So I fished a SE Region Texas BASS event on belton yesterday. The lake has large mouth and small mouth. I have some history on the lake, but decided to look at water I "Thought" would be good to fish. I couldn't pre-fish. I had spots to try based on Google earth imaging and map study.

Friday night a senior member of the club, who is a great guy, and in his 70's, asked me where I was going to fish. I told him that I wasn't sure......
he says "if it were me".....

A MAJOR CUE TO LISTEN TO A GUY THAT WEIGHS A SACK OR CLOSE TO AT EVERY TOURNAMENT.....

"I'd go to where I caught 'em before and try my luck...."

It seems obvious, but it's a challenge to set aside what you THINK and listen to a guy who KNOWS......

Anyway, the lesson here is have the sense to stay disciplined and fish strengths in a tournament before trying new water and new baits....five for the ride is always a good starting point for any tournament.

This is obvious to experienced tournament anglers. I am only three or so years in the game and it's still all new to me.

My experience early was I got caught listening too much to others or reading too much both took me away from what I knew because my mind was so full of outside influence. One thing that can't be replaced is personal knowledge you gain and in turn you have confidence. Not to say that others don't have knowledge/information that can be used at a time but not before you test it for yourself and not get caught up in a moment. LOL this is how you accumulate tackle that you probably would never try.

Dock talk will ruin a fishing day.

Best lessons are learned on the water, I try not to listen to all the chatter

Don't try and catch other's fish, never works out.

You will find in time that CONFIDENCE, is the greatest influencer of success in fishing. Nothing builds confidence better than trial and error. I'm not saying that you should disregard everything that more experienced anglers say. I'm saying learn how to incorporate their advice, with what you know. You will go broke relying totally on dock talk ,or other peoples point of view real quick. It's a easy trap to step in to ,and hard to get away from.

Dock talk might work 1% of the time. Me personally I don’t wanna hear anything. You already have enough second guessing going on unless you’re doing great

All of the responses just confirm what I wrote

So I went back to where I caught fish in the past and got my 5. The new water I fished didn't produce. I found that what I thought would be good wasn't good for different reasons. At the end of the day it worked out. Thanks for all of the input.

What he said.. It's poison...

I try to keep to my own and find my own. It’s hard to knock off the chatter sometimes especially if what you’ve been doing is working but I just feel like I’m fishing the same’ol used water if I’m just doing what everyone else is doing. I try to fish the conditions and what makes sense at the time, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. That’s what’s great about fishing and trying to figure it out.

I was too at Belton fishing the Nation tournament and finally had a good finish this season. Catching an 8lber early certainly helps though... lol

That was a pig. I[align:center][/align] saw you at the tanks.....nice work. You did well. I had my best finish of the year by far.