Tournament Strategies
By John Neporadny Jr.

Swing for the fences or fish for the moment?

That is the question bass club anglers must answer every time they compete.
The strategy of swinging for the fences usually means taking gambles and doing whatever it takes—whether it’s a 50-mile boat ride or flipping a mega-sized bait all day—to win the tournament. On the other hand, fishing for the moment is a more conservative approach of trying to catch a limit first to possibly finish high in the standings and gain valuable points to qualify for a championship.

The strategy that will work best for you depends on your personality, level of experience, fishing conditions and your club’s tournament format. “You have to know how to do everything before you start swinging for the fences,” said Ed Cowan, a two-time BASS Federation Nation champion and member of the Watershed Bassmasters club of New York.

“Clubs are a great place for guys to learn.”

Cowan’s experience in qualifying for numerous state teams and championships gives him the luxury of swinging for the fences more often. However, the Pennsylvania angler admits he has fished more conservatively in recent years during qualifying tournaments to ensure that he makes the state team.

Mark Twain Bassmasters club member Greg Cooper also fishes for the moment to make his club’s state team, which he has made five times for both the BASS Federation Nation and The Bass Federation (TBF). “Typically in a club tournament I don’t swing for the fences because I really don’t have anything but the points to shoot for,” said Cooper.

“The paybacks in those tournaments aren’t good enough to worry too much about winning so I just try to stay conservative and get as many points as I can.”

Cooper suggests any angler who fishes in clubs that send teams to a state championship should fish conservatively to make the state team. Once they qualify for the postseason, then they can swing for the fences, which is the strategy Cooper employed when he took second in the 2007 TBF National Championship at Lake Wylie.

The Missouri angler believes novices who join clubs should fish for the moment to gain more experience before they swing for the fences. “You need to catch as many fish as you can—and not necessarily keepers—because you have to understand the fish,” Cooper said.

Baton Rouge Bassmasters club member Ken Sherman concurs with Cooper’s advice. He thinks anyone getting into a new sport should strive for consistency and gain confidence in their abilities during the early stages of their new endeavor.
“Once you have the confidence and feel comfortable about what you are doing, then you start taking a little harder swing, taking more of a gamble or taking a little longer run to get away from the crowd,” he said.

“I think a lot of people come in and over swing and overanalyze and they eliminate themselves. Even if you come in and win one but don’t win another one in the next year and a half then you are just like a flash in the frying pan.”

Sherman has paid his dues and become a success in two clubs (three-time state team qualifier with the Baton Rouge Bassmaster and five-time angler-of-the-year winner with the Sunshine Bass Club), so now he can let conditions and situations determine which strategy he will employ for each tournament.

“I do both (strategies) but most of the time I let my scouting tell me which way I need to go,” said Sherman, who does his homework on water conditions before practicing on a fishery. “I kind of read the area I am fishing and try to understand what the fish are doing and read the conditions (rising water, overcast skies or high barometric pressure) and let that tell me along with my scouting if this is the one I need to swing for the fences.”

One situation that caused Sherman to swing for the fences was the 2007 Bass Club World Championship. Sherman knew that if one of his club’s members in the event could catch a big stringer it would help his club win the event, so he decided to swing for the fences. “I am either going to be a hero or zero,” he said of his gambling approach. His do-or-die strategy paid off for Sherman as he finished with the top individual weight of the tournament with 15 bass totaling 41 pounds, 13 ounces, but his club team took third place.

The situation he encountered in trying to make the Louisiana BASS Federation Nation team in 2009 illustrated how Sherman could employ both strategies during a two-day event. Since he was in 10th place in the point standings before the final qualifying tournament, Sherman knew he could play conservative the first day of the event to catch a 10-pound limit and qualify for the state team. Then the second day he could swing for the fences and strive for a 15-pound stringer to win the tournament.

A Bassmaster Elite Series pro who ascended through the club ranks with the Mississippi Bass Club believes in swinging for the fences all of the time. “I always fish to win,” said Mississippi touring pro Pete Ponds. “I really believe strongly that you need to fish to win and do the best that you can do with the fish you are provided with. Now sometimes I am not on the winning stringer but I am always going to fish for the biggest fish that I know about.”

Ponds admits that the conservative approach of consistently catching limits can work at the club level, but anglers hoping to move up the ranks need to take more gambles. “There are some guys who want to save face and just catch five fish and say they did respectable, but that is not the way you excel in this sport,” he said. “In my younger years I did fish like that. I would be concerned about what people thought about how many fish I caught. I did have that feeling in the Bassmaster Classic. I was really concerned if I didn’t get a limit. When you have that on your mind, then you are not going to do well in the tournament.” Ponds’ concerns about catching a limit led to a 31st-place finish among the 45 contenders in the 2001 Bassmaster Classic.

The tournament veteran suggests newcomers to bass clubs should also start swinging for the fences early. “If you don’t think you can win the tournament then you don’t need to be in the tournament,” Ponds said.

Even non-boaters can have a swing-for-the-fences attitude in club events.  “You can use different kinds of lures,” advises Ponds. “An example is if your boating partner is catching a bunch of fish on a drop shot you can swing for the fences by fishing with a jig, which is noted for catching bigger fish. Use a bait that you can catch less numbers with but larger fish. If you can catch one 5-pound bass it is better than three 1-pounders.”

Any angler striving to win his club’s angler-of-the-year race should also go for broke each tournament. “If you go out there and catch all you can every tournament and if you fish to win the angler of the year race, it will take care of itself,” Ponds said.

There are situations in which Ponds alters his strategy some, especially when competing on fisheries that lack quality bass. “When 6 pounds of fish will win a tournament that is a situation when I will use smaller lures and just try to catch a limit,” he said.

So both strategies can pay off for you depending on what you are hoping to achieve during your club’s season.