I tried to learn as much as I could from these people about bass fishing, including boats, motors, depth finders, rods, reels, fishing line, and fishing baits. One of the things I have learned, is that there are no magic formulas or secrets that can be kept for very long, once they become proven to catch bass.

People will travel almost anywhere, and spend whatever it takes to try to get an honest advantage over their fellow bass fishing competitors. As a result, people everywhere have benefitted from this dissemination of bass fishing knowledge, and also now have better boats, motors, rods, reels, line, and baits.

Over the next several weeks, I will try to pass on as much of this knowledge as I can to our readers, in an effort to improve bass fishing for everyone. I don't claim to be an expert, but, I have found out over the years, that regardless of how much I know about a subject, I can still learn something from everyone. Even if you are a professional bass fishing tournament pro, there may be something in these pages that you can learn, that just might help you win another tournament.

I have been fortunate to fish with some really good bass fishermen from our local area of East Texas. We fished such nationally famous lakes as Toledo Bend, Sam Rayburn, and Lake Fork. We also fished lakes that are mostly known only to the local people in this area. We live in an area where there are at least 60 good bass fishing lakes within four hours drive of Longview, Texas. Lakes like Murvaul, Palestine, Caddo, Lake O' the Pines, Monticello, Bob Sandlin, Martin Creek, Livingston, and many others.

At one time, I fished four different local bass clubs at the same time. This meant I fished a bass tournament almost every week-end. I learned a lot from every person in the club and got to know lots of good people in the process. Fishing this much taught me a very valuable lesson.

LESSON ONE. IF YOU WANT TO BE A CONSISTENT BASS FISHERMAN, YOU HAVE TO FISH A LOT.

When I fished every week-end, I could stay in contact with the bass and what they were doing, where they were, what baits would produce, what colors worked best under different water and weather conditions. If you want to win tournaments, you need to fish as often as possible. If you live so far from the lakes you are fishing, that it is impossible to fish it a lot, consider alternatives like hiring a local guide. The next best thing to fishing every day, is to fish with a bass fishing guide.

Bass fishing guides are on the water an average of 300 days per year. If you are going to a new lake to fish a tournament, hire a guide the week before, and let him show you some of the current fishing techniques, and places to fish.

However, show your guide a professional courtesy by not wearing out the places he shows you after your tournament. Also, pass on some information to him after the tournament about where he can take his clients to catch fish. These guides also appreciate any help they can get from their clients.

One of the persons that I learned a lot from was one of the local bass club tournament leaders, Gene Liston. Gene consistently won or was in the top of almost every tournament he fished. For several years in a row, he was the angler of the year in the club.

Gene used to say "there is no secret to catching a limit of bass, just go out and cast 3,000 times a day, and you will catch your share of the fish". There was a lot of information in that statement.

LESSON TWO: BE PREPARED TO FISH DURING THE TOURNAMENT, NOT WORK ON YOUR EQUIPMENT.

You need to be prepared to go fishing when the tournament starts. This means spending the days before the tournament getting your boat, motor, tackle, etc. in as good a shape as possible. You should make sure your batteries are well charged the night before the tournament, your gas tanks are full, and everything that can possibly be foreseen as trouble is fixed before the day of the tournament, not during the tournament.

LESSON THREE: USE ONLY THE BAITS THAT YOU KNOW WILL CATCH FISH.

How can you know this? Refer to Lesson One. Use the baits that produced for you the last time you fished and caught fish. The time to practice and try new lures, places and techniques is not during the tournament. In a later article, I will tell you my favorite baits that have consistently produced bass under different water, weather, and other variable conditions. You might be surprised at the result of years of trial and error. Be sure to read the article about favorite bass baits, colors, type, size, and methods of fishing.

LESSON FOUR: SHUT UP AND FISH! CONTRARY TO SKEETER BOAT'S SLOGAN OF "EAT-SLEEP-FISH", DON'T STOP TO EAT, REST, OR TAKE A NAP DURING THE TOURNAMENT.

Many a tournament has been won in less than 30 minutes, and not necessarily the last 30 minutes of the tournament. Bass sometimes turn on in the middle of the day, for no apparent reason, and you can litterly limit out in a few minutes. If you happen to be eating the same time the bass are, your chances of catching them are nill.

If you must eat, bring food that is already prepared, like sandwiches, that can be eaten while moving from one area to another.

LESSON FIVE: IF YOU CATCH A FISH, GO BACK OVER THAT EXACT SAME AREA SEVERAL TIMES.

Probably the most valuable lesson I have learned is that you are only catching a very small percentage of the fish that are in a given area. Even heavily fished lakes like Lake Fork have a majority of fish that are not caught. State personnel have shocked fish on Fork and made studies of fish that had hook marks or other signs of having been caught and released. Less than 20% of the fish in the sample had any indication of ever having been caught before.

LESSON SIX: CONCENTRATE.

If you have ever read some of the ideas of some of the top pro bass fishermen, like Rick Clunn, you realize that they are intent when they are fishing, and concentrate on what they are doing. If you are daydreaming about deer hunting (or dear hunting), instead of concentrating on your line or bait, when the bass hits, you may never even know you had a bite. I have seen films of bass that take a bait in their mouth and spit it back out, without the fisherman even knowing he had a bite.

LESSON SEVEN: BE VERSATILE.

Don't let people like me or other writers influence you to the point of not trying new ideas and techniques. Experiment with baits, and colors. (Just not during the tournament unless nothing has worked.) Don't forget the sluggo! There were hundreds of people I knew that looked at the sluggo (including myself), and said "this is a joke". But the joke was on us. I remember the first time I saw the sluggo catching fish, I was astonished, and then I tried to keep it a secret for several weeks, to no avail. The bait become such a hot item, that no one had any, and I even made molds and made some home-made baits that worked pretty good, until supply caught up with demand.

I also remember the first buzz bait. John Fox gave me one of the proto-type Lunker Lures back in the early seventies, and I left it in my tackle box for several months before I found out it would catch Big Bass. If I had used it when I first got it, I would have had a very good secret weapon.

LESSON EIGHT: BUY GOOD EQUIPMENT.

Don't waste your money on inferior equipment. Instead of buying several inferior rods, reels, or other equipment, buy fewer good quality items. How do you know what to buy? Read some of our other articles about the basic equipment you need to bass fish competitively. We will give you information that will not only save you time, but also money in the long run.

LESSON NINE: JOIN A BASS CLUB.

You can learn more from fishing with a local bass club than you can by fishing by yourself. When I first started fishing bass tournaments, I thought I was a good fisherman, and if I caught 10 bass in a day, I had a good day. Then I started fishing in bass clubs, and found out that people were catching 50 to 100 bass in a day. When I first started fishing bass tournaments, I also thought bass bit early in the morning and late in the afternoon, in the spring time. I have now found out that bass bite all day long, and all year long, and all you have to do is be able to find them. Our later articles will also include ways to find bass during all times of the year, under varying weather conditions, and how to catch them year round. CHECK BACK WITH US LATER:

In future articles, we will cover bass fishing in detail, including information for beginners all the way to seasoned pros. We will also have information on new equipment and baits as they hit the market, as well as information about tournaments, boat and tackle shows, and other valuable information you can use. If you would like to write an article (or articles) about hunting, fishing, or outdoor activities, let us know. We need your information to pass on to our readers.

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