My first tournament as a pro was the recent northern open. I did terrible. No keeper bass on day one and only two 12"er's on day two. Throughout practice I was able to catch smallmouth consistenly and large ones at that. The largemouth bite was rough, but I had a few spots. I decided to fish smallmouth at first, and of course the bite shut down. I went to my largemouth spots only to find crabbers dropping traps along the ledge I wanted to fish. On day two I went back to the smallmouth and was able to catch two and then went to a ledge for some largemouth. Now at this point, I had no chance of fishing for money so it was all for fun now. I hooked and lost a very large largemouth, and missed a couple. It then dawned on me that I should've came to this spot early on day one and not waited. I probably could have competed. Hindsight is 20/20. I have been very upset with my performance all week and have been thinking about the should've could've why didn't I do this instead of that. I learned alot. Met some great people. And I can't wait to do it again.

As long as you learn from your mistakes  , you'll do well in the future.

x2 on the learning. It's not worth beating yourself up over it, the smallie spot could have payed off as easily as it didn't. As long as you had a positive experience and fun, it's well worth it.