Quote Originally Posted by Bassinsince98 View Post
Firstly I'd like to say thank you for the advice it really means a lot to me. I've fished tournaments at big places like barren and cumberland and small places like woods creek and lake linville. I guess my main issues are the "tournament mentality" and probably changing baits too often. I do love fishing and won't be giving it up altogether but the tournaments for my team are surprisingly competitive and can leave me a bit disappointed. My next tournament is at Dale Hollow and I'm hoping to catch my first smallie there but I know there are somethings different about how to catch them any advice would be much appreciated. I am very thankful to be a part of the community and the forum. Thank you very much for your help,I'll be using your advice soon.
All the advice so far is SPOT ON.......

And I especially like the advice about sticking to a few specific types of baits at first, and become really comfortable with them. If you gain confidence in them, you WILL catch fish.

I will share a story from a past trip. I have a buddy that fishes with me all the time. On past trips, even though he was fishing the same water as me and the same amount of time, I'd tell him he was fishing about 50% of the time I was fishing. I figured this based on the fact that he would tie on about 10 baits to my one bait. He would literally tie on every bait he had, trying to find that Magic Bait.

Take 4-5 poles, tie a different type bait on each one, AND then FISH, and FISH HARD. Only change if you know they are not working. If you catch fish on a bait, it will CATCH FISH. Don't waste time trying something else. Obviously, take this with a grain of salt, but the next bait in your tackle box may not work any better than what you already have tied on, and if you dig in your box, and tie something else on, that takes time. Do that a hundred times in the day and you've wasted maybe a few hours of time. In a 10 hr day, that may be 20% of the time.

I told my buddy a few trips ago that I had EXCLUSIVE VETO power over any bait he wanted to tie on. He'd show it to me and I vetoed 90% of the baits, which kept him in the water much longer, which also meant he caught more fish. MORE fish on this trip than the previous 10..........

It makes a difference.

I hope this helps.

Later,

Geo