What would you do in this situation, that might result in upgrading your catch?

This weekend I prefished a tournament on Nolin River here in KY.  The lake is really deep and has lots of standing timber.  At the end of the day I had 4 keepers in the boat weighting about 6.5lbs. after culling my slot fish about half a dozen times.  I caught plenty of 14 in. fish, but I never had one cross that magic 15in. mark.  I caught most of my fish, cranking a crankbait through vertical timber over about 20ft. of water.  I was using a 300series bandit.  After finding plenty of fish, I began scouting the lake for other ways to maybe upgrade my catch.  I worked jig-n-pigs around rip-rap rock points and still managed only the smaller slot fish.  Boat docks didn't produce anything either.  The water up the lake was kinda clear (visibility about 2ft).  Toward the dam visibility increased to about 8ft.

Topwater, spinnerbaits, and texas rig, all produced about the same, with the crankbait far out fishing the rest.  In the morning, fish were easily caught throwing a sinko to individual trees.

What would you do to increase your chances of possibly filling the livewell with some bigger fish?

-Thanks

Upgrade your bait size this will weed out some of your smaller fish. Next find some stained to slightly muddy water this will push the fish shallow and narrow down the areas the fish will use. To narrow your search more locate key areas that are unique to the surrounding areas. Use a two step approach first find the prime areas then fish them in the prime times of the day. Make sure your in the right areas slowing down and really fishing hard kinda picking it apart in the morning, afternoon and late afternoon. I try to breeze through the areas in the morning as I try to put together a limit then in the afternoon go back through the areas with a fine tooth comb. The stained water helps cover up angler mistakes.

You might try to find one tree that is different from the rest, like it's isolated or something different and that's where the big fish usually holds.

It's not "when big fish won't bite" it more of learning what it takes to get them to bite and where you will find that bite.  You've gotta remember, the reason the fish got big, they don't bite just anything that comes by them, they've seen most of it too many time.  You've also got to realize they don't usually hang out in the same areas as the smaller fish

There's a totally different mind set for catching big fish than for catching fish.   Tournament fishing is not the best time to learn, under the pressure of needing to boat fish.    One of the best things under those conditions is to be a backseater and pay attention to what the guy in front is doing.

Big fish are just hard to constantly catch. When you are going for big fish you will want to use some bigger lures. Since you are using bigger lures the fish can easily find the mistakes and won't bite. If you use smaller lures then the fish will find fewer mistakes, but the little fish will also eat it.

I would have stayed with a black and blue jig all day, with a crawdad trailer.

And I would have fished slow slow, and around all the timber (structure) I could have found.

May I ask what other tournaments yield on these same waters.  Are other fishermen consistently weighing good stringers?  What is considered to be a money stringer?  8lbs, 10, 15, 17, 20+?  Slot lakes are created for a reason.  What is your slot?  With a few more pieces of the puzzle, maybe we can figure it out.  This is the time of the year bass love to feed.  

Thanks,

Sound like some really great post have been made, I will definately consider them.  Yeah, other anglers are pretty much always weighting in pretty good stingers.  I would consider the money stringer for this lake to be about 15lbs.

You can have all the spots you want for 12in. a piece.  Then Larrys and Sallys are 15in. a piece with the exception of one that can be 12in.

Maybe this will help

Thanks Everyone!

its also what time the bite is for that day. and being there at the right time.

a great book in learning to catch big bass, is "In Pursuit of Giant Bass" by Bill Murphy.