Tournament Tune Up for River Smallmouth

[@scottfrey2710]

Update: I used some of your tips when I went up to fish the Susky at Dalmatia around the islands and landed a gorgeous 20-1/2 " Smallie around 4 pounds! Got a few smaller ones as well, and lost a few more! Your tips on reading the water to locate underwater structure, watching the foam, and fishing the edges of grass at the down river side of an island all came in to play to make it happen! Also had a few times where I thought.. " Hmmm, thats probably where Jeff would say he'd cast..", so I did & got several nice hits and got a few into the kayak! THANK MUCH, Jeff! :-)

[@TheLittleStuff]

That’s great to hear Scott! Nice going on the 20.5!

[@broncossoccer]

Check your guide for a crack. I had a rod drive me crazy with unexpected break offs. Found a small crack that was slowly wearing through the line. Or hopefully it was just bad line. Good luck in your tournament.

[@TheLittleStuff]

I’ll do this. Thank you. It’s an excellent suggestion!

[@gowiththegilmours2564]

Fight to be present, work to be one with the environment, and not get caught up in the mental game. NEVER check the leaderboard. I do my best to stay centered, but it's tough in the midst of it. In fact, when we did the KAS on the Susky that was the easiest, as to be safe you had to be 100% aware of everything going on aorund you... definitely kept me grounded!

[@TheLittleStuff]

I didn’t check the leaderboard.

[@jeffreyriddle4645]

Ok..1) yes i tourney fish and yes there are times its slow and it tends to mess with your head. But you know...through experience..to keep plugging away. 2) always have to know your "smallest fish" at all times...will save you time..which means more time to fish. Try using a small card to write down your smallest 1..or some kind of a device to record with out looking through your phone. 3) never question yourself about the content you share with us!!! Never let anyone tell you what to do or how to do it..YOUR DOING AN AWESOME JOB sharing things with all of us. I promote your channel to my clients as well as... i learn from you. Ty for ALL you do. TIGHT LINES!!! Ps...i had a spool of power pro braid that did the same thing this past late spring. After...i respooled all my finesse spinner rods. It sukd!!

[@150F2011]

Wow,I am just starting to fish in some kayak tournaments.Foing one September 14 on the Susky. I really appreciate all your effort and time to put out these videos.Yes very challenging to get fish to lay still,mouth closed and get photo.I lost a few fish . Thanks

[@TheLittleStuff]

It’s a challenge for sure. 2017 was the last one of these that I did. I’m a bit rusty

[@brendanlee8287]

Jeff loved the video, I have gotten pretty good at kayak fishing the suskie thanks to you, but I don't do tournys b/c of the added frustration you mention. Maybe one day

[@TheLittleStuff]

The up side of tournament fishing is that it’s going to push you to improve your performance as an angler more than just “fun fishing”. Tournaments can be fun if you’re winning. If not, they are stressful. That stress is motivating. Post tournament analysis is something that Josh and I discussed a lot after the Wisconsin River tournament. We got third in the Team Division, but had all sorts of “shoulda, woulda, coulda”. I’m home now creating a better finesse punch jig as a result. We also failed to sample enough DIFFERENT sections of that river to find the best sections. We should have divided our efforts in prefishing on the second day.

[@gmanadventurer8892]

I've been doing tournaments for over a decade and still get high strung the first couple of hours. I hate changing baits, let alone putting a new leader on, I feel like it eats up so much time. I also need to put a towel in my stuff. A lot of guys put their net against the end of the board to help keeping those fish from flopping overboard. My only suggestion is angling the board does help with the open mouth, if their really tough, then I put them back in the water for a minute or two and that seems to calm them. Good luck with the tournament.

[@TheLittleStuff]

I felt that I did well with measuring them flat, but using two hands 🙌 to fully manipulate the tail and push the mouth closed. Voice activated shutter and the YakAttack phone holder make it possible. I’ll do another one next year with Josh. All the prefishing and prep is a time and effort intensive thing. I couldn’t manage doing these on a regular basis with all the other things I do - Boonedox dealer visits, video and content production and family stuff when I am home. Work or family would suffer if I did these on the regular.

[@georgetollefsen994]

Jeff, I put earbuds in and listen to music at a low volume, it helps me concentrate on feeling everything and zone in on my fishing. I get way less frustrated when things aren’t going well. Great stuff thanks for sharing.

[@scottfrey2710]

PS: Love your "Good Job/Bad Job analysis!!

[@fishingwithundercoverbaits9305]

Great video, Jeff, and thank you for the idea of what you unknowingly gave me when you had both hands holding the fish on the ketchboard. I came up with something that I need to test out this week and I will let you know the outcome. I think that It will be a game changer for sure.

[@TheLittleStuff]

How did it work out?

[@fishingwithundercoverbaits9305]

@TheLittleStuff it was the same thing you did with the yak attack phone holder but I used the switchblade so I could fold it down out of the way.

[@Ebowe2002]

Jeff you can also just press either volume rocker on iPhone to take a picture. As someone who works with water daily, I use that in lieu of the on screen prompt.

[@TheLittleStuff]

I just tried it. The volume down button is fairly central, so that works better.

[@Ebowe2002]

@@TheLittleStuffYou can also spam the button too, similar to a camera shutter, get a bunch of shots at once. Should help when you’re trying to get the perfect length shot.

[@riverrat988]

Great video. On the Wisconsin River we always killed them on the good old Rebel crawdad crank bait . Best of luck up there .

[@TheLittleStuff]

The crankbait did factor into my five fish!

[@JamesAnge-hf2le]

Suggestion: Double check your eyelets to make sure a crack is not damaging your braided line. That could be causing your break offs??

[@TheLittleStuff]

I bet that’s the issue.

[@johnwhite993]

Good to knock iff the rust prior to a tourney. Might set your Lakewood bag back to its usual spot and lay the catch board on it. Just a thought. Great video

[@TheLittleStuff]

I liked the board low. The footpeg walls made for a way to contain flopping fish.

[@rockdrop74]

Jeff I fish the lower Wisconsin River on a nucanoe with an 1103 a few times a year, the most recent was a last week camping trip. Going up river is doable here but not great compared to watching you on the Susquehanna. The current is crazy strong and takes lures for a ride. I think you'll do well though with the bigger battery and your low draft boat.

[@TheLittleStuff]

Good to know on the strong flow up there!

[@johndrx165]

Lots of lessons learned.

[@scottfrey2710]

...and I thought I was the only one who could get braided line repeatedly knotted up! :-) Was wondering, Jeff, at 34:17 you cast out and turned to the camera while lure was drifting and line went slack; then at 34:21 you didn't even reel the line tight and you set the hook on one....How did you know a fish had it? Thats one of the parts of river fishing I need to learn...

[@TheLittleStuff]

I felt something. The Rainshadow Eternity RX10 is the most sensitive blank I have ever used.

[@Jeremymorrow079]

I don’t fish tournaments or use a measuring board or anything like that just throw a tape on them if I’m curious how long they are. That being said it’s a wonder one of the companies you work with hasn’t come up with an arm or attachment that would hold your phone a set distance off the board to take pics of the fish as you measure them. Even if it was on a ram mount or whatever that camcorder is on on the front of your kayak, something you could have mounted maybe straight up to use less room and then fold in the middle like an upside down L holding the camera over the board.

[@TheLittleStuff]

Jeremy, yes! I ended up doing this with the YakAttack phone holder, an extension and mounted it all on the Boonedox Console. It worked well for two handed measuring of fish for maximum control of the fish and maximum length in the photo.

[@joshgray9940]

You could replace the hand picture with a screenshot of your calculator showing the fishes length.

[@TheLittleStuff]

I ended up just uploading along the way and letting TourneyX show me my cull target. I had transit time between spots.

[@georgetollefsen994]

What river are you fishing Jeff? It’s looks Gin clear!

[@tonyrudolph6908]

When do you plan too be on the wi river an if so what part do you get too conqour, I fish the river from castle rock an up an would love too see some local video of your tournament series

[@robswoodsandcustomsawmilli9940]

Take the board and lean it towards the front. The weight of the fish helps to keep its mouth closed.

[@kotaleger4540]

What would be your top 5 things to throw if you were fishing from shore?

[@markbrandt504]

I keep leaders on little plastic cards. And write on label what it is. I think they're mainly for fly fishing. Might save u some time

[@TheLittleStuff]

That’s clever! Thanks.

[@JakeHarshman]

Simply add your fish to the TourneyX Livewell and it does it for you.

[@caseyhepler2806]

When does a raft become a kayak

[@150F2011]

Sorry 14th is Juniata