When To Move On?

[DelfiBoyz_One_and_Only]

Question for all the bank bangers!  When fishing a lay down tree, when is it time to move on?  What I mean is, you come across a tree in a lake and you flip towards it and pull 2-3 fish out of it or when you know there should be fish there you catch any.  How long do you spend flipping at it?  I have heard stories of people fishing a tree for hours.  When is enough enough?  Should you make just a couple of cast and move on?  Should you give it 10,20,30 minutes?  In my club there are people who I have seen fishing a single tree for a hour.  Most of the time I see them catch nothing but then they come back to the scale with a incredible bag.  What are your experiences with fishing lay downs.

 

I have caught a lot of fish from wood in the water or laydowns, but I dont know if I am fishing them correctly.  I usually make 5 to 10 choicce cast to key spots and move on.  Should I be working them differently or longer?  I mean you really cant use your electronics unless you have side imaging/360 imaging (which both are out of my price range). What do you think is best in your opinion?

 

 

Jay-

[jhoffman]

An older guy in my club will sit on a spot all day for a 15 minute bite. That bite can vary day by day. He said last summer he sat at this one spot which is an old road bed pipe on a creek channel into the main lake. When he first figured them out it was an hour before weigh in. Every day they showed up 10 mins later till it got to a point where he couldnt catch them in time to weigh them.

 

Me personally I dont have that much patience but if you see fish, or know fish are usually there its only a matter of time. They have got to eat.

[Felix77]

If there is a stretch of laydowns I would prefer to move across them and cycle my way back around again.  If it happens to be one specific laydown and you catch 2 or 3 on it I would probably stay there no more than 20 minutes before moving on.

 

Remember that spot and come back later.  Sometimes it may just need time to "rest", "refresh", "recycle" or whatever else you hear people refer to when it comes to wearing out a spot.

[Ratherbfishing]

If you find a spot that looks particularly good, and you know fish have been relating to such cover, you should try casting to it from every angle and with every method.  Repeatedly.  Especially if it's a spot that looks like it's been hit hard by others.  A friend of mine was amazed to see me cast to the same spot a dozen times before I'd get bit.  He said he'd have moved on long before then.  By the end of the day, however, by repeating this method he was outcatching me.   The dawg!!!

[flyfisher]

I will stay for a good bit of time at each lay down. I try and make sure every potential fish sees my bait at least once if not twice and then use multiple techniques to trigger a strike. I don't fish tourneys though so it may be different if I did.

[DelfiBoyz_One_and_Only]

By multiple techniques do you different baits? Or do you mean different retrieves?

[flyfisher]

By multiple techniques do you different baits? Or do you mean different retrieves?

Both really. I usually start by trying to pick off active fish by using a square bill or other reaction bait. Then I will move to something like a fluke or weightless plastic then I go to bottom baits like a jig, shaky head or Texas rig or all of the above.

My thought is to cover all the water column and presentation types to figure out what they want. If I am lucky enough to catch one I remember where on the lay down and what presentation I was using and that is the first one I try at the next one.

[jhoffman]

See I am the opposite, I dont want to hit the active ones till last if possible. Lots of time with the fly rod showed me that if you try to pick off the sattelites that soon the big one gets weary. All that commotion of fighting fish puts the big ones down quick. They dont get big by being dumb.

[ww2farmer]

I am not a spot sitter,  at least not on  bank cover like laydowns or docks. I'll sit on something offshore for a little while. When I fish laydowns, docks, weed-lines, mats, etc.... I am more of a pass maker. I'll fish a pass doing one thing, if it doesn't work too well, but I know it's a good stretch, I'll turn around and make another pass doing something else. I pick apart the stuff I am fishing pretty good, trying not to leave any stone unturned.