Pre-fishing

As I near the end of my residency (only 1 month left ) and the return to a semi-normal life, I hope to once again start fishing tournaments. Here is my question for you experienced pros: what is your approach to pre-fishing? I have found this to be one of the most frustrating aspects of fishing tournaments for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the lack of correlation I have had between pre-fishing and tournament day(s). With few exceptions, my best tournaments have come on waters that I either did not have a chance to pre-fish or I did pre-fish and it went badly. Conversely, when my pre-fishing goes great and I think that I’m going to set the world on fire, the day is often a flop. That tells me I’m not taking the right approach and or lack the knowledge/ sophistication to make good “game day” adjustments! Second, I never really have gotten a feel for when to lay off of fish that I want to save for a tournament. I love catching ’em, and the idea of leaving active fish so I can come back and (most often not) catch them during a tournament is a little tough for me to swallow. Any input you all have would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Steve

P.S. Congratulations Blue!!

You can’t go hooking all your fish in practice.
I like to let the fish swim out and try to get a peek at him without setting the hook. If you are going down a bank and catch a 3lb fish on a dock you can assume there might be more 3lb fish under the set you are checking. don’t go an hook them to find out.
He is what you should be doing. Go to an area, figure out the size by sticking one or 2. From there get an idea how the rest are using that area. Then comes the most important part. What will they do with pressure, sun, rain, raising or falling water. What is the forage base doing? Are there preditors dictating the bass location and such. You seem to be able to locate some good schools in practice and tourney day do there and figre out where they are if not where you lefdt them and then figure out what it will take to put the big ones in your boat.
jc

How close to the tourney would you feel comfortable with the fish staying in the same area? I mean, if you found them the weekend before, would you feel comfortable with the fish remaining in the area for the next week, given little water level fluctuation, and it being a time of year after post spawn? Or would you only trust 2 or 3 days ahead of time?

Never know. You have to go get a carry the day prior if you can and if you don’t get bumped figure out where they went.
jc

Prefishing is cool because I get to stay at my friends’ houses & eat their food .

Honestly, what I learn before a tournament while prefishing is what they’re bitting and relating to at that time which tends to carry over to tournament day.

Thanks ,

I know when I prefish I usually do a lot of running. I dont like to stay in one place to long.One thing and I agree with Jeremy I dont like to stick alot of fish.Maybe 1 or 2 at the most then I move on. There has been alot said about how long it takes before a fish will bite after being caught.And as far as I know the jury is still out on that one. But just to be on the safe side I go to another spot. I mainly try and find out a pattern ie what lure etc to use and water conditions etc.

Thanks all for the advice!
Steve