If you are like me, you love to fish at the drop of a hat. While I do plan fishing trips, I also like to go on a whim.

Sometimes the urge strikes out of nowhere and I get up and go right now. Or, maybe I want to stop on the way home from work (or go instead of work like any bass fisherman worth his salt would do).

But then again, living in the city, there are not many places I can get to quickly enough to accommodate this habit. Most of the lakes in my area are over an hour’s drive away, which is reasonable unless you are in a hurry.

After being frustrated by this, I decided to start a campaign to help scratch the itch a little bit. Talking to people didn’t help much because very few of them were privy to any local fishing holes. So I turned to the Internet.

Bingo. I discovered a bunch of local parks that had ponds in them stocked with largemouth bass and catfish. So with that information and the help of Yahoo maps, I set out to learn every fishing hole in every local park that I could find. I’m still working on it.

While this was a sacrifice from actually heading out to the lake, this did help scratch the itch somewhat. Some of the ponds I found in the local parks ranged from 3 to 7 acres and were absolutely beautiful. One of the best kept secrets in my city.

In fact, I actually met people IN those parks who either did not know the ponds were stocked, and some didn’t even know the ponds were there because they were back off the beaten path.

Admittedly, the fishing can be slow, but it is fishing and I do catch fish from time to time. Just the other day I went to one beautiful little pond hidden in the back of a local park and landed myself a little 2 pound bass (I don’t think the bass appreciated my hugs and kisses). Trust me, that was enough to keep the interest up for a few more trips!

Another thing I discovered was some of the local creeks. There are all kinds of fish in them, including bass, catfish, bream and carp (don’t tell me about the carp - if you never caught a big one, you are really missing something).

A good addition to your local fishing is privately owned ponds. Sometimes, if you get to know the owners, they will let you fish in there ponds, as long as you respect their property. There are probably more of these privately owned ponds than you realize. Some are open to the public and charge admission and/or require you to be a member of a club to get in. Check into it - it could be well worth it.

So, don’t let the fishing blues get you down. If you don’t have time to make the trip out to your favorite lake, try one of the local ponds. Especially if you have kids. These parks are a great place to break in a young angler.

Michael Russell
MgrCentral.com
Established 2001
Home Business Training and Information Guides

Sometimes bass fishing in a big lake can be overwhelming. Do you fish deep? Fish the banks? Are they out in open water? What?

This will depend on the lake, the time of year, the time of day and many other factors such as air and water temperature. There is no short answer; no hard and fast rule. But mostly, to put yourself on fish, you are going to be looking for cover and structure.

Cover is vegetation and things like that where bass can hide. Structure is things like drop offs, road beds, creeks, stumps and such.

There is a good way to combine these and that is to look for points on the lake; especially points near quick drop offs and creek channels.

Points are areas of the shore that come to a ‘point’ in the lake. Often these will be on the outside of, or the entrance to, coves, but not always. That’s just to give you an idea of how one might look. It simply sticks out from the rest of the shoreline.

Quick drop offs are important because bass will hang around these points and depend on the drop offs as an escape route in case trouble comes calling. So if you see a point in just a few feet of water, and see that not too far from the point the water quickly gets deep, this point might be a good prospect for holding fish.

The point itself should be fished thoroughly, but you should also seek bass along the sides of points, especially if there is cover like grass, weeds, reeds, etc. If the point is off of a cove, very early morning or the evening might be a good time to fish the cove. But, as the day progresses hit the points.

If you don’t find the bass on the point, try the deeper water next to the point. They may have retreated to it as the daylight and the heat came. Bass try to avoid sunlight because it hurts their eyes.

I prefer to use plastics on points; worms, crawfish and lizards. I like to Texas Rig these to be weedless. I also like to use a Carolina Rig which helps to keep the bait in the strike zone longer and gives it a little more action. You could also do well using a spinnerbait or crankbait.

So, very early in the morning hit the coves. As the bite slows, you will want to move out to the points where the fish have gone. Then, as that bite slows, try fishing plastics in the deeper waters next to the points. As evening comes on, you will reverse this process, heading back to the points, then into the coves.

It’s important to understand the movement of the fish and keep up with them. Certainly, you will find a lone drifter now and then, but using this method you will be much more likely to be consistent in your catch.

After all, you are out there to catch bass, right? Good luck.

Michael Russell
Bass Fishing at MgrCentral.com
Established 2001
Home Business Training and Information Guides

Should you approach the fishing industry for sponsorship?

First let’s look at it from the lure manufacturer’s standpoint. Just think of your favorite lure manufacturer for a minute. Now imagine that you work at their plant. One of your jobs may be to sort through the hundreds of emails, hundreds of faxes, and hundreds of letters each day from anglers seeking sponsorship via products and or cash. Included in those communications you will also find donation requests from - fishing clubs, non-profit organizations, company friends, etc.

Can you imagine having that job?

After a few days of employment wouldn’t all the resumes start to look the same? How about all the product or financial donations requests, wouldn’t they all start to look the same too? Of course they would. How would you know which one to support or sponsor?

Don’t think I made this example up - I didn’t. The fishing industry as whole, whether it is manufacturers of: lures, line, rods, reels, boats, motors, sunglasses, hooks, tackle boxes, etc. is literally inundated, every single day, with hundreds maybe thousands of sponsorship requests.

And have you ever heard of the old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know?” Some sponsorship deals are landed that way too - the good ‘ol boy network. Not much you can do about that.

As you can see, approaching the fishing industry for sponsorship looks like an uphill battle - and it is. That’s why I recommend avoiding companies in the fishing industry early on in your fishing career. If you happen to be fortunate enough to get some sort of sponsorship from within the industry, it’ll more than likely end up being a small discount on products purchased. Even though that may save you a little money, it won’t help with your biggest expense - tournament entry fees.

Let me put it this way. Pretend you sell advertising for your local newspaper and you present ad rates to a local tire company. In reply to your advertising rates they respond with - “Can we give you some tires at a discount in exchange for the ad?” Don’t laugh, many anglers do exactly that. They exchange small discounts on product in order to advertise a particular fishing company, just so they can say they’re sponsored. Crazy isn’t it?

So, what’s an aspiring tournament angler to do for sponsorship?

Outside of the fishing industry you’ll find companies that have advertising, marketing, and promoting needs. When you start to think of your “sponsorship offer” as an “advertising/marketing/promoting” avenue you’ll start to see the possibilities of landing cash for your entry fees.

That’s what I did and still recommend.

Look outside of the fishing industry for cash sponsorship and stay away from the fishing industry initially. You’ll find a lot less rejection in my opinion.

Scott Rauber
Author - How To Get Sponsored For Fishing Tournaments
http://www.fishforfree.com