So you think you are ready to jump from the back of the boat to the front deck? You think you have spent enough time learning as a co-angler and want to try your hand as a boater. Let us look at some things you can expect in your transition.

First, you have to purchase a worthy boat that will be big enough to handle rough water but small enough to maneuver through tight cover. This will be your biggest expense. Should you purchase a new or used boat? Good used boats are available for around $10,000 and new boats can cost as much as you are willing to spend when you start adding upgrades to the standard features. How much can you afford to spend? More then one angler has put himself into the poor house by buying more boat then they could really afford. We would all like to have the newest 21’ high-powered bass boat on the market with all the top gadgets but is that what it really takes to make it? Are you concerned with contingencies? This will determine whether you buy your boat new or used and what brand you buy. You also need to ask yourself about the proper motor size. You want the motor to be big enough to operate the boat at a decent speed to be competitive while at the same time not so big that you waste gas. You can find over powered boats at every tournament event. This should be one of your main concerns with the recent rise in the price of gas with no end in sight.

Should you get single or dual axle trailer? Single axle trailers are easier to pull and maneuver but also cause a rougher ride in your tow vehicle. Tandem axle trailers will cause you to use more gas but give a more comfortable ride. This will vary depending on the size of boat and the weight in most cases. What about trailer brakes? There are some states the require brakes on boat trailers over a certain weight.

What will you be towing your new boat with? You must consider this into the equation when looking for a boat. The smaller pickups and SUV’s with a V6 maybe able to tow an aluminum bass boat but you really need a full size pickup or SUV with a V8 or diesel engine to tow the larger and heavier fiberglass bass boats.

Other considerations when looking for a boat:

• Do you feel you need a single or dual console? While a dual console is nice for your co-angler, it does take up lot of space.

• Does the brand of boat you are looking at have problems with chine walking or can you just stand on it and cut through the water and not worry about the dreaded J-hook?

• What kind of storage will you need? Do you use a lot of 7’6” and longer rods? Most boats will handle 7’ rods but nothing longer.

• Do you need a single, divided, or dual livewells?

• You have to consider the price of boat insurance keeping in mind that you have to carry liability insurance for using your boat in tournaments. You also have to consider how much your equipment and other things are worth in your boat and have those insured.

            This may well be your first boat. There are some other things you must think about after you have found purchased it and have it sitting in your driveway.  You will need to sit in the driver’s seat and get acquainted with the controls. You need to know where everything is located so you are not searching while trying to drive the boat. In addition, if you have a friend that is a fellow angler and has had a boat for a while you may want to talk to them about the operation of your boat. A high performance bass boat is not a get in and drive deal. You have to understand a few things that are often overlooked by novices. One is the fact that boats DO NOT have brakes. Many a new boater has crashed thinking they could stop in a much shorter distance then was really needed. This is no time to be macho. There is nothing wrong with asking questions. Questions show that you want to be a responsible boater. You must learn the rules of the water and boater etiquette.

After you have learned these things, it is time to put your boat in the water and start getting some driving experience. You need to spend time on the water in all kinds of conditions so that you will be prepared for the changes that can and will take place during a tournament. There is nothing worse then being in a boat with someone who does not know how to navigate rough water. You have to learn how your boat reacts to the wind, wakes, and waves. You can’t learn these things in just a few days. Some boaters do not know how to drive in rough water because they never went out and learned. You owe this process to yourself and your passengers.  

Now lets move on to our equipment.

• How many rod and reel setups do we truly need to be competitive? This boils down to how fast you can cut and retie. I have seen people with twenty combos stuffed away in their rod lockers and some are able to get by with as few as five or six combos.

• How many bags of soft plastics are too many? You can cut down the number of baits once you understand seasonal patterns. As anglers, we always think we need more but then we forget to narrow these down to a select few as the season goes on and we find out just what works and what does not. You can end up with 100 or more pounds of soft plastics that you don’t need to be carting around in your boat all the time wasting gas and slowing us down as much as 3 to 4 miles per hour. You would be surprised just how much those little bags of plastic weigh.

• How many crankbaits and other hard baits do you need? In this category, there are more baits made for catching anglers then there are for catching fish. Stick to the natural colors and mix in some chartreuse combinations for the really stained water you can encounter at any time of the season. I have seen people with 8-10 Plano boxes full of crankbaits and they use less then half of them throughout the season.

• How much terminal tackle is required for a tournament? You should really only carry the amount you are going to need each time you go out instead of using your boat as a storage unit.

These extras all contribute to excess weight added to the boat that slows you down, wasting gas and money. Do not be afraid to read product reviews on baits. These can help determine what brands give good action and need less tuning out of the box. Remember there are a many rod and reel companies that make high quality equipment that will not break the bank. Likewise, there are bait companies that offer great products at surprisingly low prices.

How much experience do you have on the lakes you will be fishing? This experience will effect what electronics you need. If you are going to be fishing a lot of lakes that you have not spent much time on that have a lot of creeks and coves you may want to consider getting a sonar/GPS combo. On some lakes, it is very easy to get lost because everything looks the same. It really does no good to have a livewell full of keepers if you cannot find your way back to the weigh in.

Here are some additional things you need to consider.

• How much time have you spent doing map study? You can find some very good maps that offer depth ranges and some that even have hotspots with information on what baits work best in some areas of a lake. This is the easiest way to eliminate unproductive water.

• Do you really understand seasonal patterns? Knowing what part of the lake the fish will be in during different times of the year can make prefishing a lot easier. Why fish shallow water when the water temperature is in the low 40’s?

• Do you truly know how to interpret what your graph is telling you? What do cold fronts cause the fish to do at certain times during the season? In the springtime, cold fronts can make fish move out to deeper structure, while cold fronts in the summertime may have little or no effect.

• Do you know how to fish the different types of water conditions you will encounter? Clear water means smaller quieter baits while dirty water means larger noisier baits. Fish in clear water will at times chase a bait farther or come out farther from the cover to hit a bait while dirty water will put them tight to the cover and force you to put the bait right under their nose before they will hit it. I have seen some guys that are scared to death of dirty water only because they don’t understand it. There is a wide array of fishing web sites out there that feature articles to help explain seasonal patterns, water conditions, how to’s on electronics,  boat positioning, and anything else you may need to know about tournament fishing.

• How much time can you devote to prefishing for an event? In most cases this will be determined by how much vacation time you have or if you have an employer that is willing to work with you on time off. Most tournaments are a Pro-am event, which means you need to be fair to your co-angler and prefish when you can so you have fish located and patterned. You are not the only one who has entry fees at stake. You need to have more then one plan of attack just in case Plan A falls through or your area is taken by a Boater that got an earlier take off time then you. This will be the most important thing to determine how you finish in an event. When prefishing you need to hook a couple of fish in each area to see what size fish you are dealing with but DO NOT stay there and shake fish off. This will teach them to not hit your bait and ruin a potentially good spot. Catching a couple of fish will tell you what quality of fish you are dealing with, without educating them too badly.

I have only scratched the surface on what it takes to be a Boater and hope it has raised some questions as well as answered a few for those thinking of making the transition. I would truly only consider moving to the front after spending some time on the back deck. This allows you to fish from different brands and sizes of boats and helps you to decide what you really need when you do make the jump.

 Good luck with your move to the front deck. I look forward to seeing you on the water

Learn more about Don Wallingford at bassanglerdon.com