Folks,

This summer my buddy and I are doing a handful of tournaments.

The first could are 4 fish combined and later 8 fish combined.

In talking to most of the guys, they tend to fish for limit, then look bigger.

I understand this thought, but seems one should be looking large during prime time conditions.

At least one should?

Am I wrong?

What is the length limit ?

That's my exact thought process, get a limit fast, and try to upgrade from there. I just feel it takes alot of pressure off of me to have a full livewell, regardless of size. Then I can "relax" more, and focus on upgrading. 

24 minutes ago, scaleface said:

What is the length limit ?

12"

I like to   fish for quantity and quality . Catch as many fish as i can and  hope some kickers   show up but this is with a fifteen inch keepers .

15 hours ago, Dtrombly said:

That's my exact thought process, get a limit fast, and try to upgrade from there. I just feel it takes alot of pressure off of me to have a full livewell, regardless of size. Then I can "relax" more, and focus on upgrading. 

This

16 hours ago, Dtrombly said:

That's my exact thought process, get a limit fast, and try to upgrade from there. I just feel it takes alot of pressure off of me to have a full livewell, regardless of size. Then I can "relax" more, and focus on upgrading. 

I fish high school tournaments year round.It probably doesn't mean as much coming from someone younger than you but maybe this helps. That's exactly what I do. It takes a lot of pressure off so you can focus on those giants. Even when fishing for quantity I get big bites.

I fished a tournament last weekend at Pick wick and the length had to be 15 inches. I was catching 12s 13s and caught a lot of 14 and a halves.. That's my luck though.

When I started tourney fishing- it was all about getting 5 in the boat and then looking for kickers.

It wasn't until later that my experience would allow for me to fish for 6-7 bites a day but make sure they were the right ones.

 

Early on, I never had the patience or the confidence that I could get 5 quality fish on 6 or 7 bites.

After the first hour or 2 without a keeper, I would let the pressure get me scatterbrained.

Run here because there was a good lay down, run over there and fish a weed edge I caught em' on before or just hit the bank tossing lots of lures around at any type of cover without any real rhyme or reason.

 

When I started to improve, so did my tourney results.

 

Now, I can fish for those 6 or 7 bites a day knowing that will give me the best chance at cashing a check.

I also have the confidence to not get spun out if I go stretches without getting bit.

I can also make better decisions before hitting the water based on practice patterns as well as lake and weather conditions.

 

 

To me it depends. If I know some good fish are more aggressive later in the day I'll go for a limit early and try and cull later. If it's a good morning bite I'll do the opposite. This weekend I'm fishing a tourney on a lake I've never fished with no practice. So I'm just gonna try and catch 5 then go flip bushes hoping for a homerun. Just try not to lose too much ground in the aoy standings

1 hour ago, BassNJake said:

When I started tourney fishing- it was all about getting 5 in the boat and then looking for kickers.

It wasn't until later that my experience would allow for me to fish for 6-7 bites a day but make sure they were the right ones.

 

Early on, I never had the patience or the confidence that I could get 5 quality fish on 6 or 7 bites.

After the first hour or 2 without a keeper, I would let the pressure get me scatterbrained.

Run here because there was a good lay down, run over there and fish a weed edge I caught em' on before or just hit the bank tossing lots of lures around at any type of cover without any real rhyme or reason.

 

When I started to improve, so did my tourney results.

 

Now, I can fish for those 6 or 7 bites a day knowing that will give me the best chance at cashing a check.

I also have the confidence to not get spun out if I go stretches without getting bit.

I can also make better decisions before hitting the water based on practice patterns as well as lake and weather conditions.

 

 

^^^^ This has been my experience .... well written.

 

I have had those days that the bite never showed up but that is fishing.

I am in it to win it.