Ran Out Of Time In Tournament

[smallieking]

This seems to happen to me quite often this year. I fish a lot of one day tournaments no practice. So I get eight hours to figure them out and beat my competition. This year though it seems like right in the last 30 min or so i will start getting them. Does this happen to anyone else?

Just this last Saturday had a tournament at a 20hp lake, well I entered it and had to just use my trolling motor since I can run my 150hp. Well I had the plan to start at the launch go towards the breast and when the tournament was half over cross the lake and start coming back on the opposite shoreline. Well five hours in not a bite. I used everything. Jig spinnerbait crank bait dropshot Texas rig Carolina rig jerk bait top water.... I had my boat completely ripped apart trying to get something together.. Well I caught one on a jig. Keep fishing it with no success. I had 20 min left in the day and I was directly across from the launch. I decided to try one last technique a super small finesse four inch shakyhead. Just like that I caught three fish in less than ten casts. Also caught two bass just under twelve inch length. Ran out of time and had to get back to weigh in. ...

[JayKumar]

A different approach is instead of switching techniques, stick with what you're most confident in for the conditions, and change areas and depths until you can catch 'em that way. The pros do this all the time.

[dustin11]

It happened in one tournament for me and my partner. We threw everything at them that catching a few small ones but no keepers. Then with 30 minutes left in the tournament we figured out that throwing a senko to the fish guarding fry on the bank would produce and caught 3 in those 30 minutes. We also missed a few more. That wasn't a fun tournament. We even pre-fished and caught a few keepers only a couple days before. We only fished for like 3 or 4 hours a few days before. But the fish changed in those few days and we couldn't figure the out.

[614-Bass]

Without practicing you make sure you really study several topo maps and google earth. This will allow you to eliminate unproductive water. Know the seasonal habits of fish and try to follow the path the fish are likely taking according to the time of year. Say the fish are in the summer pattern during your TX, find the best spawning flats where the fish were likely using not to long ago. From there look for good transitional areas using your contour lines that have a creek channel nearby. Points and breaks are good places to start. Remember points don't always have to be visual above water, if you can find offshore points and humps that aren't given away by the shoreline its likely they don't get as much pressure from the guys not doing their homework because they aren't obvious. On tournament day stick to your handful of areas you found from map study. Once you are there pay attention to your graphs. Remember fish are trying to survive they dont just hangout somewhere because they feel like it like humans. In order to survive they need food so use your graph to determine what spots have bait, also a hard bottom, and if you graph fish great but the bait and bottom composition is key. Instead of the old " i threw everything in the tackle box at em" approach, use techniques that you have the most confidence in to fit the type of water your fishing. For me i know i can catch fish on a C-rig when fishing for deep summer fish, if its a shallow grassy lake or one with alot of overhanging trees its a frog. This is important because you will know if the spot you are on is productive, if you aren't getting bit then move. once you start getting bites and locating fish then you can experiment and fine tune your presentation to increase the quantity and quality of your bites. Ill switch from the C-rig to a football jig often because i feel it catches more quality. For example the shaky head you picked up late would have been a good thing to start with because its know to get alot of bites, maybe not the size you need but once you locate the fish you might switch to a jig maybe to find size. Just remember its not about the bait, its about finding productive water first and then dialing it in with different techniques to match the forage the bass are eating. im no pro, in fact im only 19 but lately i have been having alot of success and this is what has worked for me. Good luck and i hope this helps you weigh in more fish come tournament day.

[buzzed bait]

I'd say it's fairly obvious what the problem is......   that Duke shirt in your avatar