Fishing With Kenny

Fishing requires more preparation than one would think. Kenny explains how he prepares and stays fit for a full day on the water.

article by KENNY COVINGTON

In fishing, just as in life, there are no shortcuts to success. All of the better fishermen I know have one thing in common, experience and time on the water. But more than just knowing how to locate and catch bass, these fishermen have all paid their dues when it comes to being successful on and more importantly, off of the water.

A lot of preparation goes into being successful. In fishing, the most important aspects of a tournament, or even a weekend trip to your favorite lake, begins with what you do before you ever hook up to your boat. A businessman wouldn’t go to a meeting without the proper reports and paperwork needed to have a productive meeting. Fishing is no different, the better you prepare, the more successful you will be.

For this article let me clarify, I do not believe in the word “luck.” I never have. I do believe through proper preparation and the opportunities that present themselves, things can happen that allow you to have more successes, creating good luck, some of which can be explained and some that can’t. Bad luck is usually the result of human error, laziness or bad preparation, not the fate of the fish gods as people would have you believe. Fishing is a learned art, luck has little or nothing to do with it.

By now you may be asking yourself, “How does a person go about preparing to fish?” First, let’s start with ourselves as fishermen. We now live in a health conscious society, and people are getting into better shape at a later age and are staying that way for longer periods of time. Fishing is a sport that requires stamina, endurance, mental and physical toughness, all of which can take its toll on you. Tournament fishing or just long days on the water can be much harder on your body than people who don’t fish would believe.

My off-the-water prep begins with a basic exercise routine. I try to walk a minimum of one mile every day. This helps with my cardio vascular system, stamina and endurance. I do not sit down while I fish and I do believe walking consistently gives my legs the strength needed to fish the way I do. While fishing for a few hours on a morning trip, exercising may not be as beneficial to you, but if you fish 10-hour days in the heat of the summer like I do, I believe it gives me an added advantage.

As I have gotten older I have learned the importance of stretching and doing some other basic exercises. My wrists, elbows, and shoulders play a major role in my effectiveness as a fisherman, so I try to be more and more aware of loosening them up before I make my first cast. Leg stretches, wrist and shoulder exercises are one reason I believe I haven’t missed any tournaments due to fishing related injuries.

So now that we have addressed the physical aspect of our preparation what about the mental aspect of the sport? Here are a few suggestions that can help you gain confidence in your approach to fishing any body of water. Before you head to the lake of your choice, even if you are intimately familiar with it, you should use Google Earth, Google and YouTube to your advantage.

Google Earth will allow you to research any given body of water you are going to fish. You can look at the lay out of the lake, the visible cover, shorelines, and virtually any other aspect you would need to help you understand the lake you are fishing. A few years ago I won a tournament on a lake I had never seen before based solely on the information I gathered by looking at the lake from Google Earth maps. Time spent researching a lake is just as good as spending a day on a body of water looking around.

The whole purpose of Google is to research and find information. This has become a valuable tool for me in my fishing. I can find lake reports, hard to find lures, articles on new techniques or any other fishing related research I am doing. Google is my starting point when I begin to gather information on a lake I have never been to before or if I am trying to learn more about a new technique. It’s a major time saver with all the information a fisherman could ask for right at their fingertips.

Videos found on YouTube about fishing number in the hundreds of thousands. Then you can narrow your search for fishing videos down to a technique, lake, season, time of year, water temperature or any other variable you can think of. If you are looking for it, chances are there is a video made about it. When you are trying to learn any aspects of fishing YouTube can be your best friend.

The rest of my off-the-water preparation is mostly tackle related. I am fanatical about having the correct hooks, the right size line, the proper rod being used for the technique being used and any other aspects that I feel are important to my success on the water. The goal is to make sure I have everything coordinated and leave very little room for error. Control the variables you can control and those you can’t control, at least try to prepare for them.

I have studied the sport of bass fishing and the bass itself, since I was a kid. I am always trying to find new techniques or new ways to become a better fisherman. I use to spend hours on the water casting a spinnerbait or a crankbait, and exploring what was around the next bend of the creek bank. Now, while I still fish a lot, I spend a lot of time at my computer doing research looking for that new “something” that will give me an advantage over my competition. Becoming a better bass fisherman is a never- ending process, even when I am off of the water.

Well it looks like we have run out of space and time for another month. I hope I have given you some information that you can use before your next trip on the water. Be careful, enjoy the beauty Mother Nature provides for us and catch one for me. See you next month!