Sometimes you just don't have time to really figure out what's going on and how to fine-tune your approach before a tournament starts. Maybe you arrived late and had a single day to practice. Or maybe the bite you were on yesterday vanished, and you have to start over. In any case, you suddenly have an urgent need to get on some fish, now.

Florida FLW pro Mike Surman knows the feeling. "It happens to me all the time, because I have another job and I often only get a few days of practice," he said.

Here, he offers some tips on how to contact bass in a hurry.

Cover Water

"I had exactly that situation today," Surman said when BassFan contacted him while he was fun-fishing at Lake Toho in late November. "I'm out on Toho right now and haven't been here in months, so I pretty much just went fishing and ran a lot of places. That's what I'd do in a tournament situation.

"We just had a few hours to fish. But we managed to find some pretty quickly, and then work them harder for bigger ones. We've actually had a pretty good day."

So, step by step, what approach does he apply for emergency fish-finding?

"The first thing you want to do is get a general clue as to where you think the fish should be and what they should be doing," he said. "You should decide where to start looking based on the season and weather and water conditions. For instance, in spring, they may be on vast spawning flats. In fall, they may be in the backs of creeks. In summer they may be on points.

"Once you pick a starting point, the main thing you need to do is cover water," he added. "And you need to use a lure that will get reaction bites. My favorite when the water's 7 feet deep or shallower is the Yo-Zuri Rattl'n Vibe (a lipless vibrating crank).

"It'll always catch fish, no matter the weather or time of year. You can fish it fast a lot of ways. You can pump and drop it, burn it, rip it out of grass, etc. You need a fast-moving bait to try to get one or two bites in an area. Once you do, then you try to dissect it to refine the bite. That's when I slow down and penetrate the cover more with other lures."

In deeper water he'll throw a jerkbait. "That's another good one for reaction bites," he noted. "In water 8 to 10 feet deep I'll use a jerkbait."

Any deeper than that and he'll go to a crankbait, again in the effort to cover water. "But usually, when I'm in trouble, I try to go shallower than 12 feet. You just cannot thoroughly cover deeper water very fast."

After he's fished an area for about 5 minutes without a bite, he picks up and moves. It might be 100 yards, or it might be a mile. He said he just stops at "the next spot that looks good" or where he thinks the fish ought to be.

"Once I catch some, I can run more areas like that to see if I can establish a pattern."

Contact! Then What?

Overall, Surman doesn't like to catch many fish in practice, but if he does get two or three bites on the Rattl'n Vibe, he might pick up a jig and try for a few more. He won't set the hook though.

"I try to start shaking (them off) almost immediately," he said. "I don't want to foul-hook one. I've done this long enough that I can get the feel almost right away and tell what quality they are.

"If I can get three or four decent bites in the area, I feel pretty confident about it. I won't fish it any more in practice. Instead, I'll go back in the tournament and figure it out further."

The only time he does stick one on the jig in practice is if he's catching only dinks on the fast lures. "If I get a couple 12-inchers on the 'Vibe, I may try a jig then and will set the hook to see if bigger ones bite the jig."

Fast Is Sometimes Best

Though most of the time Surman will slow down once he finds fish, there are other times when he stays in high gear.

"Many times you really need to fish fast," he said. "A lot of people do that wrong. The pros may cover 25 spots in a day while an average guy may fish just five or six. If the quality of fish hitting the fast lures is good, you should try to contact as many that way as you can.

"When I get in a jam, I put it in high gear, whether I'm in a tournament or not," he added. "Conditions change day to day, and you need to fish every day like it's a new day and try to figure them out in current conditions."

Notable

> Surman has a new favorite go-to bait for flipping up lunkers once he's settled down to dissect an area. It's the Gambler Flappy Daddy. "It's a crawfish bait with big flappers," he said. "I caught a 7-pounder and one near 6 pounds today on Toho with it."

> Sometimes he may try a spinnerbait along with the Rattl'n Vibe to cover shallow water, especially if the cover's prone to snag the open hooks on the crankbait.

> His best tournament finish in 2007 was 4th place at the Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Ouachita in August.