On Water Decision Making

The last couple of weeks of practice for local events have been good or so I thought.  I have been catching decent numbers and also I have been able to catch the all important 'kicker' to scratch out a really decent bag if I could just put the two together on game day no issues.  That last statement was just the issue as a matter of fact, I just couldn't seem to put the two factors together to win an event.  I have a couple of spots which are kicking out some really nice fish and I have a few more which always seem to put out some decent numbers but community hole doesn't even start to sum up how I feel about some of those spots so I found myself lingering around my honey holes too long to even have the opportunity to win.  Riverside Marine hosted their last regular season event two weekends ago and I took 3rd simply because of the aforementioned problem in my head.  By second guessing too long to fish effectively later in the day I hindered my ability to close the deal.  This happened again the Tuesday after in a really small event I fished just because I was so pissed about how I performed on Saturday.  With the help of a good friend of mine, William Underwood, I kinda got a lesson on 'game day' decision making this last Sunday in a decent size event of 70 boats or so.  We fished the honey holes for a couple of kickers and then burned some gas doing a milk run spot to spot following instinct and avoiding the 'weekend warrior' spots just fishing what felt right until we ran into some fish no one else was on here and there.  I cannot stress enough how not wasting time helped us win the event.  We did our homework ahead of time and quit worrying about how much gas we were burning or who or how many might be on the spot once we got there, we strategically went about our business efficiently as possible not wasting any time second guessing baits or angles of approach or waiting for fish to get active.   What I learned and kinda already new but was maybe over thinking it was put in your time behind the trolling motor well ahead of time and come to the ramp ultra prepared.  Have your rigs out and knots checked well before your number is called.  Know exactly, EXACTLY where you are going to run to and if it is crowded there don't fumble around, run to the next spot.  Know how long you are going to spend on any given spot before heading to the next and how long before you revisit the same spot again before it may reload.  Oh and also "William will appreciate this" know how much oil is in your tank the night before!!