How much water do you cover?

[Catt]

On 12/3/2016 at 11:18 PM, slonezp said:

I cover as much water as I have to. How I (you) cover the water is probably the more important question. Eliminating unproductive water is the key. 

Some believe tournament fishing means covering a lot of water by fishing fast.

Tournament fishing is fishing efficiency & effectively!

 To consistently catch bass is a process of elimination and duplication. Eliminate patterns and waters that are non-productive and duplicate patterns and waters that are productive.

How I quickly I establish a pattern is determined by how closely the bass adhere to my game plan!

[Spankey]

On a normal outing on a stretch of the river I generally call my home spot, home stretch. There are point and ditches, riprap and lay downs I want to hit so there is a bit of running around to my time out. After I cover these area in sort of get into a float / troll mode. I cover about 6 miles. 

[A-Jay]

On ‎12‎/‎5‎/‎2016 at 8:37 AM, Catt said:

Some believe tournament fishing means covering a lot of water by fishing fast.

Tournament fishing is fishing efficiency & effectively!

 To consistently catch bass is a process of elimination and duplication. Eliminate patterns and waters that are non-productive and duplicate patterns and waters that are productive.

How I quickly I establish a pattern is determined by how closely the bass adhere to my game plan!

Nice Catt ~ Breaking it down to the simplest of terms.

Love That One Right There.

A-Jay

[Ratherbfishing]

That completely depends on the day.  If I start hitting fish immediately, I may not go 50 yards.  On other days you might find me going all over the place in a general state of confusion.

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, Ratherbfishing said:

That completely depends on the day.  If I start hitting fish immediately, I may not go 50 yards.  On other days you might find me going all over the place in a general state of confusion.

Good One.

Unfortunately, I know that state well

I have a winter home there . . . .

A-Jay

[blckshirt98]

As a shore guy I cover about a half-mile depending on which place I'm fishing, since I usually know where to stop..  If it's a new lake I'll try to cover as much shore as I can, even if it means less time fishing, because I always try to use my first visit to a lake as an "exploratory" visit looking for spots/structure so in future visits I'll have some familiarity.

[Sam]

Riverbasser, good question. And here is my answer for you to contemplate.

With the larger and faster bass boats being used today bass fishermen travel miles (some over 50 one way) to hit their favorite spots.

But after they travel here and there, where do they bring their fish to the weigh-in? The same ramp they used for blastoff.

So now, for example, on the Historic James River out of Osborne Landing you can catch those big Florida strain bass that were stocked in the Chickahominy River by going no more than three miles up or down river.

This year I have caught two 4.5 pounders within two miles of Osborne Landing. This was extremely unusual for this part of the river until the tournaments would release the Chick bass at Osborne. Add to the private and open local tournaments the BASS Northern Open release boat (they told me where they release all of those beautiful bass in the river at one time) you don't have to travel for miles in many bodies of water where tournament weigh-ins take place.

Of course, it is fun to throttle your boat to 60 MPH and head to another spot on your favorite lake, looking back at that beautiful rooster tail. But it is not needed.

What I find amusing is that on the Historic James River, and just about any lake or river with two or more ramps for tournament launches (such as Buggs Island and Lake Gaston) you can watch the boats pass each other in the opposite direction. It is something to see for you new guys to bass fishing tournaments.

In a nutshell, no, I will travel within 5 to 8 miles of the launch site unless there is a specific reason to travel farther to find the bass.

[Bankbeater]

I cover as much water as needed until I find the bass.  I will spend more time at a location that has a history of producing fish, but if they aren't biting I move on.  Once I  find the bass I'll stay at that spot until I stop catching them.