Top Professional Bass Fishermen Say, We Fish to Win
Research Tactics from Alabama’s Hot Young Pros
Editor's Note: Why do some bass fishermen consistently
win tournaments and other good, even great, bass anglers
never win tournaments? To learn the answer to this question,
I’ve interviewed some of the most-outstanding
bass fishermen in the nation, and they all agree that
to win an angler has to make a conscious decision to
fish to win and leave the security of trying to catch
a limit behind.
Aaron Martens of Leeds, Alabama, has finished second
place in the Bassmaster Classic three times and many
other events on the FLW and the B.A.S.S. tournament
circuits. He’s also won four B.A.S.S. tournaments,
the latest in March, 2007 in the California Delta, an
FLW tournament and quite a few western tournaments.
Even though he’s known as the bridesmaid because
he’s finished second so many times, Martens always
fishes to win.
"To learn to win, I fish with other bass fishermen
who know how to win," Martens reveals. "For
instance, after the Lake Amistad tournament in the spring,
I stayed over an extra day and fished with Michael Iaconelli,
who has won both the Bassmaster Classic and the B.A.S.S.
Angler-of-the-Year title. I wanted to learn what he
was doing that I wasn’t. When you fish to win,
you want to learn all you can from the people who consistently
win. Too, you can’t second-guess yourself. Winners
operate on pure instinct. If they’re catching
bass, but they get an idea that they should leave those
bass and search elsewhere, they leave immediately.
"Sometimes, I’ll feel like I need to change
baits or location or do something different. Winners
rely more on their instincts than their ability to reason.
When you get an idea that you need to do something like
move, change water or try something different, regardless
of how ridiculous that idea may appear to be, you need
to follow that instinct. Remember, sometimes you can
fish your very best
and lose a couple of big fish, have one bad day in a
tournament or have another fishermen just find more
big bass than you do. All you can control is what you
can control. You can’t control what the bass do
or what the other competitors do.
"The real key that produces the most wins is that
really-good fishermen who win tournaments rely totally
on their instincts and don’t try to argue with
themselves when they get ideas that they should make
some changes. You can’t fish conservatively, and
you can’t fish strictly on reason. There’s
an intuitive sense that a bass fisherman develops that
he can rely on, and if he follows that intuitive sense,
it will lead him to a win. I’ve also learned that
you always go to your best spot first, when you’re
fishing to win."
Tim Horton of Muscle Shoals, Alabama, another hot young
pro, won one of the first B.A.S.S. tournaments he ever
entered and the B.A.S.S. Angler-of-the-Year title, and
has fished in eight Classics. He names winning bass
tournaments as what’s important to him and his
sponsors.
"No one remembers a second-place winner,"
Horton mentions. "When I fish to win, I’m
not afraid to fish areas that don’t look like
they hold bass. Winning a tournament is very difficult
to do in a region where everyone’s fishing and
knows where you’re supposed to find bass. However,
when you’re fishing to win, you try to locate
places to catch bass that no one on that lake has found
before and be willing to gamble. If you’re fishing
where you’re finding 15 to 20 pounds of keeper
bass a day, then often you can stay at the top by fishing
there. But if you know you have to catch 16 pounds per
day, then you have to leave that section of water where
you know you can take enough bass to finish in the top
10 and search for the spot that will produce a stringer
of bass that will win the tournament. Sure it’s
a gamble, but gambles like this pay off.
"When you fish to win, you fish for bigger bites,
using larger lures than you will if you just want to
place in the tournament. My go-to baits are big, deep-diving
crankbaits and the jig, which are both known to produce
big bass. I’ll fish a Booyah jig around really-thick,
heavy cover or a Bomber BD7F Fat Free Shad on offshore
cover in deep water. I prefer black and blue colors
for my jigs, and for the crankbait, I like citrus colors.
"I know that when I fish these two lures, I’ll
reduce the number of bites I get, but I’ll increase
my chances for catching bigger bass. Big bass don’t
waste their time eating finesse worms. They prefer big
baits. I’m not saying that you can’t catch
a big bass on a finesse worm. However, you’re
more likely to catch a big bass on a big bait.
“The second key in fishing to win is once you
get that big bite, you have to be able to put that bass
in the boat. That’s why I use heavy line like
17-pound-test Bass Pro Shops XTS fluorocarbon line,
and I must have a strong-enough rod to get those bass
away from heavy cover quickly."
Horton also mentions the importance of understanding
the cover you fish. "If you’re fishing to
a submerged tree, don’t fish across the biggest
limbs of that tree. Pull your bait down to the little
limbs. Then if a bass does get on your bait, you don’t
have to pull the fish over or around a big limb, but
instead, pull it through those little limbs. If the
fish wraps around those little limbs, that strong line
and rod will help you pull it through those limbs. Also,
if you’re casting to a bush or a submerged tree,
pull your bait toward the direction of the tree. Then
you won’t try and pull a bass through a branch
or brush that’s too small for it to come through.
You always want to try to pull a fish out and away from
the brush instead of across or into the brush."
Tomorrow: Target Fishing with
Top-Pro Kevin VanDam
|