Fishing the fish is more productive, bass tournament director says

If you were fishing a national bass tournament on your home lake, where would you fish?

Would you head to the spawning flat where you once landed a heavy sack of bass on spinnerbaits?

How about that channel ledge where you first caught over 20 pounds on deep-diving crankbaits?

Or would you make a milk-run of all the old holes where you have caught bass in the past?

It’s fairly common knowledge that local anglers tend to struggle during national events on their home waters.

American Bass Anglers District 129 Tournament Director Mike Murphy recalled a few years ago when a regional tournament trail made its way to Ross Barnett Reservoir.

“It was spring, and most everybody was fishing for spawning bass on the shallow flats,” Murphy said. “All except for this one guy from Tennessee, who fished the old No. 7 pole.”

Only, he wasn’t fishing the pole itself. Rather, the angler from out of state backed off the pole and fished deep water, where he found bass waiting to move in to spawn grouped up on a ledge.

“He caught them on a Carolina rig in deep water while everybody else was slinging spinnerbaits in shallow water,” Murphy explained. “It was a spot that we locals pass by every time we’re on the lake, but hardly any of us stop to fish it.”

That’s because local anglers get in the habit of fishing holes rather than fishing the fish. In other words, local anglers tend to rely heavily on what they have done in the past rather than what the fish are doing at the moment.

Could those old holes pay off? Sure — if the fish are there. But why would you want to fish old holes if bass are biting better some place else?

“Sometimes you’ve got to open your eyes to what’s going on around you rather than fishing with blinders,” Murphy said. “We all get locked in to hole-fishing sometimes, but expanding your horizons is a heck of a way to do better during your next tournament.”