I'll try and help you out from both a tournament prospective and a general fishing perspective.

First, based on what you said, it is really hard to tell exactly what you are fishing for. If you are simply fishing for "anything that bites" I often have found that it does become more difficult when you are targeting marks on the screen. The reason I say this is that one mark might be a walleye, one a channel cat, and several are crappies or blue gills. Each one of them, based on the conditions, will have a different feeding attitude on any given day. I've actually found it much easier to target specific species than to fish for "anything that bites". Oftentimes, people that do this are at the dock saying "The fish aren't biting" and then are amazed when someone comes in with a bag of walleyes or a limit of crappies.

I would recommend this the next time you go to a lake. Set out to concentrate on one particular species. This way, you are utilzing baits that are more appealing directly to them. You can alter your presentation based on the water tempurature, how the fish are acting, and where they are located in the water column. After a period of time in one area where you are not catching the target species, move on to another and repeat. Eventually, you will find a location where the fish are active and feeding on what you are offering, or they are just not active. At this point, make a switch to a new species of fish and start over.

Here is my reason for this. You head to a lake and you start fishing with larger jigs, blade baits, and larger lipped crank baits. Although you "might" catch a walleye, a pike, or a bass, your options for catching a crappie are limited. During the day, walleye lay where the water tempurature conforms with their bodies. Some days it is right on the bottom, other days it can be up in the column. They also stay out of the direct sunlight due to the makeup of their eyes. Those marks you see on the screen on the bottom "might" be walleyes. Target them directly. Unfortunatley, crappies are not normally found directly on the bottom. Throwing a bait that might be appealing to both parties can oftentimes mean that neither of them are going to want it. Plus, you might be fishing outside the target zone of each species.

Prefishing for walleye tournaments has helped me realize how long to stay in an area. I used to run an area, catch some fish, go back and run it again to try and dial them in. Now, I look over my maps, my screen, take my best guess on where to find them at that particular point in the day, and head to a spot. I throw a vast array of different tactics. If I hit a fish in an area with a specific bait, I mark where it is and move on. I look for the NEXT spot in the lake that is similar and setup again. Usually, I'll hit another fish in a similar environment. Once done, I have a small picture painted. I pickup and move to a new area and start again. By the end of the day I may have only caught 7 fish but I have 7 spots where all the fish are acting the same at the same depth and eating the same size and shaped baits with the same color and the same presentation.

On a tournament, I head to my first spot. If I put my pieces together right, I now have 3 days of prefishing and dialing in the "Right" bait. I will bombard that area with the "right" combination. I will work it until I exhaust it, they stop biting, or my quality changes. From there, I pick up and head to my next target spot and repeat!