Hi y'all,
I fished a High school tournament with a friend last week on Lake LBJ. We managed 17 fish boated that day but had just 1 keepers(2.5 pound). It was really fun catching fish but the lack of keepers was frustrating. We caught 4 dinks on 3.5 inch top waters and all but 1 out of 13 fish on drop shots(4.5-5 inch finesse worm) were dinks. Is this normal? We were fishing in the very northern river section of the lake almost close to the dam. We fished the mouth of the small coves and bridges in around 10 feet of water. What should we do next time to catch more keepers?
I'm guessing the our main 2 mistakes were fishing too shallow and to far upriver. Maybe we should have fish points on the main lake. What do y'all think?
I appreciate all information, thanks!

You’re going to get a lot of opinions, but the bottom line is it happens some times. Moving spots, changing depths and throwing bigger baits are what most obvious responses will be. But I caught 1 fish in 5 hours of fishing this past Tuesday...8 pounder in less than 5 feet. Took a buddy out to same body of water Saturday...fished that same area multiple times throughout day including same time I did Tuesday and got nothing on that spot. Wind was much stronger and it was cloudy as opposed to sunny which likely factored into things. However we did catch 30+ fish the rest of the day on other parts of the lake...biggest might have been 2 pounds. And this lake is a small lake.

Count your blessings that you’re able to get out and enjoy it. Sounds like you’re not a bad stick!

No such thing as to shallow or to far upriver. Put down the drop shot and throw real baits

Were you able to prefish and did you have reason to believe that the winning fish were in the area? The best advice I have heard is "you have to fish for winning fish". You fell into the easy trap of catching fish but not the size you needed to win, its hard to move on when catching fish but sometimes that is what you have to do. Experience is the big teacher to know when a move in location is needed or when a change in presentation will work.

I was able pre-fish but only caught 4 dinks/1 keeper during pre-fish at similar spots. Now that I think about it though, I've never caught small fish fishing deeper water. This may be a factor. I do agree that I should have tried some bigger worms and moved around more, maybe some 6/7 inch ones next time. Lastly is there no difference between the size of fish in the main lake and fish upriver? I do remember at least 3 of our fish were Guadalupe bass in the tournament.

The basses home is deep water! Prefers 30’ to 35’ Structure!

Should have tried some 12 inch jelly worms or a 8"+ swimbait

Lmao

“Most bass never go shallower than 10 feet”! buck Perry the legend not me!

Never? What about the spawn? I’ve heard of bass spawning in 10 fow in very clear lakes but not the norm for sure.

He's like a cat Dubee. If you just ignore him he'll eventually get bored and just go away.

Those two 7 pounders I'm holding were in 12 inches of water and caught on topwater. Actually all of them were caught on topwater and very shallow. LBJ is my favorite lake!!!

Sounds good. I'll get some bigger lures and try again

So what high school and what weight won the tournament?

sounds like the big ones are social distancing from your lures