Baby it’s cold outside and for some of us we still hit the water and chase our favorite species in the cold weather, for others, it’s time to stay warm and indoors. Either way, it is the best time to be focused on pre-season tourney prep to be ready for a successful season.
5 Tips for Pre-Season Tourney Prep
- Make a calendar of events. Because I fish multiple tournament trails or special events, I will put together a calendar marking each tournament date, and any required travel or pre-fishing dates. This helps with planning and making priorities around tournament season. It’s also time to start some map study and get familiar with the water you’ll be fishing.
- Change out baits. It’s time to work through what baits you carried
Pre-season tourney prep is the time to really get your tackle lined out for the first quarter or half of the season in advance. last season that you never used. Go through what you have and organize and restock with what’s critical. If you can organize your terminal tackle correctly, you may not need to think about it again all year. I think about what I have in the 1st quarter of the year and focus on getting those baits organized first.
- Work on your yak. Are you happy with the setup? Do you need something new? Or just some new rigging? Now is the time to think about adding what will help you on the water, including lights, storage, tools, etc. This year I re-did my lights, changing over to YakLights, a local company.
- Work on your electronics. Make sure you have the most updated software and have a backup copy of your waypoints. If you have the ability to access your waypoints from an iPad or computer, you may want to put in more descriptive names. Finally, bone up on reading electronics by spending some time on youtube.
- Brush up on any new techniques. If you are wanting to practice
Working on new techniques in the winter can help you with early schedule tourney prep. or get better at a new fishing technique, either do a lot of research to learn more about it, or if it is a cold water technique, actually get out and try it. This year I’m very focused on jerkbaits and jigs, so I’ll be working on those things leading up to the first tourney.
There you have it, just some ideas on how to tournament prep for a new season. Add a comment if you have an idea or suggestion for how to prepare that you want to share.