The dreaded one fish pattern. This happens to me more times than I like to admit. I get a big fish on a point, and it will be the only fish caught on a point all day.
I think the difference between a great fisherman and a hack such as myself is recognizing all the multiple things that make up a pattern. Early in the morning I catch a bass on a point in 10 feet of water and determine the pattern is points in 10 feet of water. What I failed to notice was the point was made up of small chunk rock, had a slight current going parallel to the point and the point was next to a large flat that had a large number of baitfish moving from deep water to the flat along the point.
An observant fisherman would have noticed these other factors and realized the bass caught on the point may have been a straggler, and the majority of the bass had already moved up on to the flat. While I continued to fish the point the bass would be feeding heavily on the flat. May be all the other points I tried didn't have current, weren't close to a flat, had large boulders, or gravel rock etc. All I noticed was the bass was on a point and the depth.
A great angler would take the information given and expand it to the rest of the lake. They would go to other flats, next to deep water with long points leading up to the flat. I really savvy angler may also take it to the next level by anticipating the move back to deep water after the feeding on the flat, and come back later in the day to fish the point and see if they could intercept the bass moving back out.
Where I only see one aspect of a potential pattern, A better angler may determine multiple aspects, that may help them turn a one fish day in to a bonanza.
Some days the bass are completely random, and even the best angler can't capitalize on any similarity, but most days an observant angler can at least determine the depth, type of structure, what part of the lake, forage, and general presentation needed to catch multiple bass.
Also, It may be better at times to try and pattern the forage, instead of the bass. Find the bait, and the bass wont be very far away.