Getting an edge on the rest of the tournament field is a must in todays competitive world of bass tournament fishing.

There is a simple and effective way to garner that extra edge. It's an informative tool that has been around for years and years, and it's called a topographical map.

Often called "topo" maps for short, good ones exist for most popular lakes and impoundments accross the country and can be found in nearby tackle shops or even ordered on-line.

Most maps are made before the body of water is dammed up, and most of them are quite accurate. Along with the use of a gps system, your topo map can just about do everything short of placing the bass in the livewells.

The topo map wont guarantee you will catch a heavy stringer, but it will guide you into the right directions and offer clues as to where the bass may be positioned and or living.

Your map will give you water depths, drop offs, hump locations, weed line edges, types of weeds, types of bottom contours and bottom composition, and most quality topo maps have gps coordinates listed right on the map.

Spending the night before the event studying your map and planning out your tournament strategy will make your attack that much easier. With a good knowledge of bass behavior, seasonal patterns, and the type of weather you will be facing during the tournament, you can use the topo map to pretty much pin-point the most logical places on the water that the bass will most likely be relating to.

Using a grease pencil to mark these key locations on the map, you will be ready to launch with your map route in hand. Shoot to each spot, reel em in, and move on to the next.

As we all know, in bass fishing there are no set rules or prescribed guidelines as to when where and how the bass will be. We generally depend on our knowledge to relate to the where-abouts and patterns of bass. Applying this knowledge to the map will direct us to the most likely spots the bass may be relating to.

It still boils down to your knowledge of the behaviors and seasonal patterns of the bass. knowing the seasonal patterns and behaviors of the bass for that specific time of year, geographical location of the body of water, and the many other variables that go along with bass fishing, and then applying it to the topographical map -- may just be the best tool in your boat next to the rod, reel, and line which the lure is attached to.

Mike Panek