What is your ritual? How do you decide which direction? What do you tell yourself? Let's share some "launch" talk..

I always start with a prayer

I usually head north almost all the time <-- just a habit I guess

I tell myself I am going to exercise new methods while sticking to my old methods if things get shakey and almost all the time just stick to my usual regardless of that small mind pep talk

I follow the guys that are catching fish and just roll up next to them.

First I lose the guys that are following me. Then I check the wind and water clarity. That will help tell me where the bait fish are. Find the bait find the bass. Then I go and punch the lake in the mouth......or try to!

I patiently sit and wonder where I'm going to go not catch fish first, as I sit boat 148 in a 149 boat field... in like every friggin tournament.

Have a plan in place prior and stick with it. Prefish will also help with decisions. The Weather, wind, cloud cover, etc will help making your decision. A good prayer and go.

I have a plan in mind from what I heard the fish were biting on at the local gas station. Then I listen to dock talk and get conflicting reports so I start changing all the lures I had tied on to start with and normally miss my boat number. Then in a rush I hammer down inside the no wake zone bouncing everyone else waiting for their number into the docks/other boats. By that time im so flustered I run to the nearest dam or rip rap bridge and start throwing a jig, get hung up, break off, retie, rinse and repeat several times.

I go to the area with the closest restroom, because as soon as I get my first cast in I will have to take a dump like clockwork! Anyone else have this problem? Get up 5 hours before a tournament but it never fails!

my camping potty is a life saver....or pants saver....

I head to where I found bites in prefishing.

From what I've seen at Fork, a typical tournament day goes like this.

Everyone drives 6,000 rpms from take off to their first spot. If the fishing is slow, they all do it again about an hour later. If fishing is good, this second "launch" typically happens 2.5-3 hours after the first. If it's an hourly tournament, there will be 20-30 guys running 6,000 rpms to weigh-in every hour, then 6,000 rpms back to their spot (or next spot since someone is probably on "their spot") by now. Then about 15-30 mins before final weigh-in, everybody runs 6,000 rpms back to the ramp. An hour or two later, the fish start biting good.

Except that 20-30 guys every hour weigh-in is closer to 100+ in Mega bass and Sealys

Back in my tournament fishing days I usually backed the boat down the ramp with the windows down and George Thorogood's "Bad To The Bone" was up about as loud as it would go. My son made a CD of fishing songs which included Brad Paisley's "Gee, I'm gonna miss her" and several others. He gave copies to everyone in the club. It was a rip as to what was on when guys launched.

Now that's some funny stuff , here's what we do and it always happens never fails , night before we plot out four or five spots all within the same side of the lake , we decide how long we are going to stay on them , baits going to use etc , as the numbers are called out we notice everyone going towards the other side , our number is called what do we do red line to the other end of the Lake .

Dang, now I know why I win so much .... You guys suck!

Yes and I'm the one at 149