I'll start with the question, when your catching small fish, do you keep doing what your doing and jut try to cover a lot of water to find the big ones or do you switch up techniques?

I fished a small tournament yesterday and could only get the lil ones to bite. I pretty much stayed in one general area and kept switching up tactics. No limits were weighed in but there were 2 5lbers caught. Im thinking I should have just kept going and tried to cover more water. Usually im just happy to catch fish but in a tournament setting I was obviously trying to get keepers and I think mentally it made me question myself. Even though I was catching fish on most of the techniques

Catching small bass isn't a bad thing, it's a compliment to the general locality.

Bass travel no farther than necessary, so mature fish are generally closer than you might expect.

The most important difference in the location of juvenile and mature fish is 'water depth',

where larger fish typically inhabit deeper water within the same general vicinity (galaxy).

There are times and situations notwithstanding, when the tables may turn,

and mature bass will lie shallower than immature fish.

 

Roger,

If ya catching small bass it's cause ya fishing where same bass are!