Pre-fish, what exactly does this word mean? I'm sure most of you like myself have gone out for a day's fishing sometime before a comp and called it "Pre-Fish". Let me try and explain the importance of "Pre-Fishing" and the way I'm trying to doing it.
Planning - Before pre-fish
- Make sure that you speak to as much people regarding the venue before hand, as questions like what baits been working, size etc. This will be your starting point for bait selection, also make sure that you got enough of the baits before you hit the water
- Find out what the water color is, water temp, current rainfall, weather conditions etc. This will help you to determine where the fish should be hanging out.
- If you not very familiar with the dam try and find out where the "Community" holes are, one can normally get a good idea of what type of structure the fish like from such places.
- Make sure that you fish the venue as close as possible to the cutoff date.
- Try and get maps of the dam or use "Google Earth" to pinpoint some hotspots.
- Make sure that you load you GPS with the points or take a print out
- Find out what the main types of forage in the dam is. Always try to match the hatch!
Techniques - During pre-fish
- Fish baits that allow you to cover water, you pre fishing so there is no use sitting in the same spot the whole day!
- Try and cover as much water as possible.
- -When you miss a fish or two don't stop and try and catch them, rather continue what you doing and make notes of where the strike came from. Continue like this for most of the day then before you quit your days fishing sit and go through all the days fishing, go to the places where most of your strikes came from and spend some serious time in there. Work you baits from your "Planning - Before pre-fish" and really take notice of what your finder is telling you! If you fortunate enough to have recording functionality on your finder use it! It's always nice to get back home and sit and look at the playback from the days fishing, you would be surprised to see how many hotspots you missed during the days fishing.
- Be aggressive during the morning period and slow down during the course of the day.
- Don't be shy to try new techniques
Points to remember when pre-fishing
- The main aim is to get the pattern
- Don't go to catch 100 fish, go to get area's / spots / patterns!
- Your fish finder is your best friend! You paid money for it .. so use it!
- Your pre-fishing is MORE important than your tournament (not really, but if you have a bad pre-fish chances are that you will do bad during the comp)
- Try and be on the water long as possible. Start early and fish until late!
- Once you got a pattern running try and get more spots with the same variables. This helps during a comp as the chances are good that you will be sharing your spot with someone else.
After Pre-fish
- If you done recording spend time going through your recordings. Make sure you know as much about the area as possible. Mark spots that you feel will hold fish and go check them out.
- Make sure that you got a good solid plan for your comp. Stick to your plan when the day starts, don't change it because the morning before the start you heard that some guy caught 100 fish by doing something different or on another spot - 9 times out of 10 they just putting you on a wild goose chase!
- Make sure that your rods are rigged before the comp, you don't want to sit and rig rods the morning of the comp. Make sure that your tackle is in tip top shape for the comp, there is nothing worse than braking a BIG bass on a comp day!
- Make sure that you watch the weather during the week so see if your pattern will be holding, if not try and think of alternative patterns within the area you found them.
- Try and use a logbook with your days fishing results. Note areas where you fished, weather conditions etc. this makes the next time you go fish it so much easier to see what you did the previous time.
- Make sure that you got confidence in what you gonna be doing! Confidence is the best lure in your tackle box!
VX70
Bassing.co.za Pro Staff Member |
