My preferred way of fishing is with a stick bait. Sometimes it pays off going slower but sometimes I find myself in water that's not producing. I'm going to start making an effort to using a search bait. When do you decide to stop covering so much water and slow back down?

You don't. You go to new water and keep searching until you find fish. THEN slow down and work the area thoroughly with your slower presentations.

When they are feeding on small shad, cover water. Find the shad, find the bass
This is particularly true from the shad spawn and low light hours through the summer and then the fall feed up

When the transition periods stabilize; I'll do more anchoring, especially when the water temps are above 85 degrees or less than 60 degrees

Water temps above 85 degrees and sunny, the bigger bass will want to find a deeper protected buffet location where they can sit down and eat. Below 60 degrees, their metabolisms are slow, so they won't be moving as much

Right now (shad spawn) and fall are when I move around the most

This starts for me at day break moving pretty fast with the Spook. I work proven spots that I have located over the years and give them about 15 min. on one side of the creek and about the same amount of time on the other. Then move to the next spot down the lake. I try to fish my 3 top water spots each morning.

If one is producing good fish then stay with it as long as possible for the fish are there for a reason. You have searched and you have found them. Now the decision comes of what to do next as it is a hour or more into it and the bite is fixing to shut down on top waters.

I now go to the spinner bait; but not staying up tight as I was with the spook. Those feeding fish are headed back to their comfort zone. Question is have you studied the route that they are taking from deep water to the shallows? They will be reversing that route as soon as they have finished feeding. Each Bass is territory oriented and will be stopping on the same bush, rocks, stumps and etc., as they return to their comfort zone. If you have studied this route and located all the cover along this route, you are ready to slow down. I have specific spinner baits that I slow roll through this cover as they will be reacting to this bait and it comes through the brush very well. A crankbait is also a search bait but hangs up much more frequently. Going into your cover area to retrieve the bait will end the search. You may as well move on to the next step or move out deeper to their comfort zone and wait for their return. Another rig that is much slower; but still allows me to search is a short light Crig.. 3/8 oz. weigh 12 inches long and slow roll it through the brush just like rolling a spinner bait. Keep it in contact with the bottom, grass and bushes. The brush hog has been the best bait for this application.

The next step is to really slow down and move out to their comfort zone which is the ledge, last brush in deep water or the edge of the creek channel. They become very difficult to catch here as they have already feed and returned home. There is one particular location for this that has worked best. Find a rock ledge with heavy cover on the top side of the lip of the ledge. As you are looking to locate such spots you will see; fish right against the ledge about half way down looking for the dark of the ledge or shade of the ledge. There will be a few fish on the lip of the ledge and some suspended in the heavy brush on the lip. These fish are still looking and can be caught. The best depth to look for this deep water spot is a ledge in 15 to 20 ft. with heavy cover on top.

At this depth you can pass over the fish with the trolling motor and not disturb them. Most of the time I am going to be dragging a light 1/2 oz. Crig along the lip of this ledge and through the last brush on the edge of the ledge. Again the brush hog has been my bait of choice.

If I am catching fish, but they are all small, I will switch to a slower presentation to see if I can catch larger fish. Sometimes, it works, sometimes it doesn't, but that is ONE time I will slow down. Especially if it is Tournament time. Load the boat with dinks and then slow down to try to catch a bigger fish. It is FUN catching a LOT of fish, but it is counter productive in tournaments, if they are all small. Just a thought. I hope this helps. Tight lines, keep safe and good luck.

Thad Rains

Typically I like to start with something that's moving, like a spinnerbait, crankbait, swim jig, etc.. Once I get a few bites on those baits, I'll slow down with a jig or Texas rig. However, it's easy to fish all day with your search bait, still trying to find fish and then you end up wasting the whole day. It's important to tell yourself at some point, "ok, these fish are lethargic. They don't wanna chase, so I better fish slower." At what point you do that is up to the conditions. What separates a good angler from a great angler is knowing when to change up.

Agreed.

I will keep throwing a search bait and moving. I have a milk run at Fork from May 1st until about Nov. I will pull up on a spot and make 10-15 casts with a DD22 or some sort of deepdiver. If I don't get bit I move onto the next spot until I do get bit. I will keep throwing the big crankbait until they stop biting it. Then I will drag a C-rig or FB Jig through there a few times to see if there are any less aggressive stragglers around.

Agreed also. Slowing down before you find fish is a good way to waste a lot of time. This was a hard thing for me to grasp because my top confidence bait was always a T-rig. So instead of moving to a different area after not getting bit on a moving bait, I would waste a lot of time pitching to fish that probably weren't even there.