Jim Bitter leads the B.A.S.S. points race going into this week's Seminole tournament because he's had two good finishes during two cold-front events. Not only that, they were cold fronts in Florida, the worst place to experience a cold front.
How did he do it? Read on for a primer for what to do and what not to do during a cold front. And if you think you've heard it all before, just remember that there's a darn good reason professional athletes in other sports get drilled on "the fundamentals" all the time.
Practice: Find Some Fish
At the Florida events, BASSMASTER Tour pros practiced in warmer weather, but a cold front was forecast to arrive and Bitter practiced with that in mind.
"I was trying to find concentrations of fish," he says. "During that time of year, the fish are heading to spawning areas so I was trying to find staging areas. Those can be stopping-off areas right before they jump onto the beds, and sometimes are the bedding areas themselves -- bigger, shallower, protected areas.
"I was trying to see if the fish had moved in at all. If they have, you're in good shape because when a cold front comes, once they've started making beds they're not leaving. If they're not making beds, they might go back wherever they came from, like the middle of the lake. Then you're in deep doo-doo.
"But if they're there, you will have a slow, slow bite. You have to anticipate this when you're practicing.
"Find bedding areas or places where fish hang out," he says. "Find as many of those areas where fish concentrate as you can, and where you caught the most in practice is where you should fish in the tournament.
"Just remember that you have to change with the weather. You may catch them on a Rat-L-Trap moving around in open water. But when that cold front comes the fish bite slow, so you have to generally go to a worm or other slow presentation.
"If mats are close by, like in Okeechobee, that's exactly where they will go. Right up under there. Don't go very far -- they're in there. They'll sulk down in the veggies if veggies are there. Just drag a worm through there slowly. Put it in there and let it sit."
3 Tournament Keys
Here are 3 key things Bitter did once the tournaments started:
1) Stay Put -- "I didn't change locations," he says. "I stayed right where I knew or thought the fish were. I fished slowly and deliberately, and absolutely seined the area. It won't do you any good to go anywhere else and get a quick bite because that's not going to happen."
2) Be Quiet -- "During a cold front, bass really get spooky and everything makes them move out of the way. They will move if you're making noise of any kind. I try to shut everything off whenever I can, and most of the time I can. Usually you're shallow enough that you don't have to watch the depthfinder, and it's cool enough that you can get by with periodic aeration."
3) Lower Your Expectations -- "The most important thing is between your ears. You have to be prepared for the lack of activity. My expectations go down. You have to expect that you will get fewer bites."
Notes
> Bitter didn't have his areas all to himself in the first two B.A.S.S. events. "Lots of places were already covered up by other fishermen. So I just took what I had left and made the best out of it."
> On other lakes during cold fronts, Bitter advises fishing "any structure whatsoever close to spawning areas. I've found them sitting next to a little branch on the bottom, one lily pad tuber, one piece of wood, one rocky spot on a soft bottom. Anything that's a little different, fish get glued to it. And if all you have is vegetation, you have to get down in it. You have to penetrate it."
