College basketball goes bonkers during March Madness. Professional bass anglers become afflicted with January madness. For as long as I’ve been fishing Bassmaster tournaments, the 30 days before the first event of the new year are absolutely insane.
I’m sure bass tournament anglers at every level can relate to this. Whether you’re preparing for weekend derbies or a local tournament circuit, there’s much to be done.
I am literally not prepared as I write this for Guntersville and Martin, the first Elite tournaments of the year, which happen to be back-to-back.
Boat prep
As with 90% of the Elite anglers, my number one priority is getting my new boat — a Bass Cat FTX Puma — ready to go. Some Elite guys prefer to rig their boats. I let the professionals at Integrated Boat Works in Sapulpa, Okla., do it for me.
My friend Darin always does an amazing job of getting my boat dialed in to my fishing style. That means installing my electronics, trolling motor, Power-Poles and other essentials exactly as I want them.
After that, I have to put time on the boat personally. Breaking in the Yamaha requires several days of running the outboard for four to six hours at specific rpms. While I’m on the water, I’ll drop in the trolling motor and experiment with the electronics to be sure everything works as it should.
The final step with the boat is getting it wrapped. This is a terrific way to advertise and market products for your sponsors. The wrap also protects the boat’s gelcoat. When I peel the wrap off at the end of the season to sell the boat, it looks brand new.
Not all boat wraps are created equal. It has to stand up to running 70 mph on the water for hundreds of miles. Over the past 15 years, I’ve relied on VFX Wraps in Blairstown, N.J. My buddy Mike Pilote does a great job for me.
Tackle prep
Tackle preparation is another part of January madness. By the time the tournament season ends in September or October, my rods and lures are disorganized and in shambles. I have to go through everything in January and get new stuff.
I’m fortunate to work with a lot of great companies. Abu Garcia provides my rods and reels, Molix supplies me with spinnerbaits, Missile Baits makes my jigs, and I get all my soft plastic baits and the enormous amount of fishing line I go through from Berkley.
When these essentials arrive at my house in January, I go to work organizing everything. I sort baits by type, size, color and shape and place them neatly in Flambeau tackleboxes.
Mental Prep
The final phase of January madness is getting mentally prepared for the tournaments. This includes researching the fisheries on the Elite schedule and planning how I’m going to fish them. Most of my focus has been on the first two events at Guntersville and Martin, but I’m studying all the other venues too.
This process is a lot of work. It’s not just looking at the apps on my phone before going to bed. I study satellite imagery, digital mapping and even paper maps I keep in folders.
I search for the results of previous tournaments on the lakes and rivers we’ll be fishing this season, particularly tournaments that happened at the same time of year. I plug in seasonal patterns and spend time every day thinking about how I’m going to break down the fisheries in three practice days. I can’t afford to launch my boat and start scratching my head about where to start.
I plan ahead for all three practice days based on the seasonal patterns and lures that I know will work from my experience and research. Practice is a process of elimination. I can’t possibly fish the entirety of a place like Lake Guntersville in three days, but I can fish three different types of areas. That should be enough to point me in the right direction.
January happens to be my biggest month for doing promotions, videos, sponsor outreach and working at sport shows across the country. These obligations limit the time I have to ready my boat, organize and pack my tackle and do the research needed for success on the water.
Sometimes my head starts spinning, but I don’t complain. I’ve accepted the fact that January madness is an inevitable part of being a professional bass angler.
You can learn more about how I fish for bass wherever I happen to be at www.mikeiaconelli.com or www.youtube.com/c/goingike.
