"To me, the most important thing about preparing for a tournament is putting a lot of thought into it," says Texas pro Clark Wendlandt, currently ranked No. 4 in the world.

That doesn't mean researching the lake to death. "My research usually stops with just finding out what the body of water holds," Wendlandt says, "like what kind of weights (of fish), does it have grass, rocks or wood, that kind of thing.

"Then I put in a lot of time thinking about my game plan, what I'll do in the tournament and how I'm going to approach certain situations.

"I'm trying to get as in-tune with a particular lake as I can," he says. "The way I do that isn't spending all my time there (at the lake)." And generally, "I have a limited amount of time I can practice. But if I spend time thinking about being there, I get more in tune with it that way."

Baseline, Then Adapt

That kind of thinking gives Wendlandt a baseline from which to work. Planning too specifically is unwise, he says, because conditions will change.

"When I get to a tournament after practice, I usually have a game plan mapped out, but I have to be able to change as I go on. The biggest single mistake people make in tournament fishing is that they just don't adapt," he says. "They go out and fish the spots they found in practice and don't let themselves adapt.

"If it's not working, sometimes you just have to go fishing -- you have to allow yourself to go fishing.

"I'll be prepared for a change," Wendlandt adds, "and I'll have thought about what I might do. If I'm throwing a spinnerbait and it's just not working, I'll think about whether I'm going to make a bait change or go to another place. I'll be thinking about it as time goes on, and if nothing changes my mind, I'll change.

"I've prepared for that ahead of time," he reiterates. Because of that preparation, Wendlandt will feel comfortable enough to go with his instincts. "I'll do the first thing that comes into my head," he says.

Don't Get Down

Don't second-guess yourself, he says. "You have to make a decision and stick with it. In a tournament you can make 50 or 1,000 decision in a day, and whether you turn left or right on a particular flat can dictate how your days goes.

"You have to go with it and learn from experience. If it works, great. If it doesn't, you did your best. You don't want to get that helter-skelter panicking, fishing a little bit here or there, because normally that's not going to work," he notes.

"The good thing about our tournaments is that they're over three or four days," Wendlandt says. "A lot of times I'll think to myself, 'I can run over there and fish that the rest of the day, and if it works great. If not, I can come back here tomorrow.'

"It isn't just about winning," he adds. "It's about having the best finish you can in every tournament."

Sounds Simple

Mental preparation "sounds simple," Wendlandt says, "but I guarantee there's something to it. I didn't learn it from anyone -- it's just what I do to prepare myself.

"I don't know when I discovered it. Just over time, I noticed that the more time and thought I put into each tournament, the better I do."