COLUMN
NEWELL’S NOTES
ROB
NEWELL
O
ne of the many characters we encounter in tourna-
ment fishing is the “local pro.” He’s the guy who
dominates all the Tuesday night wildcatters on his
home lake and all the club derbies on the third Saturday of
every month.
“He wins everything on this lake,” his family and friends
proudly say. “If the big boys ever come here for a tourna-
ment, he’ll be taking their money, too.”
When “the big boys” do come to town, the scenario that
usually plays out is that the local pro ponies up his money for
an entry, makes a showing the first day but then gets buried
in the standings on the second day. Somehow the one guy
who knows “every stick-up and stump out there” goes home
clinging to a nominal check while the touring pros, who hard-
ly ever fish “his” lake, leave town with the big money.
How does this happen?
After years of watching this dynamic unfold during bass
tournaments, the best explanation I have is that the “big
boys” fish multiple-day tournaments on a regular basis in the
big leagues, and multiple-day events are a much different
animal than the one-day, go-for-broke contests that are most
common at the local level.
Many of the best sticks in the business agree that the
hardest hump they had to get over when making the transi-
tion from fishing local events to touring as a pro was learning
how to find fish for several days in a row, in varying conditions
and with a considerable amount of fishing pressure being
applied to the fishery. There are many strategies that touring
pros employ to help them catch fish consistently for three or
four days, but the best pros understand three keys to multi-
ple-day tournament success.
Jason Lambert
1. Managing Fish
12
From Local pro to touring pro
One-day-wonder catches usually come from a single spot.
Likewise, locals are good at “camping” on one spot and clean-
ing it out for a big catch. When they return to the same gig
the next day, the well is often dry. This is where many local
sticks get tripped up.
FLWFISHING.COM I aprIL 2017