Same Fish?

[Todd2]

Sunday I was out and found a decent pattern flipping standing timber. On one tree, I caught one around 3.5, which is actually really good for me on this lake. I continued on, working the outer edge of the trees catching smaller fish. About an hour later, I doubled back to the same tree and pitched to the exact same spot. I hung into the twin of the 3.5 from before. It got off at the boat. Now I'm wondering. ..was it the same fish? Will they bite that soon...it was an hour tops..

[flyfisher]

i have caught the same bass within 20 minutes so it can happen for sure.

[Todd2]

Interesting, I've known of fish caught the next day, but I figured they would take the day off after getting yanked around and pulled out of the water.

[flyfisher]

I think they recover quicker than you think but most people aren't going to sit and hammer the same spot after plucking a few fish off a spot.  In my situation i was working a small lilly pad field working the edges with a fluke.  caught him on one side and then again on the other side when i got over there.  the only reason i knew it was the same was because of a fin that was chopped in half from most likely a bird hit.

[Catch and Grease]

Those pro's that do the tournaments where you don't bring all your fish to weigh ins (only the biggest) they try to get the fished weighed, recorded, and back in the water ASAP because you never know if your gonna ride back through that spot later in the day and hook em again!

[tcbass]

My friend and I were fishing with Senkos. I had a cinnamon brown one and he had a green pumpkin one. I let him use my cinnamon brown one and he immediately had it taken by a fish under a dock. I handed him back his rod with the green pumpkin Senko and he caught a fish under the same dock. A small rock bass. When he put it in the boat it spit out my cinnamon brown Senko.

So, about 20 seconds. lol. So it could definitely be the same fish.

[Bluebasser86]

I've caught the same fish off the same spot on the same day more than once. Last year my buddy broke a fish off in the morning and I caught it in the afternoon off the same spot with his bait still in it's mouth. Some days they seem very smart and wary, others not so much. 

[Raul]

I've caught the same fish minutes apart a few yards away from where I hooked it the first time.

[everythingthatswims]

Since you were pitching/flipping, you probably got him to the boat quickly enough that it didn't shake him up too bad so he recovered quickly. Had you pulled on him for 2 minutes on a spinning rod with 6lb test, he probably wouldn't have bit again.

[papajoe222]

I think I read somewhere that the memory span of a bass is something like 30 seconds.  I also recall that becoming conditioned to a particular bait doesn't involve memory, just negative reinforcement.  If a fish is active and returned to the water in the area you caught it, there is a good chance it can be caught again.

I had a fellow club member catch an weigh a bass that he saw me catch. I recognized it because of a sore spot on the top of it's head and the hole my worm hook left in the area of it's mouth just behind the lip.  He was only a few hundred feet behind me working the same weedline.

[SirSnookalot]

I've caught the same fish minutes apart a few yards away from where I hooked it the first time.

Me too, I have a fish here with a pronounced birthmark on it's lip.  I have caught it 2 days in row and always in the same general area.

[Todd2]

So what I'm hearing is that I haven't found the magical tree loaded with 3 lbers....