Story by Justin Brouillard | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
This week at the St. John’s River, it has been more important than usual to maximize our three days of practice time. The St. John’s River is a massive fishery spanning 310 miles from one end to the other. There are many different patterns at play and deciding which game to play has been challenging. I always encourage younger anglers to fish their strengths during tournaments and work on their weaknesses during practice. Although it has proven challenging, I am going to do my best to live by my own advice this week. In this article, I’m going to talk about how I break down a new lake during practice.
I am a huge advocate for pre-practice when it is available. I believe that the benefit lies more in learning how a body of water sets-up rather than attempting to pattern fish. Simply knowing where you can find grass, pads, or shell (rocks, docks, or brush on other lakes) allows you to be much more efficient once you discover the pattern in practice or during the tournament. For example, if I use the last few hours of practice to fish isolated pad patches and feel optimistic about this pattern, it helps to know exactly where I can find other similar areas. Once you arrive at a fishery for official practice, I believe that you should have a general idea of the area you want to focus on. My first day of practice is almost always in an area that either has been historically dominant or somewhere that I have learned from past experiences. Judging the first day of practice will allow you to plan the next two days. Regardless, the second day of practice for me usually consists of an area that is significantly opposite of where I fished the first day. This will hopefully confirm that the first area I fished was correct or allow me to discover a section of the fishery that is fishing better. I am not as concerned with dialing in specific casts or baits in practice as I am with getting in an area that has a population of large, active fish. There is plenty of time in a three-day tournament to fine-tune your approach. The third day of practice is where my plan often differs. Likely, after first two days I will have a solid idea of which area I want to spend my time. In this situation, I would return to that area and expand on my most productive day of practice. This can mean seeing how far you can go in either direction from the “sweet spot” or attempting to determine how to get a bigger bite. If both of the first two days are unproductive, I will use the third day to fish yet another brand new area, often many miles away from the first two locations. There is always a section of a fishery where the fish are biting best, and the goal is to have your boat in this area for as many tournament days as possible. If i fail to locate this area after three practice days, I will continue exploring new areas during the event in hopes of landing my boat in an area that will produce a check!
I’m excited about what I have found so far here on the St. John’s River and ready to get this tournament underway. I hope you all will keep up with me throughout the event and I look forward to recapping it next week here in my column! Catch y’all soon!
Hunter Sales- NPFL Pro Angler
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