During the last 2 days of practice I was able to figure out when the tidal bite was; It happened at 1:15 on Tuesday, and 2:15 on Wednesday. Being that the tide usually changes by about an hour each day, I figured I had to be in my best area at 3:00 to make sure I got the good bite. Unfortunately the weigh-in began at 1:30 due to the heat and the only way I would get that bite was if I got last flight. No chance! I was right in the middle of the pack. I decided to run to the back corner in Mattawoman where I had all the bites the first day of practice. When I got there I found I that many other boats had found the same fish. There were 8 boats in a 50 yard stretch. I got right in with them but was not able to boat a keeper. There were tons of fish being caught, but I never saw one boated that went in the live well. I fished that area for about 2 hours and decided to run out to the other area I had in the mouth of the creek. When I got there I started flipping just like I had done in practice to get the bites. I was the only boat in the middle of the grass; all the other boats were lined up on the outside edge. I caught one short but that was it. The boats out on the edge however were catching lots of keepers. This grass bed wasn't very big, so I was only about 15 yards from the boats catching fish. I moved out a little hoping to get in on the action, but it wasn't happening for us. My co-angler and I saw multiple limits caught within feet of us and neither of us could get a bite. I ended up catching one 4 pounder on a chigger craw with a 1/8oz weight and that was it. I was so frustrated watching all the other boats catch fish that I went back to the area I started on. There was only one boat left there now, and the water had cleared up a little. There was only about an hour left until weigh-in, so I fished hard and ended up boating a 5 pounder and 2 pounder on a senko. With only 3 fish to weigh in I was feeling disappointed. After catching the 4 and 5 pounders I knew if I could just catch a limit I would be within striking distance of the top 10. My 3 fish weighed 10-11, not a very good weight for the Potomac. I was sitting in 60th place after the first day. All day I thought about the other area up the river that I had caught all those 2 pounders on. Should I have run up there, or was I better off staying close and using every minute to fish? It was a tough decision and I'm still not sure what the best move would have been. If I had run up there I might not have caught that 5, if I had I might have caught four 2 pounders. Sometimes decisions are easy to make, and sometimes they keep you second guessing yourself.