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Being prepared and planning your fishing trip in advance will help you maximize your time on the water, which is especially important for those anglers who can only fish on weekends.
The most important step to follow when planning your trip is to keep track of the weather in the area you plan to fish and find out what the lake or river is doing, whether it’s rising or falling. Paying attention to these details gives you a pretty good indication of where and how to fish when you get to the water.
Getting your tackle ready is pretty much dictated by the weather and water conditions. If there has been a lot of rain in the area you know the water will be dirtier and you need to be using certain baits with heavier tackle. If it’s been real dry there for a few weeks, the water is probably going to be real clear and you have to downsize your tackle.
Tackle organization is so important for saving time. You can lose so much time untangling lures in your tackle box or trying to find what you need for certain situations. The more you have your tackle in order, the more time you are going to save. I keep my tackle organized in plastic boxes, which allow me to put certain styles of lure in certain boxes and then label them so I know exactly where to find what I need.
Accurate casts are very critical for helping reduce wasted time on the water. Good casts just make you a more efficient angler.
The number of casts you make to a certain target depends on the water. If you are in a real positive weather situation where you feel bass ought to be biting and you are in a water temperature zone that you feel the fish ought to be very aggressive, then you can probably cover the water fairly fast with one or two casts to a target or an area. However in a cold-front situation or a drop in the water level where you know the fish might not be very aggressive, then you need to slow down and make repeated casts to key spots in the area.
Picking out a bad backlash in your baitcast reel can be time-consuming so be prepared for this situation and have a couple of backup reels ready to save time.
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