big one each day, and I just never had that big bite to jump me into the cut.
That was frustrating, but I’m still feeling super confident. I feel like I’m making the right decisions, but stuff’s just not bouncing my way at the moment. I’m looking forward to the next two Elite events.
I’ve been to both of the next fisheries and, while I’ve done well at Lake Murray, Santee-Cooper Lakes has whooped my butt all three times I’ve been there.
I’m excited to get to that one and get a little revenge.
