We fished a tournment yesterday on Pines (we did not fish North). We pre-fished four times in January and never really found consistent quality fish. We did find key spots that we felt would be good areas. We put together our strategy, which required alot of running around. On our second spot yesterday, the water temp was 60 degrees and the fish were chasing shad in about a foot of water. We caught over 30 fish in this area. The fish were all the same size, between 14 and 16 inches long. We stayed there for most of the day, expecting bigger fish to move up so we could upgrade. This did not happen and we ended up catching a bunch of fish and had a blast but we did not place in the tournament. My questions are:
1. Do you move after getting five and look for bigger fish?
2. How long do you give an area before moving on in these types of situations?
3. I am assuming that these fish were males. How far back to the females stage?

I am playing arm chair quarterback this morning and going through my "we should of did this..." phase.

This time of year, I would have moved lookinf for a kicker fish or two. If I am catching keepers in one spot I will stay until I have my limit, then I will move. The females will stage on the first drop from the flat. Look at your graph and you should see the girls on the drops.

Don't have anything to add as I just started Tourney fishing, but will be following this post to help develop my strategy.

I am in the same boat with you just starting to tourny fish. First light I go for big fish on topwaters if the bite is there. I then focus on at least getting a limit and then work for the bigger fish. I have been in your shoes a few times found bass schooling from 10-15 inches I stayed with the them until I had my limit and picked off one good fish. Its hard to leave schooling fish because it is fun.

Exactly. +1

Once you spent a decent amount of time and they all are the same size then you need to move. Either in or out or to another spot.

Exception might be if you have waited them out before and had reason to assume the bigger fish would move in.

We are new to tournament fishing too. This is our second year and we want to do a better job of having a game plan as well being more versatile. Although they were fun to catch and we had a limit, we should have moved out looking for bigger fish. It was a good learning experience and I appreciate the input. Thanks.

Doesn't sound to me like you found males that were moved up but rather schooling/feeding fish. A lot of times those schoolies run about the same size chasing the same bait.

just Go Fishing and have fun, the rest will fall into place ...

First before going I would have put on bigger baits to see if the smaller fish were not just getting the bait first,second were you close to a spawning area or were the fish just following the bait. thats a big factor.

I'm older now but for 20 yrs I was either prefishing a tournament or fishing a tournament...I fished about 3-4 days a week. I always prefished with the intention of developing a 'milk run' during the tournament. I'd have stayed with that spot a good while though. You did well in choosing a starting spot.

Pretty much. You see alotta guys sayin boats
Were on holes 1 2 3 in thier plan. So th ey
Just went fishin and end up winning it all.

Plannin/prefishin csn hurt. Being stuck
In your history can kill you when you need
To adjust.

In this situation I would left after a limit
And a few fish after the limit were all the same size.

Thanks for the info! Very Helpful!

Everyone second guesses themselves after a tournament. That is mostly what my partner and me talk about on the drive home. The grass is always greener on the other side. Like Doug said, Go fish and have fun.

Riding with the Pro's in the TTBC the last three years everyone has one thing they say. That's you need to pay attention to what the fish are telling you and build on that. Second they say don't get caught up too much in dock talk and fish your strengths during the tournament. Practice can be for experimentation.

My .02 cents. But what i have learned is a go for broke attitude. I figure someone is gonna have big fish and someone always does just like your tourney yesterday. I figure i need 5 bites and i fish for 5 big fish. I use bigger baits or in your case the bigger females were staged a little deeper and haven't quite moved up. Thats where you electronics pays off. Look at it as a learning experience and keep on trying. Keep a journal with water temp where you fished what you caught them on after several years you will have a journal that tells you the condition you have and you have a starting point.

if it were me i would have moved after i figured out that you weren't upping you catch with bigger fish, but before i did that i would have changed up my approch to see if the bigger fish were there and just doing something else.

Many times i have caught lots of "schooling" fish, very active keying in one one bait and size espcially this time of year, and changed baits isn the same spot and caught the biger fish.

One prime example was i was catching fish like that actively on white smaller baits , these fish no doubt were chasing shad, which is how i found them.

I switched to a chart/orange/blue spinnerbait that was much larger and loaded the boat with fish from 3.5-6lbs. The bigger females were chasing the brim off their beds, and hitting my big bait representing a brim.

i would have also slowed way down with a big jig too, to see if the bigger fish would have picked them up..

I would make sure that the bigger fish weren't there just doing something else first, since you were on active fish.

If nothing then i would have moved looking for bigger bites.

I got in a rut for a while fishing a shakey head during tournaments. I would come in with 5 usually but never win any money. After getting beat so many times I realized I wasn't fishing for anger of the year points, I was fishing for the 5 biggest fish I could catch. After that I started using bigger baits and catching bigger bass thus cashing more checks. You gotta go for broke, most of the time.
Also you have to keep in mind what lake you are fishing. Five keeper fish isn't going to win you squat at the pines but it may put you in the money on another lake

Any time you get your five then you are money ahead of many teams so take that as an accomplishment.

The best advice I ever listened to was to ask myself, "am I fishing for winning fish?" If I am not, then I need to move on.