If there is anything I have learned from this site, watching the pro's movies, talking with other fisherman, and from my own experience is that finding fish and catching fish are two entirely different things. If I remember correctly KVD stated that he doesn't mind fishing behind others. He will try and throw something that they are not throwing or try the same bait with a different presentation. Just because they fished that spot doesn't mean the found the big one.
Often is it mentioned to never give up to soon?
Unless they have a title to that piece of property then it is fair game to fish. If you feel obliged to let someone else fish it first then that is up to you. But to say you can't fish it makes no sense. Move in and fish it when they leave.
I caught my first 4.5lb yesterday on Patoka lake. The bite was off. Way off. There was a big tourney going on that we were not in. We always let the tourney guys fish thru our areas and tried to stay out of their way. We were just fishing for fun. There was a nice area that alot of guys were complaining should have held fish. The gusy I was fishing with was complaining about the same thing. People went up and back down with no bites. We went up with throwing everything. No bites. People went up and down and around us with no bites.
I finally pulled out my favorite bait. A jointed Shad Rap with an orange belly. I was more playing around with it than anything else. The guy I was fishing with hit the same stump that another guy had just hit a bit earlier with nothing. The same spot alot of guys had already hit. I had hit this spot early with a jig and nothing. I hit the same spot again and nothing. I hit it again from a little bit different angle and WHAM!. Nice big bite. You can only imagine how happy I was and how unhappy all the guys that were in the tourney were when I caught that fish. We proudly backed out of the spot and let the tourney guys have that spot. Again they caught nothing and moved on. We moved on ourselves to make room for more guys.
For me being still relatively new it was my moment in the spot light. Especially since I have never fished a tourney! I caught a nice fish from a high pressure spot. I took KVDs advice and hit the same spot more than once with something different.
I know this was a stump and not a sunk brush pile but to me it still is the same. Lots of people fished it. Just because someone else fished that spot doesn't make it is theirs and doesn't mean they caught all of the fish or the best fish.
It is up to you when you fish it and whether or not you fish it. Not someone else. If you think the fish are there why not fish it?