Have you ever wondered how well a tournament pro would compete against the top local fishermen on your home lake? I would be willing to wager they would place in the top 10% of the field. How could this be? Do they have some special lures not available to the rest of us or some new technique the fish can't resist? No, it's simply the fact that they know where bass live and they can locate them on almost any body of water from East to West.

If you watch the standings on the National or even regional tournament trails you will always see the same names at the top of the list. Fishing is luck you say? I don't think so. The top pros have the ability to find fish on any body of water in all conditions. They have learned the habits of the bass and how they migrate from deep to shallow and vise versa.

Lets look at the difference between the pro and the average weekend angler. Most average fishermen will approach a lake in two ways. First, they will go on past knowledge and fish where they caught fish before. Now, most everyone does this to some extent, but the average angler will go to the same spot no matter the conditions or time of year.

The second approach is to go down the bank and cast at whatever looks good. This may work sometimes, but depending on the time of year they may be missing the majority of the fish that are on some kind of hidden or deep structure.

Now lets look at how a top pro looks at a body of water. First, they take into account the time of year. Seasonal patterns are the strongest motivator of bass. Spring brings the spawning urge and the fish can be followed from their deep wintering areas. Do you know where the bass winter in your lake? They reverse this process once spawning is done returning to deeper water for the summer season. The ability to follow the bass as they migrate is the key.

Next they study the weather. Has there been a front move through? Has it been unseasonably cool or hot? Has the weather been stable? This tells the angler how the fish might relate to structure, whether they will be tight to structure or if they might be roaming.

Finally they check the water. Is it rising or falling? Is it clear or stained? What is the water temp? All of these are clues to what the bass might be doing.

Once they have all of the clues, it is only then that they make their hypothesis. Before they even get to the water they can look at a map and eliminate two thirds of the lake. They go through this process in there head. "At this time of year with this weather and with this color of the water that has been rising should put the fish here". They then check those areas. If they aren't there, they then have a basis to go on, to determine where they might be. They can check where they should be before or after the seasonal movement they are in.

For most of the top fishermen this is almost an instinctual process. Some can do it with ease while others have to think hard about the process. The instinctual anglers are usually the ones at the top. The only way to achieve this level of instinctual angling is time on the water.

The next step is using the bait and technique as a tool to take us to the next level. We will save that for next time.