Got out for 2.5 hours to start weekend, water temp 56 degrees with previous week of cold front weather, today was high pressure and full moon yesterday. I got a few small ones and one 18.5" - couple on jig, couple on neko, I threw the swim jig & squarebill as well but no bites on them. Are you fishing this weekend?

Check this out. This smallie chased the lure to the surface on the other side of the boat. I was messing with it and it chased it all the way around the boat. It was like doing figure 8's with pike/musky except it was a smallmouth. Then, I held the lure just above the water’s surface. Smallmouth bass came out of the water to check out/get this bait. This was practice for a tournament so I was ok with not catching that day. I did go back and caught two in this area.

Brian Latimer - What resources or people do you rely on to learn/grow from? What do others in the School use?

I have noticed that quite a few successful tournament anglers have stories about fishing local tournaments early in their journey to the higher levels of tournaments.  I never fished a tournament on any level until this year.  I did do a lot of fishing with various family and friends growing up, but honestly a small percentage of which was bass fishing.

So, my question is this. 

Am I at a disadvantage in my pursuit to be competitive at the highest levels of bass fishing?  At my age I feel like I don't have the time to slowly build the expertise.