Say you pull up into a cove/point/whatever put the trolling motor in and start fishing. How long will you stay there? How many casts will you make with the same lure? How many lures will you try? Some days I feel like I'm fishing the wrong kind of stuff and spending a lot of time doing it. Some days I feel like I'm running around too much and not fishing enough. I really don't have any guidelines right now which I think makes my confidence suffer because I'm never sure I'm doing the right thing.

Within 5-10 minutes, your strategy (depth, technique, location) needs to take a 180 if you are not getting bit.

Stick with something that is not working and you will get blanked. There is always a way to catch fish on any body of water.

Oh man, I will tie off to a tree or a stickup, and I might fish that whole area with one or two lures for an hour or more. If i'm getting strikes, I'll stay, and maybe only move 25 yards to the next spot for an hour or two.

Last week, I was out in a BUNCH of stickups. I was tied up, and had a catch rate of 3 to 4 an hour right where I was. While sitting there, I counted 13 boats scoot right by me in a single pass, not a one caught a single fish. But as they pass by, here we are yanking nice fish out of the water.

I never understand why some fisherman don't give a fishy area a good good chance to produce by just slowing down and spending some time to figure out what's going on there.

Sometimes I'll throw a lure 50 times to the same spot (area), working it many different ways til I hook up, then I'll keep up with that same lure and presentation and it keeps producing. I pulled 4 fish off the exact same stump pile under the water in as many as 12 casts. I could feel it, but not see it. I just kept at it, there was some schooling going on there, so I kept hammering away it, then my wife pulls a 3-4 lber right off the same pile.

If we had just cast once there, we'd have missed 5 nice fish. Matter of fact, 4 other people scoooooted right by it, each casting once in the general area, almost hitting our boat (which is rude) didn't get a strike and kept on moving right by, seconds later I'm fish on in the exact same spot.

For me, it's NOT about how fast can I cover as much water as possible... it's how can I really, solidly cover the water right here.

In that whole 5 hours, we moved less than 500 yards the whole time.



You'll notice the cord from my cleat, it's tied to a tree

And ya know what else... after spending so much time in that exact area, I now know precisely where every underwater stump is, a bunch of piles, and I know where and how deep into that little set of sticks I can get without getting stuck. I understand that back of that cove and front, only on one side, but next time I'm there, it's all gps'd and ready for me.

You work hard and spend time on the water to develop a plan that works for you. The location you have chosen is usually the problem if no bites are taking place. Point fishing and deep water structure can be a timing thing. You have to be in the right spot at the right time. It just takes patience and many hours spent on your home lake to learn those best areas and the feeding schedule of the deep water Bass.

You never know who was there before you. Sometimes that could have even been the day before and they worked the area really hard making it more difficult for you. Try going to spots that no one else will ever fish. That may be as far back in the jungle as you can get or it can just be that no nothing long stretch of bank that everyone passes up. It is the little places that hold fish that you have to find and the farther off shore the better.

Fished a two day club tournament while at Tech and spent both days exclusively in one stretch of creek about 100 yards long and maybe 25 yards wide. Added up to about 15 hours fishing one spot.

Yo Guido,,,,,JD
let's go fishing

it's all about timing.
location and timing.
spend a lot or spend a lttle,,,,,you gotta know what, where & when you are fishing

It's just depends when and where I'm fishing. I see it as, you can sit and wait for the fish in the area to be active or go find active fish. Go with your gut and find out what's working for the conditions your in

For me it depends on whether or not I'm fishing an area or a pattern. If I'm fishing an area, I'm much more likely to spend more time working the area over as efficiently as I can and have no problem staying in that area the entire tournament. If I'm fishing a pattern, I will almost always be moving and trying to cover more water and expanding the pattern into other areas.

I started typing. Then erased it all. HAha. There really is no rhyme or reason for what I do sometimes. Mostly I fish off of instincts and electronics. I might fish a place 5-6 times in a row for hours, then I might look like I an ADHD type. Haha

Really depends on what pattern you are on and what the fish are doing. We have fished one spot that's about 20 to 30 yards in diameter for 8 hours throwing a few different presentations. Call me crazy, but it "paid" off really well this winter. The thing we figured out was that the fish would move in at a certain time. feed for about 15 minutes then shut off for the day. some days we would have 20 pounds+,- by 9:30 or we would not have a bite until 1:30 and then have 20 pounds+,- by 1:45. so it made it hard to leave that area after seeing what would happen if we waited. it did burn us a few times but that was the risk we were willing to take. I do not like fishing that way but it's what the fish were doing. so really pay attention to what the fish are doing.

Don't leave fish to find fish.

If I am just out to enjoy I may stay in a quiet place all day. If its tournament time I think you have to give a spot time to produce. I don't have a specific time frame I go by. You go to fast on a spot you may never know if fish are there or not. I do agree that fish are biting somewhere at some point in time but you can get blanked just as easy running all over the lake. I say just use your own judgement but give your spot a chance. If I am marking fish I will change bait before I change location.

I usually run and gun. Fish a spot maybe an hour, then hauling butt to the next spot. The only tourney out of my boat this year, my outboard wasn't running so I was in close proximity to the launch site all day. Probably fished two banks harder than I have ever fished before, but it paid off for the right 3 bites. Now its got me thinking how much more I should be focusing on picking apart a bank for longer periods of time rather than burning half a tank of gas running from spot to spot each tournament

It all depends on the time of year and type of spot. If I know fish are active and aggressive I will move quickly through an area. I will also do the same if I know I have them dialed in. I will return to areas that are likely to recharge 3-4 times in a day.

If I know it is going to be a slow bite and I'm on a prime spot I will give it 30-45 minutes to produce. If no action or only one fish, I'll move on. This is enough time time throughly try 6-8 techniques. I doubt more techniques than that will really fit most situations well, so I consider it throughly fished.

I've learned a slow bite isn't a good bite unless for some reason the fish are really large relative to the lakes standard. Ever since I've started fishing like this I have greatly increased my catch rate and my biggest five for the day. I believe by covering water I'm much more likely to find larger active fish. You just have to adjust your speed to technique and attitude of the fish.

Also some areas will produce, but only with specific techniques. You are not likely to find the key if they are being really finicky, so don't try. For example, I caught two fish in 90 minutes in an area about 100 yards by 30 yards. Another angler fishing around me did about the same. Then a guy fishes through the same area in about 45 minutes and lands around 20 fish. He was doing almost the exact same thing I was doing with two differences he was throwing a different color and slightly larger bait. I switched to imitate what he was doing better and it was fish on for me too. The odds I would have found the bait and the pattern myself was near nil. These were finicky fish, but there were a lot of them. I was also able to reproduce the pattern in five other areas on the lake. Just don't expect to get lucky like this very often. You should instead try to locate more cooperative fish as your odds are much higher.

Lots of good advice here.

If it's a jig bite or something where I'm working areas I expect to be good but I'm not expecting a ton of bites, I'll work an area as long as it takes to fish it thoroughly. I might fish a cove for a couple hours or more without a bite and not think anything about it.

If it's deep water fishing in the summer and it's a timing thing, I'll hit an area for 10 minutes and move somewhere else if I haven't got a bite by then.

So all in all, my time at a spot is variable depending on the technique, type of bite (looking for active fish versus trying to get a bite from inactive fish), and the amount of confidence I have in an area. If an area looked good on a map, but I haven't caught anything after fishing it for ahwile, then I might not stay as long as I would if it's an area that has produced before.