Bass Tournament Tactics and Strategies
By Steve Karsseboom

In discussing the outcome of a recent bass tournament with my partner we got talking about the strategies we incorporated in this tournament.  That got me thinking about the importance of planning and practice fishing to come up with a solid tournament day plan. Hear are some steps I follow and you may want to consider.  In planning for a tournament you must map out your letout and weigh-in site also the access areas. If you are fishing a big lake or a river you may want to locate marinas with gas and also get there phone numbers just incase you have problems prefishing or in the tournament. Practice fishing is the key to having good and consistent results in tournaments. When you get to the water you should check out the tournament site and all the other amenities on the lake that you might need. (Bathrooms, gas, so on) Check out the local ordinances for the water you are fishing. It would be a bad deal to have a winning bag of fish and get disqualified because you got a speeding ticket on a lake. Next when you look for spots to fish you need to keep things like weather and fishing presser in mind. I can't tell you how many times I could not fish my first or even second spot because of wind or other anglers are on it. I try to get 5 real good areas to fish in every tournament and spend a lot of time getting to no them. Practice means practice and when you get your spots try different techniques and presentations so you can narrow in on the fish. Do not over fish thou, your hooks are removable and you should never catch more than 2 fish off each spot to get a idea of the size of fish you have or you may shut the fish down or educate them. I like to count bites after that to get an idea of what I can expect off from a given spot.  I like finding 2 or 3 methods and presentations that will cover different weather and fish patterns. It is real important to note all of this and go over your notes tournament day. In bass tournaments it usually is the small things that separates first place from the infamous just out of the money spot. If you fallow this guide you should have a good idea how many fish you can expect from each spot and what size. You should no how long it will take you to get from your last spot to the weigh-in area without breaking any laws and most importantly to be confident on the water tournament day.