November/December 2005 Volume 1, Issue 4
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©2005 Tsunami Fishing Systems

  
Weekend Warrior Tactics

Got limited time for fishing? Here are some things to help maximize your odds of success. 
Background  |  Fishing Reports  |  Moon&Sun  |  Maps&Stuff  |  Put It Together  |  On the Water
n the "Good Old Days"...  I used to go fishing once or twice a week. My wife, who enjoys fishing but hates getting up early, would drive down to the lake at noon with lunch. We'd have a nice meal on the boat, and finish out the day on the water. 

But the appearance of our twins changed all of that. As we shifted from DINKs (Double Income, No Kids) to yuppie parents,

Joel's first fish
our life became dominated by school events, weekend sports, family get-togethers and such. These days, I'm lucky if I can get out more than once a month, and that trip has to be planned weeks in advance.


Joseph's first fish
Of course, anyone who has fished much knows the problem with this approach. Fishing is fishing, and while there are certain reliable seasonal patterns, it can be nearly impossible to predict with any degree of accuracy how the fishing will be on a particular day, weeks in advance.

Does this sound familiar? I would guess that a large number of OSJ readers are in the same boat (no pun intended). In this article we'll be looking at some of the resources available to weekend warriors for doing advanced planning, and discuss our strategy for trying to make it all come together offshore.

Of course, nothing is ever 100% guaranteed, but hopefully some of the things covered here will help improve your odds of finding and catching fish when you can't spend a lot of time on the water. And if you have suggestions or other ideas, by all means let us know...

Here's the general approach we use:

  • Make a preliminary choice of the best date(s) and time(s) to fish, and decide on target species and possible locations. This decision is based on historical seasonal patterns and past experience, taking into account moon, tide and solunar table information. Adjust the date to take into account travel time limitations, other activities like ongoing or pending fishing tournaments, and current fishing reports.

  • Starting the week before the trip, review daily the weather conditions, surface temperature and other maps, and fishing reports. Try to determine if there is an emerging pattern or trend.

  • Adjust the plan as required. Have an alternate plan ready in the event that the weather or other factors make our preferred plan unfeasible.

  • The above applies only to days we have to plan in advance. If we can get a free day of fishing, we go, regardless of what the above says.
In the sections that follow, we discuss sertain aspects of this process in more detail, then show how they come together in the end.

 
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