(Editor's note: The following is the latest installment in a series of fishing tips presented by The Bass University. Check back each Friday for a new tip.)
Bassmaster Elite Series pro Drew Benton may still be relatively young at 33, but he has substantial tournament experience, with a second Classic berth under his belt to go along with an Elite Series Texas Fest victory and an FLW Tour winner’s trophy. That success is the result of thousands of hours on the water. The Georgia resident has always attacked the pre-tournament days seriously, craving “the security of a good practice,” but over time he’s realized that the sheer number of hours is not a cure-all. In fact, there can be too much of a good thing.
“I get what I call sometimes ‘too dialed in’ in practice,” he said. “I have my first, second and third options or moves or ideas in place before we blast off, and I almost feel like when you’re too dialed in and you’ve got everything in your mind figured out, you don’t fish in the moment and you don’t let them tell you what’s going on.”
Of course, Bass University co-founder Mike Iaconelli first popularized the phrase, “Fish the Moment,” each pro has to embrace his own take on the concept and learn how to steer that ship through trial and error. While Benton wants to have as much information as possible at his disposal, he said that learning how to drop everything and run on instinct requires a certain amount of failure. If you don’t at some point “chase those rabbits,” you’ll never refine your instincts as to when a major or minor change is necessary. Non-specific concerns like making a cut can also get in the way of a solid decision-making process.
For Benton, the main goal is to find a pattern he can run all over the fishery, rather than just in a single productive area. “An area you can fish out,” he explained. Also, a specific location may be subject to different forces than similar ones elsewhere. For example, a cove full of willow bushes in the lower end of the lake may experience faster or slower changes in water temperature, water clarity or water level than a similar spot 30 miles up the river. Throughout practice, he tries to assess what will be happening one, three or more days down the road, to see where his fish will be and what changes may occur.
It worked for him at Texas Fest in 2018 at Lake Travis. It did not work quite as well during last year’s Bassmaster Classic on Lake Ray Roberts, just a few hours up the road. He regrets not factoring in the rising water temperature and how it would hurt the shallow bite over time. Fortunately, there are many more tournaments to go in his career, including an upcoming Classic on Hartwell.
If you want to learn some of Benton’s additional tips for fishing in the moment, including stories of some of his successes and failures, check out his full video, filmed on Day 3 of the 2021 Bassmaster Classic, available only by subscribing to The Bass University TV.
