starting tournament lure or go to lure

what is the first lure u start out with in a tournament or just regular fishin on lake?

for me is is some sort of top water bait.

Depends on the tournament hours and what kind of fishing you have been doing. For confidence, I’ll throw a spro Bronzeye 65 frog (black on cloudy days, light or bright on sunny days) or a brovarney swim jig in a color that matches the current hatch..I do this whenever I can get away with it. The biggest key is putting your bait around the fish. After that it’s mostly a confidence thing imo. If you can get them on something you are confident, use that. But sometimes you are forced to use other techniques.

The last tournament I had was on Big Marine, July 28th. I started with 8 rods. Spinnerbait, Crankbait, Jig, Topwater, Dropshot, Carolina Rig Lizard and 2 finesse plastics.

I started out looking for a reaction bite covering the water column top to bottom. Over the course of 3 hours I had covered a 50-90 yard area ranging from 2 FOW reeds/pads mix all the way to 12-14+ feet of water flats and outside weed edges.

By the end of the day, I refined the bite to the carolina rigged lizard on a slow drag. The jig rod was still out & so was the drop shot. Most all bass we’re caught on the carolina rigged lizard.

Flash forward to yesterday @ White Bear Lake. Same slow drag pattern didn’t produce anything. Planned to slow drag deepest edges & drops I could find with jig & carolina rig.. Had 1 14″ bass & 2 pike. All we’re caught on a 4 foot running crankbait.

So long answer to short question…I start out with about 8 different things.

I am going to start a tourney with a bait that I had caught the most amount of fish pre-fishing. Not just the most fish but the right fish to allow a decent limiit, or perhaps to win a single day tournament. IF pre fishing didn’t happen then I guess I would go to any type of reaction bait or confindence bait in the tackle box. Your looking to boat a limit a fish the quickest way possible. Reaction baits will allow you to cover ground quicker, you also can go back over that same area if you have follows or “lite or short” bites and finesse these same fish as the day progresses.
Reaction baits…..Lures that are generally ran at higher speeds such as cranks, spinnerbaits, and topwater in my opinion. Finesse baits….Lures that take a slower retrieve, granted any presentation can be retrieved slower or faster. But for the most part I consider finesse fishing texas rigged worms, wacky rig, and even carolina rigs.

Successful tournament anglers eliminate ALOT of water, baits, and time durning pre-fishing to find a program that is putting the best fish in the boat. Things may or may not change come tournament day, a person has to be able to adjust to current conditions to put forth the best effort knowing they did everything they could to weigh the biggest limit of fish possible.

Otherwise the rest is just luck in tournament fishing……

Good Luck

the last 2 lakes I have fished, I have started out with a 7″ red shad berkley power worm, texas rigged in 10 FOW. either that bait or I downsize to a 4″ yum dinger, either green pumpkin/chart tail, or black/blue texas style. I have tried the top water stuff, but there agian, it depends on what time it starts and wether conditions.

shane

I have three kinds of lures on mu deck at the start of most days, in the summer. Two Brovo swim jigs, differrnet colors and Venom Dream craws, and their salty sling. I will tweak the presentation, but have been smoking them with these all year. I think the biggest thing is finding what you are confident in and working that. I like to try to get enough going and will switch to a carolina rig, or a crank if I have to, but I wil stick with the primary baits I mentioned for the best size. Just what works for me.

Darin