How Long Do You Fish A Spot Before Moving?

[Joedodge]

So me and a co worker fish alot of ponds and canals. I'll work a spot a long time. He will make 2-3 casts and move along. How do you guys approach this?

[fishinphilly]

well if I'm trying to find fish i might take 5 casts to try and get a reaction bite, but if i know theres fish there I might stay for 15 minutes but if its during the spawn, I've spent 45 minutes trying to catch one fish

[Sir Real]

It depends.  I'll sometimes go out during my lunch hour to a nearby pond.  In this case I want to cover as much water as possible in the short time I have, so I'll be more like your coworker.  On the weekends, I'm more like you and spend more time working certain areas with multiple baits before moving on.

[Glenn]

Here's a great article on the topic: http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/bass_tournament_strategies.html

[Joedodge]

Thanks for the replys! And thanks for the great article. I guess maybe I should move a lil more instead of aimlessly working a particular area

[scaleface]

Sounds like me and my uncle. He will fish a spot forever and I move on down the bank. I have a lot more success than him . Unless I'm targeting a specific target I'll often take a couple of steps or more after  every cast.

[Joedodge]

Hmmm maybe there is something to this lol

[geo g]

It all depends if I have had success at that spot before. Before leaving a spot I like, I will try changing up the presentation by speeding up, slowing down, dead sticking, jerking the bait, or slow steady crawl. I use a bait I have total faith in, as a constant producer under most conditions. Then I will move on. They don't always want the bait the same way every day, so don't be afraid to radically change up. Sometimes they want their eggs scrambled, and sometimes over easy!!!!!

[Catch and Grease]

I tried catching a big one I saw yesterday for like 3 hours... I got a little obsessed haha never did catch her...

[lmbfisherman]

It all depends if I have had success at that spot before. Before leaving a spot I like, I will try changing up the presentation by speeding up, slowing down, dead sticking, jerking the bait, or slow steady crawl. I use a bait I have total faith in, as a constant producer under most conditions. Then I will move on. They don't always want the bait the same way every day, so don't be afraid to radically change up. Sometimes they want their eggs scrambled, and sometimes over easy!!!!!

This. 

 

If it's a new place that I never fished before I will move more normally.  However if the place screams BASS!  (Cover, structure, laydowns, pads..etc)  I will work it pretty thoroughly 20-30. 

[DocNsanE]

This. 

 

If it's a new place that I never fished before I will move more normally.  However if the place screams BASS!  (Cover, structure, laydowns, pads..etc)  I will work it pretty thoroughly 20-30. 

 

sounds about right to me.

[Mccallister25]

It all depends if I have had success at that spot before. Before leaving a spot I like, I will try changing up the presentation by speeding up, slowing down, dead sticking, jerking the bait, or slow steady crawl. I use a bait I have total faith in, as a constant producer under most conditions. Then I will move on. They don't always want the bait the same way every day, so don't be afraid to radically change up. Sometimes they want their eggs scrambled, and sometimes over easy!!!!!

Yep

[Senko lover]

The two different ponds I fish are both very different in that one of them is open the whole way around and the other, there's only two spots where I can fish.

So with the first, I am more of a run-and-gunner, trying to fancast and move on. With the second, I stay in the two spots the whole time.

[Mike L]

It all depends if I have had success at that spot before. Before leaving a spot I like, I will try changing up the presentation by speeding up, slowing down, dead sticking, jerking the bait, or slow steady crawl. I use a bait I have total faith in, as a constant producer under most conditions. Then I will move on. They don't always want the bait the same way every day, so don't be afraid to radically change up. Sometimes they want their eggs scrambled, and sometimes over easy!!!!!

This pretty much covers that!

Mike

[gardnerjigman]

I tend to fish fairly quickly, covering water picking up the aggressive fish, regardless if I'm fun fishing or in a tournament. I've been known to double back on a cove I just went through and dissect it thoroughly looking for a bigger bite or finicky fish.  

[a1712]

I tend to fish fairly quickly, covering water picking up the aggressive fish, regardless if I'm fun fishing or in a tournament. I've been known to double back on a cove I just went through and dissect it thoroughly looking for a bigger bite or finicky fish.  

What he said. Brian.

[Paul Roberts]

I'll respond with a quote from one of my past trip reports:

 

You know, I watched a number of other anglers over the course of the day. I often do that, even with binocs sometimes -not to ferret out a secret lure but bc other people’s fishing is just more information to plug into my mental computer -I can’t be everywhere.

 

A couple of older guys picked a spot and stayed put, just “fishing” -one I could see was repeatedly casting a Senko. There was another, a young guy fishing a large popper aggressively, moving (too) quickly around the pond. Despite the difference in the speed of their approaches, these three anglers reminded me of the guy I used to see here every now and then fishing his "GoTo". He fished a small buzzbait before or after work all through the open water season, saying with a shrug, “Sometimes they bite, and sometimes they don’t.”

 

A group of four other anglers, fishing together, jumped around to seemingly random locations around the pond, probably fishing spots they had previous experience with -but not necessarily timely experience that jived with the current conditions; a “last summer I got a nice one right here” sort of thing. I too feel that pull as many spots hold magic in my mind. But you have to get trained out of it. Inexperienced hunting dogs will do that too. Let ‘em out of the truck in a familiar spot and the fools will hightail it to the spot they got that last pheasant or grouse from -leaving the gunner behind! Eventually they get savvy, understand the partnership, and expend energy appropriately.

 

What each of the anglers I watched today appeared to be doing was “fishing history” -fishing what they “knew”. There is nothing wrong with that -in fact we all do that- unless your history -what you "know"- doesn’t include inputs that jive with current conditions, or allow you to read and interpret conditions. They are like young hunting dogs, lots of energy, and all nose and no brain, so to speak. The reason to understand bass, water, weather, land, and other critters, at a more basic biological / physiological / ecological level is bc that type of “knowing”, that information, is adaptive and exportable. I’m fishing history too. I’m certainly not randomly casting. But my history weighs the parameters in front of me that day, that hour, that moment, and I choose locations, tactics, techniques, lures, and casts that fit. Sometimes that requires hoofing, other times my boots will wear a hole in the bank.

[bassin' 4 life]

If I fish from a dock I will fish the place pretty thoroughly, if I'm in a boat I won't stay in one place very long.

[SirSnookalot]

I don't follow a script, I let my surroundings dictate my course of action.  Inshore, bass, peacocks it's all the same to me, I'm gonna sight cast where I think the fish are gonna be.

[Catt]

Doesn't matter if your on the bank or in a boat

To be consistent sometimes requires running & gunning to several locations while other times it requires staying & playing on a couple locations!

[WRB]

So me and a co worker fish alot of ponds and canals. I'll work a spot a long time. He will make 2-3 casts and move along. How do you guys approach this?

This question comes up several times a year and answered on several different threads.

It's simple to answer if you are catching bass, never leave active fish to find more.

It gets a little more complicated fishing from shore, you are not as mobile and restricted to shoreline areas.

Shore fishing from the bank slows you down, so you should pick where you start fish and what you plan to use carefully because your ability to cover water fast with a variety of lure types is limited to what you carry and the terrain. Those issues are not a problem with boat anglers.

I tend to fish slower than most, spend time determing where the bass are located, then what depth, speed and lure color and type that works. If there is a pattern, locate the same conditions and fish those areas. This is difficult from the bank because of the limited lure selection and restricted locations.

Tom

[ClackerBuzz]

you first cast to an area has the greatest possibility of catching a bass (big mama or an aggressive dink).

i'll fan cast a reaction lure/spinnerbait 6 times from 9-3 o'clock.  the only time i will continually retrieve of the same area is if there are weeds or stumps.  like Tom said shoreline real estate is limited so if no taker on the spinnerbait I am quick to so silent reaction/swim jig.  then i'll try weighless senkos and/or jigs on bottom.  if you relocate 3 times and nothing make sure to try topwater and something that suspends like jerkbaits.  cover the water column top to bottom, fast to slow and after relocating a few times you should see some activity. if i go through 8 relocation's and still nothing i'm going to reallllly slow down my retrieve.

[Ratherbfishing]

I can SAY I do one thing but compared to others, perhaps i don't.  It's all relative, I suppose.  Anyway, I try to fish according to conditions and the fishes mood.  Generally I'll start fairly "aggressively"- moving fairly quickly and trying different baits to see if the fish are, likewise, fairly aggressive.  But if that doesn't pan out (all too often), I'll slow down and fish an area much more slowly-sometimes casting to the same piece of cover a dozen times if it looks desireable.  I'll also fish from memory-FOR AWHILE. But if the bass don't seem to be there anymore or simply refuse to bite whatever techniques I try, I'll pause, regroup, and try something new.  I am not one of those guys who will stay in the same spot or use the same technique all day long just because that's what worked last time.  On one of my local ponds I was near a kid who, I believe, fancied himself a pro (and maybe he was pretty good, I don't know) who easily whipped out three casts to my one.  On days when fast is key, I'm sure he could do well but in my experience, those days are the exception.  I'm glad I didn't have to share a boat with him as eventually one of us would have had to go swimming.

[papajoe222]

If I know an area has good fish holding potential, I'll give the area half an hour to an hour to check out top to bottom.  If I contact fish, I'll give it more.  If you're talking a specific target, I'll hit it with multiple casts from different angles and possibly different baits before moving on.  This is what I really like about not fishing tournaments any more.  You'd be surprised at the targets you give a few casts to only to move on and have the guy with the winning bag get his kicker or biggest fish off of one of those he hit a little differently or with a totally different bait.

[F14A-B]

Sorta reminds me of when Denny Brauer won the classic in 98, he stayed on that brush pile

all day, flipping a tube from different sides & angles.. Caught I believe 4, 4pound fish to seal the deal... He knew the fish were there, and worked all day to catch them..