Pre - Fishing and Sight Fishing ?

What i did the last tourney i fished, was mark all the beds or at least the ones that had decent fish on them, with my hand held GPS. On the day of the tourney i just went from waypoint to waypoint tryin to hit as many as possible. See i didnt get really any time to pre-fish i had enough time to get lucky and find a few early spawners that had some weight on them. But i think had i had time i'd have cut the hook and atleast feel a fish. Dave

You are better off spending your time surveying and marking sight fish, no reason to disturb them or educate them. When you locate beds in 2 to 3 feet of water, try to locate deeper beds if the water clarity allows. After finding the bed fish, try locating the staging bass by fishing the first break line or locating a channel running near or through the bedding flat. It really doesn't matter too much this time of year to hook a staging bass, because they are transitioning and more than likely the same bass will be gone in a week or less.
Tom

Thanks for the info, Tom.

I wasnt gonna go after The ones I could see. I just dont want to stick the ones I cant see.

Dave, i dont have a GPS at the moment, I sure wished I did though.

Wellone trip getting lost, or overshooting the right lock in this dried up lake can be a nightmare believe me i know from experience...thats why i have one. Got a good deal at Wal-Mart 160 for a garmin e-trek legend and its saved me more than once! Dave

There was life before GPS and several methods to mark bed sites. One is using a low profile floating marker like a wine bottle cork with 6' of mono and a sinker. You wrap the line around the cork and put a rubber band around the cork to hold the line. Remove the rubber, toss the marker to one side of the to mark the spot. Most people will not notice a cork float and you can pick it up when you catch the bass. Make up a 1/2 dozen or so. Garden bamboo green sticks also work if the beds are 3' or less.
Tom

Lord knows my memory isnt the best so I may have to try a ' cork '

Fish4FunInFl said:

Lord knows my memory isnt the best so I may have to try a ' cork '

Click to expand...

It's a good target, if you can remember where the bed is n relation to the cork or stick. Using a high floation line, you stand off a distance away from the target, cast a few feet past and let the lure sink onto position. The floating line is a good strike indicator when you can't see the bass. This helps when it's early or poor light also.
TY

I never try to mark specific beds beforehand. I just locate bedding areas and then sight fish that day. Many times the female will only be there one or two days, so to me it's pointless to mark a big female beforehand. Just find the area, and fish the beds that are there when you are. My two cents.

I prefished a lake the day before a tournament, and this is what I did. I was fishing deep structure. I found areas that had alot of fish marked on my depth finder. I would fish it, and catch one. I would check the quality of the fish, and throw him back. If quality was low, as in a small fish, I would fish until I got one big one.

Now fishing BEDS that is not what you want to do. Find the big ones by sight, a similar concept, and mark it down. I also would do this: Often times it takes time to get a fish to bite, so I would throw my lure by a bed looking area, and if I saw a swirl, or a fish even move, I took the bait out. This indicated a fish was there, without catching it.