Pro tips on how to plan your next trip – no guarantees, but at least better odds!

I just had an angler tell me that he’s going fishing on a certain date at a certain lake, and it hit me that I’ve been planning my fishing trips for many years in a completely different way! I base my trips on all the various factors I can gather before pulling the trigger.

Yes, you can call it operating by the “seat of my pants” – I prefer to call it instinct and how my decision process has evolved. Why waste precious time fishing bad conditions when you could be pivoting to a better option? I know that there can be real-life restrictions on time options, but maximizing every trip and hour on the water is the goal.

So how does this internal process work? I’m feeling the need to hit the water and it usually begins with me pulling up the overall general weather forecast. I’m looking out as far as two weeks for patterns where the weather is stable for more than a day or so. There are usually a couple of open windows like that. I evaluate how good each of these windows is and if they are before or after cold fronts, wind events or a full moon – I don’t want to be too close to hard changes.

Now I’ve got some fishing dates that look good, and it’s on to the next step: confirmation. I call some of my active fishing buddies who know what they’re doing to get their take:

“So, John, do you think that Saturday is still a good day?” I ask. I might hear that John is making the same plans. Or, I might hear, “Well, you know that the lake has gotten stained by new inflow and it’s kind of turned off the bite. It might be good to go a few days later.” I just saved myself a bad trip and I’m going to move out a few more days before I go!

Next is making sure you are on the right path as far as depth, bite, lures, colors and areas. I get guys calling me from the lake all the time, asking for some ideas on what I would recommend as far as lures, best areas and tactics. I’ll do the same. No one knows it all, and it’s impossible to cover all your options and how well they work, so ask for help! In particular, I call anglers who just finished fishing to find out the latest before I go the next day.

This whole dance leads to a fishing trip where you feel like you have turned over every stone, but it’s no guarantee. At least I’ve worked to set the odds in my favor.

Never give up!