It's time to get out fishing.........

[bullseye]

Saturday I got the batteries, locators, extras, baits, and rods and reels in the boat. I have a couple odds and ends to do but should be ready to go without too much additional work.

Tomorrow night the camper needs to get on the truck. I'd do it tonight but it is supposed to rain.

This weekend I will take one of my son-in-laws along and we will go spend the weekend on my brother's raft up on the Wolf River. It should be a good time.

The following weekend is the first state Bass tournament. I will prefish a couple days and then Sat/Sun is the tournament. I have finished 1st in the non-boater category for the last 2 years and would like to make this a threepeat.

I will take a break early May as I have to be in Atlanta for a week. I am leaving Saturday morning so I can spend a couple days with Robert Goins, Don's son, and his family.

When I get back the following Friday then it is weekend after weekend fishing.......somewhere.

[Jack]

Good luck, Bullseye!

[jmarriott]

Yes it is time to get out fishing.....but the yard, the garden, the mushrooms, the girls softball games and practices, the gutters, the old falling down garage and lifes miserable little daily items keep getting in the way. I do plan on one little trip this sunday for 2 hours at the farm pond. Everything else will just have to wait as one has to have his priorities in line.

A fishing tourney with a non-boater category, Now that is a tourney....

[jimiowa]

Got out Sunday for about 5 hrs. Son had to do Chores and was running late, so I spent 2 hrs at the boat ramp fishing and caught nothing. Probably saw 15 boats come off the lake, not one had fish to unload or said they had any luck.
We took Bailey's 1436 Lowe Jonboat out and had no luck.
Early Spring Shakedown, and we are finally getting the boat to run right. He has a 1975 Sears 7 1/2 hp(very few hours) motor that had set too long. Once we get that running good he has a 15 hp Evienrude that we need to get the kingk out of.

Then went to a flooded farmfield and Bailey caught a 5 lb Carp and I got a 2 lb Drum(never worked so hard for one fish).

But had a nice day out, got a boat ride and had a good time.

Still think we are a couple weeks early for good fishing in Iowa.

[bullseye]

jmarriot - I have things I need to do too but that is what the I do during the week....weekends are for fishing.

There are different formats to different bass tournaments.

In some while there is a boater (owner of the boat) and non-boater (not his boat) format. The boater and non get 4 hours each in the front and compete on equal footing. Bag limit for each is 5 fish.

There are team event tournaments where the two anglers fish together for a joint catch. Limits in most cases are 6 fish total. Any prize money is given to the both of them and they split it how they want to.

The last format is the boater/non-boater format. The rules are quite different. The non-boater doesn't get any time in the front of the boat and must fish behind the boater. It means that for the most part the non-boater gets already fished water to fish as the boater in most cases has already fished it. The boater bag limit is 5 and the non-boater bag limit is 3. Fishing as a non-boater is very challenging in this format. The non-boater has to pay very close attention to how and where the boater is fishing. If he has missed fishing a likely spot as you go down a shoreline you as a non-boater have to make sure you take advantage of the spot. It means the non-boater has to fish different from the boater, most times in baits and method of presentation. If the boater is fishing fast for active fish it means the non-boater needs to use baits for a slower presentation to get the neutral or inactive fish to bite.

When fishing as a non-boater in these types of tournaments I generally fish plastic worms, jig and pig, or other plastic baits. If the boater is going fast with the trolling motor then as the non-boater I need to increase the weight of the jigs I am using to get the bait down in the water column quicker. If the tournament is later in the spring or into summer the "slop" or weed and lily pad bite is usually there. As a non-boater you again have to pay attention to where the boater is fishing and I also do one more thing. Many boaters will fish this type of cover with a 7' rod. To be able to reach farther I use one that is 7'10" to get a longer cast. The pots for the boater and non-boater are also different.

So for the most part there is a lot of strategy involved as the non-boater. You go to the spots he wants to fish and then as the non-boater one needs to figure out what they need to do to be able to catch fish in the boater's spots, in the boater's boat, and fishing behind him. It can be a challenging day.

It can also be very revealing as to what is working and what is not. Last year I found a jig and pig combination that was working well behind a boater who primarily was fishing a swim bait. By early afternoon, with 2 hours to go, the boater had 2 keeper fish while I had not only caught my 3 but caught 5 additional keepers. He went into his tackle box and pulled out something close to what I was fishing. In the next 30 minutes he had his 3 additional keepers. Unfortunately if the boater is catching fish on a certain lure the non-boater has to find something else to use because any fish attracted to that particular lure will have already bit on his bait!!!

Jim, sounds like you had a nice day and at least didn't get skunked.