Winning Bass Tournaments Starts With Having a Positive Attitude...

And keeping it 'til the end. Not my words but those of a pro angler who was getting ready to fish a Pro/Am on Wheeler Lake in Alabama. He never had fished that 68,000-acre lake before this event.

He went there and pre-fished for three days before the cut-off period for the Top 150. During that time, he caught only three keeper 12-inch fish, but he wasn't worried because he didn't expect bass to stay in one spot for two weeks anyway in early spring.

The pro actually arrived at the lake a day before practice started and, along with two other pros, rented a plane to fly over the lake. A bird's-eye view like this provides a better perspective of the body of water you're fishing. What they discovered from the fly-over was that the lake was very muddy for the most part. However, they did see some clear creeks and arms.

"On my first practice day," said this pro, "I fished the lower arm of the lake and a couple of the creeks with the clearest water. That was my confidence factor because the water ranged in temperature from 48 to 53 degrees. The fishing was slow, and I had only four bites all day, and I practiced from daylight to dark.

On the second practice day, the air temperature ranged from 26 to 42 degrees, with winds of 20 to 30 mph. He went far upriver to the Guntersville dam, which was a run of more than 50 miles.

"I only had one bite all day and missed it," he said. "The last day dawned with an air temperature of 22 degrees but with light winds. I caught only four bass all day...some on the main lake on spinnerbaits and a couple in a particularly clean, big creek, where I ended up spending two hours. The water there was 55 degrees, and there was lots of shad activity. Though I only set the hook on two bass, I had about six bites in the last 30 minutes.

"This was where I decided to start fishing for the tournament. It was a rock ledge in six to 10 feet of water, and I caught a limit in less than two hours. My amateur partner also caught a limit.

"To make a long story short, I caught a limit each day from this spot, and so did my partners. In fact, in three days of fishing, we caught 47 keepers from that one spot. It would have been easy for me to get discouraged during practice and go in early, but then I would not have found that school of bass holding in that one spot.

"So, in your next tournament, forget about finding secret lures, spots or getting lucky. The most important thing is to show up at the ramp with a positive attitude and maintain it throughout the event."