Confidence, fishing to fast, and wrong presentation.

Example fished a spot on fork last week at 8pm threw topwater nonstop 0 bites, switch to carolina rig on the same area and catch like 5 in 5 minutes.

This is what seperates the good ones from the rest like me. Processing and making changes. Not after the facts. I usually come up with what I did wrong and what I should have done later. Doing it on the water is what makes the difference for the good ones.

I agree Red.I think too many anglers fish on memory.They hit a lake and go to a spot where they tore em up last year and assume they'll be there every time.If it's not happening,you have to make the move or some kind of adjustment right away, and go find some hungry fish.

wow, you guys hammer the fishing too fast deal...

so many folks I've seen fish TOO SLOW...fishing too slow limits your ability to find fish. You can always slow down after you've found some fish.

Fishing where the fish aren't is #1 to me...

I believe it is a combination of these all the time! Normally when i donate it is because i didn't crack the combination soon enough or at all. Fish fast, fish slow, fish shallow, fish deep, present it like this or that. All come into play its just figuring it out a little sooner and a little better than the rest of the field. I have a tendency to force feed the bite when so many times i could have really improved by making a subtle change. My 2 cents.

Have a game plan and stick to it. Always have more than one pattern and /or technique to fall back on. I see too many anglers who get off to a slow start and they just throw all there plans out the window. I have seen people just start cutting and re-tieing. Throwing everything in there box and wondering why they can't get bit. You have to have confidence in what your doing and make adjustments acording to current seasonal patterns and type of structure/cover you are fishing. Sometimes timing can come into play as well. I had a small club tourney on Sandlin a few years back and did not get bit till 1pm when a small cloud burst came through. I caught about a dozen fish real quick and it shut off in about 45 minutes. At the weigh in everybody who weighed caught most of their fish during the same small window of time. Several teams took shelter or were breaking for lunch during the storm and they struggled. I have had numerous tournaments where the fish just were not cooperating only to turn on in the 4th quarter. I just had to stay focused and be confident in what I was doing.
Oh, I also like fishing fast.

wrong spot no question.... if your in a spot with a school of fish you will get bit on nearly anything at least once.

One of the great things about Bass fishing in my mind is that the answer to this question is any of the three choices. I.e., wrong spot, wrong lure, or wrong technique.

Sort of like using a three legged stool. With out one of the three, it don't work right.

Perry

Its also about being in the right place at the right time when the fish decide to bite.

Your probably not holding your mouth right!

The right place is key but seems like ive never seen a fish caught at 50+ mph. pick your key spots and work them well.

not quite, usually what he will do is use search baits to find a concentration of fish, then when he gets a bite he will slow down and fish that particular area with a slower bait. But I have personally been at a tournament on the Arkansas River where KVD blanked and everyone else caught theirs on a tube

Fishing the wrong area is always a loser. Concentrating on the wrong part or depth of the cover you are fishing can mimimize your results. You can fish too fast or too slow to get good results. For example, sometimes they want a tube popped rapidly through the cover and other times slowly dragged from limb to limb. Even when there are a bunch of fish in the area they might real partial to a given type or color of plastic, for example, a tube that deflects, or a Baby Brush hog that swims or a bulky profile or a slender or smaller lure like a Trick or Finesse worm. That's why I think it usually helps to have two guys in the boat when trying to locate and figure them out.