The pros fish vastly different lakes over the course of a year and because of that have to adjust even before they get to the next lake. For example, they might have just fished a reservoir and the next tournament is on a natural lake. Or the maximum depth in one lake, like Okeechobee, might be 6 feet whereas in another lake it's 50 feet.
Another thing the pros have to consider is what type of bass they're going to target. At lakes like St. Clair and Champlain, smallmouths are the predominant fish -- a vastly different situation from all the other lakes the pros fish.
In the following, Kentucky pro Mike Auten gives BassFans a few tips on how he makes the mental transition from largemouths to smallmouths.
Fish More Water
"With smallmouths, you know you're going to have to cover a lot more water," he says. "Smallmouths have holding spots and feeding spots, and usually they just move up to feed.
"I'll pull up on a spot and fish it for 10-15 minutes. If I don't get a bite, I'll leave. Usually, they're so aggressive that if they're there you should get a bite in the first few accurate casts.
"So you move around a lot more when fishing for smallmouths," he says.
More Spots
Related to that is the "largemouth mentality," he says. "You think you can go back and catch fish at the same spot. But smallmouths move around a lot. For example, they're chasing bait that the wind has moved."
Still, that doesn't mean that the smallmouths aren't in the area. "They might not leave a hump," he says. "They just might move to a different part of it."
What and Where Changes
"Bait selection also is a bit different," Auten says, meaning size, type and color. Brightly-colored spinnerbaits and jerkbaits are the rule, even in the typically clear water smallmouths inhabit.
Also, instead of being flipped to shallow cover as is done for largemouths, tubes are fished deep -- and in fact that's one of the few instances where structure is fished deep for smallmouths, he says.
"Usually you burn spinnerbaits or fish jerkbaits over humps. The water is so clear they will come out of 25 feet to get it. You're still fishing deep structure, but you're not fishing the lures deep," he notes. "You're fishing the 5 feet of water at the top of the water column."
