For a tournament?

I've been spending ridiculous amounts of time lately preparing for an upcoming tourney. It made me think about my overall methods of preparation. Below is my general routine. I'm curious to hear yours:

1. Decide on general categories of tackle. This would be categories like swimbait, flipping, finesse, cranking. For some tournaments I narrow down to one or two categories. Other times I will bring a little in each category.

2. Pick out rods in each category and check the line tests on each reel to match the lake. Respool any rods that have old line. I line all the rods up along the wall with the lines threaded up but no lures tied on.

3. Go through each category of tackle. For a small tourney, or a lake I know well, this might not take very long. For a big tourney or a new lake, this may take hours. For example, I recently went through every crankbait, jerkbait, topwater, swimbait, and bag of plastic worms that I own. It can be hard to remember everything that is in your box, and I find that doing this regularly keeps me sharp in regards to what I have available.

During this step, I'll separate in to 3 basic categories in regards to whether I want to bring the tackle for the tournament. The categories are:

1) Yes's
2) Maybe's
3) No's

For a big tournament I check the hooks on each bait that goes in to the yes pile and replace any bad hooks. I pay special attention to any baits that will be my likely 2nd choice if I retie.

4. I'll tie up my rods with the baits I plan to use on tournament day. This well help my thought process in regards to the maybe's. During this process I will:

1) Check the drag on each reel
2) Pull 50' of line off each reel that has previously used line and run it through my fingers to check it
3) Use a line conditioner on all my fluorocarbon setups and on the guides of any rods that are dirty or have crusty junk on the guides
4) Check every hookpoint on every lure tied on for gameday

The process of tying up may also spur me to go back to the no category and grab something I forgot about or that suddenly seems good.

5. Now I go back through all the maybe tackle and sort it again in to yes's and no's. Typically, I leave most of it at home. I always ask the question, "will I really use this in the tournament?" That's an important question.

6. The last thing I do is check all my accessories, making sure I have everything. That might be things like scale, measuring board, pliers, license, hook files, headlamp, sunglasses, food, jackets, hats, etc. Nothing sucks more than showing up on the morning of a tournament and realizing you forgot some important accessory.

I try to have everything ready for the tournament 3 days in advance. That gives me time to think clearly about what is important - the actual fishing - which brings me to

7. Mental preparation. I'm big on mental preparation. I spend a lot of time rehearsing in my mind what will happen the day of the tournament, how I will adjust, and what I will look for. I like to focus on positive outcomes, thinking about specific areas and how I'll get a good fish off that area. This probably sounds corny, but there's power in positive thinking and rehearsal. One example that comes to mind is:

Imagine your partner has a big fish on and his reel falls off his rod. What do you do? Grab for the line or the reel? What if you net a fish and a hole rips in the net and the fish falls through? What do you? Try to lip it, net it again or? These sound far fetched but both of these things happened to us last year. If you've thought about an outcome ahead of time, your reaction might be a split second faster. If you haven't seen the video on bassmaster.com of Iaconelli diving in after his line while keeping a hand on the boat and landing the fish - watch it - and think about it. His reactions were instant.

Fun stuff to think about :) Curious to hear how you guys do it.

If it's a big tournament I will follow pretty much the same things you said (except for line conditioner) I haven't experimented with that stuff yet. For the smaller local tournaments I'll start lining up my rods the week before, since we had the off limits thing this year I knew I wouldn't need to use any of the rods. I try not to get too caught up in the mental prep for the local stuff. I've done better when I just went with the moment and with what felt right. (That's probably why I haven't won one yet)...LOL


-Shane
:7

I try to keep it as much like a day of fun fishing as i can. Kind of like when i play in golf tourneys. IF you get too jacked up you don't play your regular game, and tend to swing too fast or over analyze. Trust your game, and just play.

I don't take off 50' I re-spool everything. I also start a full week before so there is not to much going through my head at the same time LOL!!! I think you are doing fine Rob. Better safe then sorry. Don't forget the stinger hooks;-)

Don.

http://calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/bassindon69/basspics/

Nothing like fishing!

Some other tournament preparations:

1) Do your homework on the particular lake you are fishing and see what kind of weight typically wins at that time of year and understand if they are largemouths, spots or smallies. By seeing what has traditionally won, and what species, you obviously are in a better position to come up with and execute on a gameplan.

2) Research the internet for any fishing reports or information about the lake you are fishing and see if there is any big fish tendencies, or other seasonal information that you can glean to understand a particular area of a lake

3) Google Earth. View a real picture of the lake and re-hearse your tournament gameplan. I literally have printed out/saved to file Google Earth maps and mentally gone thru my milk-run while on an airplane.

4) Boat preparations. Make sure your boat is working legit, outboard oil, livewells work, running lights work, batteries are charged, you have all your coastguard safety gear, paperwork, insurance information, etc

5) Truck preparations: Make sure your truck is running good, your tires aren't asking for trouble, full tank of gas, emergency/roadside stuff, trailer hitch, etc

6) Appearance: Especially if you are fishing in a major event, make sure you are wearing something that you'll be glad to be photographed/videod with. Have your sponsors displayed properly, and represent yourself as a professional or a semi-pro weekend angler or whatever. Get a hair cut, shave your face, have a clean pair of pants and nice shirt for the weigh-in.


MP

Ok Ok I shaved LOL!

Don.

http://calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/bassindon69/basspics/

Nothing like fishing!

Don you should leave it and get the mountain man look going. No, how about you don't shave until you catch another 10lber. LOL!!!

To late. At this rate it would not be long before people would be saying to my wife...Is this your dad or one of the guys from ZZ Top. LOL!!! Come on...................DD.

Don.

http://calfishing.com/gallery/v/members/bassindon69/basspics/

Nothing like fishing!