I would agree that going for a limit first is a good strategy. It takes pressure off just catching that first one. It's always great to get a couple kicker fish first thing. Then we're back to the start of this post though. If the bite dies off, what do you do? Sometimes going for broke pays off with a good fish. But that isn't going to happen all the time. Sometimes you need to scratch just a few extra pounds. We have all seen tournaments where one more pound would have made the difference. I personally think that winners put numbers of fish in the boat an a regular basis. The one that gets a good fish here and there isn't going to have as much success in the long run.

This sport is always a gamble because you can only have one rod in your hand at a time. We have all questioned our decisions and wondered if we would have been better off doing something else. That's why experience in different baits during different situations takes winners to the top regularly. It takes more guess work out of the equation.  Here's the equation..

Right bait+right time+right presentation+confidence = fish (x 5) = Consistent winning

Well if you only have one "really good" technique, then you shouldn't be fishing tournaments. I think this thread was for guys that are past that point and have several techniques they can use.  If not they can't answer the original question because they only can catch fish one way in the first place.....

Thanks guys for the replies,

All good answers for different situations on different bodies of water.

My two answers are to first change presentations and then move to new water and look for some piece of water that worked for you earlier just in a different location. Take Potholes for example since we are all fishing it in the next month or so. On friday the 8th I found tons of willing smallies, but couldn't find the largies in the dunes to save my bacon. So what did I do, well I gave it some deep thought and changed my presentations on saturday in the same types of  water that I fished on friday and it worked. Caught over 18lbs.

Now you say that was a prefish and I agree, those fish might not be there next week, so those are the risks that I take. But with the air temps dropping this week, I believe my pattern will hold just fine anywhere that I find the conditions that I had found earlier.

Thanks again for the great discussion I believe we all learned a ton from the responses. I will post a similiar puzzling question next week so hang on.

Russ