First Tournament

[Justin92297]

I have my first bass tournament coming up in mid june on LOZ. I need to know what stage the bass are in, where to fish, and what to use. Thanks!

[luckycraft]

Most likely docks.

[fishinwrench]

Until you have most of the basics down, and some refined skills developed.....why not just save yourself some cash and stay out of the competition relm for awhile longer? You'll learn alot faster by spending time on the water alone without any pressure.

when/if you're ready to start competing you'll know it.

[UnCivE]

Yeah what fishinwrench said. The money for entry would likely be better spent on a guide.

Speaking from experience.

[Old plug]

I go along with OLD WRENCH. He was a very accomplished bass fisherman around LOZ . I want to add that most of the real good fisherman I know or not just bass fisherman they are just good all around fisherman that have pent most of there life at it. If you have any dreams of fame and fortune you need to understand your going to have a lot of frustration, disappointment and other things that come with fishing with bunch of guys who want the same fame and fortune you do. I have very little tournament fishing. Very quickly I learned I did not want to deal with the stress it cased me. I get my share of bass and if I don't. Well it is no big stressful deal.

[lost at pomme]

I've been fishing since 4 yrs old. still love to fish. got into tournament fishing to fill the need to compete. But if you don't have a love for fishing then tournaments will poss cause you to loose the fire to fish and that would be sad. If do fish tournaments remember you will be fishing against guy with 20 or 30 yrs expience good luck to you

[Lvn2Fish]

I've been fishing since 4 yrs old. still love to fish. got into tournament fishing to fill the need to compete. But if you don't have a love for fishing then tournaments will poss cause you to loose the fire to fish and that would be sad. If do fish tournaments remember you will be fishing against guy with 20 or 30 yrs expience good luck to you

Don't let the years of experience remark change your Mind. That's bs

[LOZ Bass Hunter]

Congratulations on your first tournament. These are all very good advise. Spending money on a guide is an excellent idea as well as spending more time on the water. There are several great guides at the lake that will shed some insight on what stage the bass are in. I also believe that there is a first time for everything. It must be fun and regardless of your results for your first tournament you should try to learn something from it. Hang out at the weigh in even if you do not have fish to weigh. My first tournament was around 20 years ago out of Kal Fran Lodge. The tournament was a fundraiser for a friend’s daughter. There were 50 boats in the tournament. Being a fundraiser allowed me to fish from my 16 foot tracker jon boat with a 9.9 Hp Motor. I was confined to those 2 coves. I learned a very valuable lesson. Don’t bring in a short fish(14 ¾ measured with one of those stick on your boat rulers). We actually done well even with the 2 pound penalty. Make sure you understand the rules. Try long main points if there is current flowing. Good Luck.

[countryred]

Your 1st tournament, have fun with it! Don't worry about winning or where you place, just go fishing.

The fish should be in full blown early summer patterns by then which means look for Main lake points. Drag a carolina rig around those points anywhere from 6' to 25' deep, A 10" worm or brush hog is good too when you find some brush on those points. I am a jig man so I always throw a 7/16 oz Eakins jig out there too. If the boat trafiic get too bad out on the main lake , head into the bigger coves and creeks near the weigh in and fish secondary points and docks at the same depth range. You don't want to have to make a long run back to the weigh in once the big boats start churning up the water. You can catch some topwater fish early then but over the years I found you can catch better quality on those structure fish.

You can also have some fun pitching a single tailed grub to the shady outside corners of the docks to catch some big Kentuckies. Some throw them on spinning tackle but I used a 7' pitching rod and rigged them on a ton monsoor jighead.

Not sure where you are launching .........

[Jerry Rapp]

I would suggest this. Shadow fish a few tournaments. Fish the same hours, weigh your best five (if you catch five keepers), and see how you would have stacked up against the tourney field. After a few you will see just how good you are.