Fisher_King:

If your new to Tourney fishing, your best way to learn would be to join a local Bass club in your area. Most Clubs will take anyone who is interested in Bass fishing and willing to pay the yearly club fee, (usually the club fee is under $50-$100), and the Tourney fees. You will gain experience (priceless knowledge) AND learn your local lakes if you go this route.

Here is a club you could join. They take non-boaters- http://central-indiana-bassmasters.com/3.html

However, if you decide to just “go for it” and sign up for a local Tourney anyway, (without any prior Tourney experience) you will lose, (period). Understand, there are people who have dedicated their LIVES to Bass fishing, have spent $1000′s on tackle, boats, outfits and know the local lakes like the back of their hand. When you sign up for a tourney THOSE are the kind of people you will be competing against……..

Bottomline- If you decide to enter an expensive tournament, without prior tournament experience, your throwing your entry fee money away……

Joining a local Bass club is more fun AND “cheaper”! (lol)

Hope this helps ya?

PS- I’m not trying to intimidate or discourage you I’m trying to give you the best advice I can.

UPDATE: Unmamfql- How do you “call” a lake? (teasin ya!)

Not every Lake has a local bait & tackle or resident resort you can call to get reliable info on Bass fishing.

And if they DO have a B & T or resort on any given lake, most likely they will already have alliance’s with other T-fisherman to only give “basic info” to a complete stranger. (Not to mention, in many cases, local B & T stores will have much more info on other species of fish, (Crappie, Bluegill, Catfish, Etc), than Bass because they sell more bait to those type customers.)

Basic info will only get you “general results”. Pre-fishing is the only way to gain concrete knowledge for a Tourney……

And pre-fishing requires a boat and knowledge on how to establish a “pattern”.

‘Course you could learn all kinds of ” local hot-spots” when you join your local Bass Club. As a non-boater you are teamed with a boater. Nine times out of ten the boater will
already know the lake you are fishing and have knowledge of the pattern you need to be fishing to place or win.

Anywho- Not trying to pick a fight Unmamfql! I just know T Bass fishing quite well and saw some holes in your argument. Unmam is actually correct- You COULD enter a T and smoke the doors off everyone! However, the “odds” of you doing this are slim to none. Thumbs up Unmam!