The real secret of tournament swimbait fishing is knowing when to throw it and when not to throw it.

It may not seem that simple, but I believe this is the number one thing you need to figure out if you want to be a successful tournament swimbait fisherman.

How do I know this? Because after fishing 50+ team tournaments, using primarily swimbaits, the biggest reason I have success vs. doing bad is this key decision on whether to throw or not throw.

Case in point - Last weekend Lake McClure. We had high pressure and east wind. 16,000lbs of trout went in the lake two weeks prior. Conditions were generally calm with bright sun. It's January and it's a "warm up" day where the PM water temp is considerably higher than the AM temp. All signals pointed to bad swimbait fishing.

Instead of putting it away, we got our quick limit in the morning in an hour and a half and then went for the swimbait bite. In hindsight it was a mistake. This has happened to me dozens of times before.

If it were possible to make better decision making as far as when to throw it vs. not throw it - more success would come.

Your thoughts?