Thread: Never fished a tournament before - How to prepare for one?

Keep it simple. Boat prep is a good one for sure. Someone mentioned preriggin like a bass tournament. That works. Have everything ready before stepping in the boat. Our little Crappie.com tournaments is a great place to start amd you will learn a lot from some great fisherman. Get in and fish one with someone from the board that has fished a few before. We usually have a person or two looking for a partner. Our rules are real simple. You can only use one pole at a time per person. May change that next year to allow spider rigging. You can use jigs or minnows or both t the same time. Which is working right now for bigger fish. Start fishing at 7 and be at the weigh in line by 3 with your best alive 7 fish to weigh in. Lot of fun and the winners will tell how they caught them when finished so everyone can learn from them. If anyone has trouble on the water my number is 660-822-6001. I will get help on the way be it me or someone else to get you back safely. If rigging in a tournament that allows it i like to have plenty of pre tied rigs ready for a full day of fishing. But I also take along single poles for dipping just in case. Nice to have a backup plan just in case. If anyone has any questions about our CDC tournaments just shoot me a PM. We have one this coming Saturday at Bucksaw from 7-3. I will be taking the entries at the pavilion from 6-7. It is $25 and $5 optional big fish. If anyone needs a partner to fish one also let me know. I may know of someone.

Just Jiggin was right about Olesilversides, he has been around a long, long time. Hell, the first boat he fished fromk was the Ark!

I'm not even close to being as old as olsilverside (hell he is old enough to be HardHunter2 Grand,,,well you get the idea), but I have fished a lot of tournaments in my life. I believe there are only two major components to tournament fishing; timing and location.

Timing - this is the biggest tournament component. You could be fishing the number one spot for big crappie in the lake, and if they aren't biting you won't catch them….period! Sometime throughout the day they will bite, if you're not there, you won't catch them; making timing the biggest component to fishing, just not tournament fishing.
Location - Every lake has certain areas that hold the bigger fish and if you're not fishing there you cannot win (must learn these areas). Your timing can be dead on, and if your fishing where only small fish live, won't do you any good.

-Coolest thing about tournament fishing: these big sticks are great, and will tell you anything (you have to ask questions, don’t matter if your 65 or 23). I consider myself a pretty smart guy, but wouldn’t take over something like a vasectomy without asking questions…….lol! Same with fishing a tournament; ask questions. If you ever get around someone like Ronnie Capps he will talk your ear off, soak in all that info (man I sure do). Get on the Crappie Tournaments websites and read how the winning teams caught their fish, I read all the tournament info I can get my hands on, even lakes I will never go to in my life. If you never fish a tournament in your life, but you are a diehard crappie fisherman; you should still follow the tournaments. Tournament results tells you where the biggest crappie in the lake live and how they were caught (these are two huge items when it comes to fishing), heck what else is there.

-Most overrated things about tournament fishing, fast boats, fancy shirts (which I own both, and they don’t mean crap……ha) and pre-fishing.

Good luck!

Thanks Jigging for the informative post. I was fortunate to grow up near several good lakes in Arkansas. As I fished with my uncles and great uncles I was able to soak in their knowledge and learn quickly how to catch fish on those lakes. They went everyday unless they were sick or still had enough fish left over from the day before to eat on. But as I got older and went to other lakes and fished with friends I found out that there were more than just a few ways to catch those crappie. Those old timers were great on those lakes but they used the same baits and techniques everyday and never needed to change.

Now as I have fished many lakes all over I have found out that sometimes those techniques work that those old timers showed me, and sometimes they won't catch a thing on some lakes. On a couple of those lakes I grew up on color was key on jigs. They preferred a certain color and if you didn't have it you were going to be in for a long day of fishing and may not pull in a keeper at all.

As for Timing I understand that fish can be finicky feeders during certain times of the day and under certain weather conditions. And spot fishing sometimes helps locating those bigger fish, while other times you have to search via trolling in order to locate them.

Location on the lakes that hold big fish is another concept I understand well. And for me it is just a matter of time that you put in on the lake and searching for those areas. That’s why I said it might take me a couple years before I actually feel confident in the locations of the lakes around here to participate in a tournament.

Now you mentioned jump in with others that need partners for a tournament and get to know the lake that way as far as where the fish like to hold up. That is a good idea, but my only experience with tournaments is in Bass fishing and well let's just say I had a bad experience with budding up with a stranger for a tournament, lol. But so far on this site I have come across some nice folks who seem genuinely friendly and also wanting to help. This is different than in bass arenas. But I will make note of all that is said here and in other parts of this forum and learn to make adjustments accordingly.

Lots of great guys in here willing to take you out or let you follow them around to lay a safe trail to and from differant areas. I have fishes with several dozen members an learn something everytime out. Also have made some lifelong friends in the process.