1st Tournament Practice of The Year at Lake Ray Roberts! | Read & React

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Y thanks for uh clicking on this video this is going to be a little bit different where I’m doing a lot more long form videos like this um and going into the 24 season I’m doing a lot more tournaments I have over 10 tournaments I’m participating in all across the

State and for me I want to get a little bit better and so I decided to do kind of a read react on the practice times that I go when I go out fishing and kind of show you guys what I’m go what’s going through in my mind and kind of

Share that with you plus it gives me an opportunity to look at to how I was fishing and what I did and and how I broke down this body of or this piece of body of water and then so I can improve on it going forward so this is just

Going to be really uncut um really raw footage as you’ll see uh and I’ll have some slides that you’ll see in the video um but for me I have a hard time figuring out where fish go when uh especially during the winter because that’s not my biggest cup of tea uh per se

So uh here in Texas uh we’re kind of finally entering into the winter season and that’s when it really gets starting to get cool cooler uh especially going in February I think this week um we’ll start seeing lows of 10° and so the fishing at this point to the end of

February is going to be a little bit tougher um but uh my first tournament though is the beginning of March and so me practicing now um I’ll be able to kind of find a pattern on what works especially on this body of water I’ll

Get to in a minute but um at least I’ll know kind of what to do and so my first hermit this year is at Lake Ray Roberts and this is actually my home Lake I’m uh the closest to it and for me I haven’t

Really bass fish a lot I fished a lot of other fish species out there but bass fishing is not something I I really go Target um and so and I haven’t been all all to different places on Lake Ray Roberts and so my first fishing trip was

Last Saturday on the 6th of January and I never even been to this spot to fish before alone again bass fish and so I wanted to put myself into something that’s a little bit more unfamiliar um while also trying to learn and so but by doing all these things

I’ll be increasing my time on the water which also increases the amount of potential fish catches that I’ll have during a tournament session session but also I’ll be able to move with a purpose because when you’re kayak fishing you’re kind of just always always going you don’t but you’re you’re moving not as

Fast as a if I had a bass boat but um as as if I wish to do that um but um anyway so again went to Ray Roberts midday um and I’ll be looking down at kind of my notes Here uh but you’ll be kind of seeing that on screen as well

Too and so at Ray Roberts uh the week prior it had a lot L of rain I was out of town so it was a little bit difficult for me to gauge from that and I kind of did do a little bit of pre- fishing but

Not as much as I normally would um and so uh let me take another step back too so for each tournament I’ll try to do some of these read and reacts for the tournament but also will do a read try to do a read and react long form video

Like this um for each practice session so allows me again to learn more about what I’m doing um so when I do map study which will be totally separate from this or on the water type of read and reacts but map study I I’ll be able to kind of

Figure out where to go um and all that all these places they public knowledge all the competitors that um are going to be competing in these tournaments with me you know they they know what to do um and so I’m not really afraid of sharing what I feel about it because number one

I want to grow the sport and show and and teach people kind of my learning experience um because for me I’ve been fishing all my life but not uh I haven’t been bass fishing all my life though I mean I’ve always caught bass but just not targeted in this form and fashion in

A tournament setting and so so I’m not really too afraid of doing that I may or may not do the map study videos just due to the fact that that’s just kind that’s really nitty-gritty details but um maybe but at least these things will you

Kind of put you can kind of put together but locations and all that all this stuff is public knowledge uh no one owns the water anyway so anyway just want to get that out there um but anyway back to Ray Roberts and his current conditions I

Was out of town I didn’t do a lot of map study but I knew that it was raining a lot and so the current official fishering report on Ray Roberts is that um the basss were slow um and there wanted to use more shatter imitation

Baits like a Alabama Rig or Swim bait or jerk bait um now like last year trying to see see what happened we’re a little bit cooler um or actually not a little bit cooler we’re actually a little warmer than last year um but at that time around that time basically about

The same and the water was a little bit clear and I’ll get to the location and what that looks like in a minute um but it was also slow and for me I’m thinking that winter bass fishing is going to be slow no matter what we’re not going to catch a lot of

Numbers but we’re going to catch really quality bass and so that’s kind of what I was really focused on so I kind of knew that anyway I knew kind of where just from crappie fishing there are so many times uh I kind of know what depth

That the fish are going to be at where the base going to be but again never been to this location before and that location was at the con Creek that’s on the Northern end of the lake never again never been there never even seen it um

And so had a little bit of a later start but that’s okay because in winter bass fishing um you want it to be a little bit more warmer that’s when there’s going to be a little bit more active fish um again please chime in in the

Comment section if you’re wrong if I if you feel like I’m wrong um but for me it’s not going to make a big break make or break or anything like that I had a good amount of time on the water to kind of come to some solid

Conclusions and then it was mostly sunny it had some good Cloud covers here and there but uh and it wasn’t too windy um so it the air temp was around 39 50° water temp 48 49° um pretty stable uh conditions so far it’s honestly this feels like a fall

Day to me but you’re knowing full well that we’re entering into the winter season um side note too is um the week prior yes there was a cold front um so they should have been a little more active but the interesting thing is that that didn’t really occur uh again I’ll

Kind of touch on that in a little bit and so I kind of had some four places that um or at least two places um or types of covers and structures those are kind of combos that I see cover in structure as a two1 you

Know like I want to go find some sort of cover that’s on or some sort of cover that’s on this type of structure on the body of water again I did a little bit of pre- fishing to kind of see what the concrete cast just in my abilities to

Kick to a certain spot and get there and so concrete doesn’t have a lot of Timber it does have a lot of Timber but not a lot like other parts of the lake um and I also knew that there’s rip wrap around there just around the boat ramp um and

Then also going on Northern side of the lake or Northern side of uh Bon Creek and then there’s a lot of structure um there’s you’re really close to actually the river uh or the Trinity uh River going through uh uh Ray Roberts and then also there’s plenty of different Creeks

Theon Creek um where I can Target some drop offs as well too and then there’s some ditches where there was enough um Pockets where I can get into a ditch you kind of see some of those video clips as I put them on screen where I worked a few different

Baits so initially when I tied on I had a square bill on there specifically I had a mega bass um Sonic side and the reason why I tied that on is I wanted something that has a little bit tighter wobble to it didn’t want something to

Swing too wide CU I didn’t know how again the bass rack so I wanted to go a little bit more conservative uh on that approach plus with that bill it doesn’t have that wide bill so um it also makes the wobble a little bit tighter but also once it hits uh Timber

Or rocks it kind of bounces off really fast comparison to if I just had a plastic clear build uh crankbait it’s just going to kind of just bounce off of it but not really spring out of its bounce if that makes sense uh also had swimbait on there I had a 6in magdraft

Didn’t go into I didn’t throw my 8 in but uh wanted to throw the 6 in wanted to try to see if I can get something there bass there’s there’s a philosophy where some people think that um you want to throw something really big because they’re going to have one meal and make

It worth it for them worthwhile for them to eat it um a 6 in is kind of a a good happy medium it’s not you know super big but it’s a larger St bait comparison to what I was throwing before obviously I threw the jerk bait

Out there you’ll see me throw the jerk bait you know I’m not going to show all the clips um of or the whole footage of me fishing but you’ll kind of get a general idea of what I was doing but uh I threw a mega bass Vision 110 Plus or

Vision 110 junior plus one so it kind of get to around seven to eight ft of water or so uh and my goal was to get get it at least into those middle third or that bottom or those fish that were kind of right off the bottom and for bass I know

That they’re going to be the most active if they’re not just sitting on the bottom belly down but those are kind of a little bit Ro uh riding up they’re not that middle part of the water column good luck trying to catch those um granted there’s new techniques that like

The hover stroll that’ll catch them but um it’s going to be pretty tough to catch suspended fish like that um and definitely I mean those are on top just ones that are just kind of roaming it’s going to be kind of tough but that jerk bait and where I wanted to Target and

What I’m good at uh I’m good at fishing from around 20 feet and up and mainly if you want my my money maker right now is probably about 10 10 to 15 feet of rip wrap that’s that’s what I’m really good at I I I’m really good and I’m

Comfortable with that um me anyway I wanted to get that jerk Bay as further as far down as deep as possible as I could to Target those fish that were in that middle third or again they’re not on the bottom but they’re not in the middle of the water column but just kind

Of in the bottom middle third and then they can attack it up once I hit temper and Stuff Plus that Vision 110 um it suspends pretty well doesn’t float up pretty fast doesn’t float down pretty fast either it’s it it really does a good job just staying still so

When I jerk it one time like I usually do Let It soak for a little bit and then Jerk it a couple times here and there um I was expecting a bite and then the hover stroll I kind of touched on that a little bit too for those that if I just

Ran across a whole bunch of fish that are just middle third or um where I threw the hover stroll was um in the main Creek or in the river Channel and there was a ton of fish that were sitting on underwater uh uh Timber excuse me and so I just cast out

To it and I’ll kind of tell you what I should have done spent a little more time doing that but a little bit something different like throwing the Finesse jig so you’ll see this in the video um where how I was throwing the Finesse jig but I

Was throwing it in a way where um I was throwing it towards Timber um but not around it or underwater so again this is just my you know uh my best opinion on it is anytime this is just for fish anytime fish are just locked on covered like locked on um

They’re typically not going to be the most active but whenever fish are kind of they’re on structure but they’re kind of around it um they are active so there’s and these are again the the the margin of knowing either or is pretty slim but you see this a lot in crappie

Fishing too when you go on bridge Pils when they’re just locked onto something they don’t want to eat but when they’re kind of off a little bit or they’re up off the the timber or something or off bridge pile or off this rock then they’re they are in Hunt mode and so

Um what I was doing with that finesse jig was pitching it right at the base now sometimes this technique works you’ll see a lot of people talk about that a c or other PL or Fork a lot of places that traditionally have a lot of Timber and they throw uh sinko or some

Sort of plastic worm something of that something that soaks right they throw it to the base of that piece of cover and uh they usually get a bite sorry it’s my dog um but they usually throw it right at the base and they usually get a strike but sometimes

That’s not the case and I think that was the case uh want my timeout because I kept on throwing this finesse jig right at the base um and but there was something a little bit different that looking on the film the film don’t lie looking at the film I

Should have done um but didn’t and then also had a Texas Rig rigged on a Texas rigged or Texas Rig on one my on my jig Poole uh instead of putting a curlytail or a grub or anything like that what I did is put a

Sinko on it a 5 in sinko CU I didn’t know again don’t know how active they are what they want so so I just went kind of the more conservative route again that’s what’s most comfortable for me is to go that way I could be missing fish I don’t know but for me

Um I have found more success when I’m in these bass tournaments uh going a little bit more conservatively a great example of that is the tournament that I won U out at Amar and Carter um went practice there twice and and the two times I went out there on

Both sides of the lake uh I was power fishing trying to use the uh my crankbaits and and and lipless and then also my uh Square bill out there right on rip wrap again that’s what’s most comfortable for me by the time I got to some docks right that’s also wanted to

Throw power fish into the docks didn’t catch a lick but what worked though was again going to what’s more comfortable with me was a wacky worm and that’s why I caught my winning fish was in there in those docks under shade um and off a rip

Wrap and so um for me it’s just kind of a a numbers game um in my opinion I’m going to get those those trophy fish and that’s going to come I mean you put this much time in you put this much thought in and this is just not even a lot I

Mean there’s more people who do a lot more but just the beginning of really going into this um for me that’s what’s most comfortable not to say that I need to get uncomfortable and try something new cuz I’m definitely down for that too but um

I got I I can’t be a jack of all traits and so anyway the Big key though for me was to get into those Channel drop offs right um I know that that’s where they’re going to be they’re if I can find rock or underwater Timber or Timber that I can see and

Especially especially if it was um cedar trees which hold a lot of fish at Ray Roberts um if I can find that then we’ll be in good shape so but what in the world happened sorry for the clicks and all that we’ll eventually get a little bit better

System an actual mic uh holder for for this thing but anyway what happened so I eventually found fish around 10 to 20 ft of water um near the key structure for me I personally use side scan 2D in my maps um a lot I I look at my maps

Probably more than actual imagery but um the 2D kind of confirms what I see in the SI scan uh and that’s when I’m actively fishing when I’m not scanning but when I’m just casting and and actively fishing I have S scan on top I

Have a maps on the bottom and 2D on the uh on the other side of the bom that’s what’s comfortable for me um especially now if I’m standing still I have have different screens for that but anyway I found fish where they were where where I thought there would be now what went

Wrong though right I didn’t get a bite when I was out there I saw fish didn’t see a bite though so one and I have this little bit flip-flop they weren’t actually chasing bait um so that’s something that I should have tooken to account um where I needed to

Slow down right have the different wrong reaction baits and there’s actually two things about why I had two or why I had a different reaction bait or the wrong reaction bait so those looking back I Square Bill jerk bait and had swimbait too but those are kind of my reaction

Based to get them to do something something right they’re they’re moving baits right we’re actually just something moving right so the square bill now when I was throwing that square B I’m casting towards those fish right you’ll see this kind of in the clips These are times when I’m casting I knew

I already went by these places too by the way but uh so I kind of knew where they were so I’m casting towards these fish right but the square belt only went down again 7 8 ft of water that’s my dog again 78 ft of water um but it wasn’t deflecting off of

Anything right now later in the day I threw a 5xd I don’t have a well I just don’t want to pull the clip of that um just due to where I was fishing but through a 5xd something that got to that 15t range because they were really kind of hugged

Up on the bottom and that’s when I finally was you know nudging against rocks and temper and stuff so looking back when I started when I was trying to find a reaction strike just to see if there was something there just and to make sure that there wasn’t carp or drum

Or something like that um should have threw something a little bit deeper cranking and spend a little B more time doing that Additionally the swimbait now I threw the swimbait par or uh parallel to me bombing cast and stuff and I kind of sometimes I had to let it sink as far as

Down as I could sometimes I kind of had it that bottom third um and this was around 10 to 15 ft of water um and kind of changed my my uh my retrieves up a little bit sometimes I was kind of just doing a heavy just a steady retrieve

Sometimes I just literally just let it hit the bottom try to slow roll it which is kind of dangerous with a open treble hook like that on there um because I didn’t have a freestyle but um that didn’t work either um because again they didn’t want that

And that should have that the first hour and a half of me really thrown those two plus the jerk bait which I’ll talk about in a second should keep me into throw the jig more then also through the jerk bait though I’ll get to it J in a second uh through the jerk

Bait and my dog again through the jerk bait and I did that in ditches mainly um I threw the sometimes jerk bait around uh the banks like I was and where I’m comfortable at and threw it a couple times in the uh towards the um that River Channel um but

Um when I was throwing that jerk bait in those ditches I saw a lot of fish there too uh in the most bait and po Pockets um but again I didn’t have that jerk bait get deep enough to where that underwater Timber was uh I was assuming

Hey they’ll just kind of hit they’ll see this and they’ll kind of get to it now muddy singing water muddy and stained water like it was at at Ray Roberts especially where where I was I should have known better to do something like that um it might have been still a good

Idea if it was a little bit more maybe warmer or something or did this in the morning or earlier um but going back to another time where I was Tournament Fishing throwing a jerk bait um I threw uh a jerk bait and I’ve might been probably the only one I know

For sure in the area where I was at Lake Fork back in October but uh from just listening to the awards I must have caught maybe 8 10 bass off of jerk baits three or two two or three of which you know I I uh had have I caught the other

Five or whatever uh there’s a video on that um that’s just really disappointing but um could have definitely that that tournament looking back it’s I’m still a little salty on that because I could have at least walked away with some money but um here nor there live and

Learn but when I was throwing that jerk bait out in the park the same uh same same uh uh depth of water again 10 to 20 ft of water every time I got a bite the first thing was I hit a piece of Timber out there and then they struck at it um

And so I didn’t do that here um now I threw two different jerk baits one but um for some reason I just wasn’t um confident enough to throw that bait out there some of that was just because I’m scared again past experience doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen again um

Because I honestly didn’t want to lose that jerk bait um during practice like I did during the tournament um because I threw it into very compromising positions um but you know that it it was a big risk me doing that um for a big reward and um because everyone else was

Throwing something they actually they’re throwing all jackhammers or jigs and I was the only one catching a whole bunch of them off jerk baits um and good size ones but anyway but that was the kind of the thing it was I was thr the wrong one not the

Wrong bait I should say but just the wrong uh it didn’t give a reaction that I needed and so if I had maybe a vision 110 plus two I’m going have gotten a little bit deeper uh with the setup that I had if I threw maybe the 5xd or just a

Crankbait in general that gotten to 10 to 15 ft um cuz now that I know okay there’s a lot more Timber that I could see that could not see on Google Earth um if I would have thrown something like that change the bait out put it on and

Get it hung up a couple times U excuse me I think I might have done a little bit better but this kind of goes into the jig now for some reason just looking at the video I didn’t do a lot of I did a lot of Hop of The Jig right now I’m

Comfortable with throwing The Jig but um again this is just that inexperience of wintertime fishing I have to turn my spring and spring summer sometimes fall brain off and turn on to winter time because me hopping it like that like as if I’m hopping around Boulders right or rocks off rip

Wrap um they didn’t want that they don’t want that action plus I’m throwing it into I knew I’m throwing it towards Timber right and just I I just wanted to get that finesse J stuck well again I’m casting towards fish but um I’m hopping I’m giving a little

Bit too much action or not the action they want what I didn’t do was sit there cast it let it soak get all the way down to the bottom and then start pulling it so I can find that structure I wish I took a screenshot of what I saw but

There was a big boulder in a certain area and uh there was probably about two three fish just sitting right there on 2D or yeah 2D sonar um again I now I’m casting it with square bill but I never even thought about okay yeah I need to go throw this

Jig and drag it towards those Boulders and some of this Timber where it was and just see if they can go find it didn’t do that um now as I go back and that’s kind of the purpose of these videos is going back that’s going to be a main

Technique uh along with some of the reaction beats so those that jig especially that Texas Rig that I rarely threw that day um I’ll be definitely trying to search search for bait additionally then like I said when I was out there I looked at the just looking

At the what 5 hours I was out there uh or actually on the water I didn’t spend a lot of time where number one thing was uh I wanted to key off of river and Creek channels um but didn’t do a lot of that excuse me didn’t do a lot of that I

Got computers going off and everything but didn’t do a lot of that um ideally once I find a cre or ditch especially in these two positions a lot of it at Ray Roberts which is why I’m not too afraid of sharing some of this because it’s clear as day if you go on

Avionics or whatever mapping service you want to you want to use was I should have casted towards those drop offs where I saw the most fish right and just start dragging them and have the fish kind of get get down to just like if they’re trying to find a craw

Dead didn’t do that additionally again throwing a different type of reaction bait it’s a little bit something a little bit different um now if I had to go back and have the same baits and everything um is for me because I like that 1020 ft about 15

Around 30 to 40 feet away from the bank that’s kind of my that’s my bread and butter what I like um I do a lot of again parallel casting now there wasn’t a lot of r r but there was a good amount and there and even the

Rock or the rocky Banks they didn’t they have rocks but not a lot it wasn’t like you know you’re going across the dam where we going perpendicular once you find where they are what depth and all that it’s easy but what I have to learn

To do um is is to fish kind of like in a semicircle right casting towards the bank with the square Bell letting it come down right all right they’re not there then cast another change the angle up a little bit all right cast it all

The way down until I get so working from perpendicular all the way to parallel right towards the bank and then keep moving so I’m I’m getting probably three for cast off in a semicircle fashion then I can find out okay what angle do they want it at

One and then two you know to see what depth they are at that point then I can say okay now I know where the depth is now I can start working parallel I can’t just work parallel immediately um you get a lot more you get a lot more area coverage doing that

But you know when when you’re fishing a spot where you’re trying to find certain pieces of cover within this structure that you’re working you know you can’t do that right um because these are very where I was this is very isolated here and there type of structures I’m targeting not

Long distances you know 100 yards worth of it if this is only 20 yards worth of of of structure and so but if I can focus more on those isolated targets um in a jig that I’ll be able to do that the wind wasn’t really really blowing that

Hard either but if I was able bble to do that I think I would have found what I need to find now if I was there’s a lot of guys who are fishing um larger swimbaits and I’m still going to throw that swimbait but they’re throwing um

Bigger size swim baits Li baits and they’re fishing the same way like the fish too you know they’re fishing from zero all the way to 40 ft off the bank in this 10 to 20 foot in C right 10 10 less they’re not going to be on there but they’re fishing in areas

Where it gets warm right where there are active so they can throw some reaction bait it just so happens that this place uh where I fished that day mind you um didn’t have a lot of moving fish that were in that that water C to throw something like that um there were some

Pretty pretty big fish but I can’t change how they want want to eat eat that day right I wanted to get them to get a big bite off of a reaction bait knowing full well there’s probably this is probably going to come off the bottom

Um and not hop in it either um so I’m still pretty confident about this the the place um but there wasn’t a lot of um activity um it’s it we’ll see I might go back to it there’ll be another I know I have planned minimum two more times I’ll be out there

Before the tournament but you know that’s all I really have about this read react I know I need to focus a little bit more on just focusing on my keys hey you know where fish are hey let’s go work it let’s go through the list that let’s go to a if a doesn’t

Work let’s go to b b doesn’t work let’s try a again but a little bit differently and um yeah so I still have a lot of confidence I’m not too discouraged that I didn’t find a fish catch a fish get a bite whatever cuz that’s the name of the

Game you know especially putting myself in a situation like this where you I never never particularly been there before um and so even though it is my home Lake uh never really seen it um and now that I know okay here’s where they kind of are here’s where they kind of are this

Is what I need to do going forward and so um I’m still looking forward to next um um practice session I really want to go to some different places uh some different lakes and I’ll still be able to do that going forward I have a jamack schedule um and

So hopefully these videos or this video and the ones that will come after this you guys like for a little bit longer really not so much edited to look pretty and stuff like that but this is the nitty-gritty detail not really nitty-gritty detail but a little bit

More detail into the mind that what I’m thinking and kind of journaling you know on through video um what I’m doing and so uh I can be more successful because I can’t go from being you know hey I I’m a fisherman been fishing all my life I got

A lot of raw skills so for me and that’s where the talent is going to come in it’s just like you just know a feeling of what what to do and stuff um but bassard a little bit different animal so I can’t rely on techniques and just experience for getting close to I

Mean honestly getting close to 20 plus years of Just Fishing um truly fishing not just you know me with a you know Barbie or a Superman Pole or something like that but really fishing and being taught a certain way um in different conditions and all that and then be able to be

Successful I mean this is a different type of Beast so it’s going to take but the more deposits I put in I truly believe that the more deposits I put in the more hours I put in I’ll be tracking that for goals it’s just because that is

One of my goals is hey to get to a certain number of hours studied and and and I see that the times I’ve gone and practiced the most I’ve been really I I’ve placed at a higher higher positions in the uh finish or finished higher but

Also had just a better time on the water and so again I’ll be doing a little bit more about this probably doing some map study with y’all and kind of just general ideas but more so is like okay taking what you see on YouTube and Instagram and all that baits because at

The end of the day don’t really matter I mean it does matter but not really it’s just kind of where to go how to go get fish um that’s what I want to see I want to see that and hopefully you guys will too so anyway I’m going to sign off um

But yeah hopefully see you on the water peace