When to stay and when to leave?

[mheichelbech]

If you have been in an area catching fish, and they stop biting, how do you judge whether to hang out, maybe change up your presentation or wait until they turn on again or to move to another similar area on the same pattern?

I have had times in tournaments where I was fishing a marina and catching them then they turn off but an hour later they turn back on and I catch them again.  Then I’ve had times when I stayed and didn’t catch them again and I should have moved.

 

Are there any tell tale signs you use to help figure out what to do or is it just your gut based on circumstances?

[A-Jay]

Often a tough call but usually an interesting discussion.

I had a similar decision to make a couple of days ago on the water.

I had been getting bites but had been there a while.

Had to decide, should I stay or should I go ?

I moved and caught some fish. 

Then came back to the original area a little while later and caught more fish.

While it worked out this time, it doesn't always go like that, at least for me.

Depending on the time of the year, I may not leave fish to find fish.

Early & late season I will.

Mid-summer, I will not.

A-Jay

[JediAmoeba]

It's a gamble.  But if you the bite tapers off or you are only catching small fish it's time to move on...  if you move and dont catch anything, in your mind, you will have chosen poorly.  

[WRB]

Age old tournament question "when to hold them or when fold them", no simple answer when time is limited. Move and someone else jumps on the spot, stay and hope they start to bite agian.

It's about timing and your knowledge what's going on at that lake. When I fished  tournaments my plan was to pre fish developing a milk run of hopefully 20 spots that had good potential of winning a tournament. The key was timing when to be where.

Tournaments I fished you get a start time and you may be the first or last out or anywhere inbetween. You better have back up plans because the good spots are known by the majority of the field. If you leave a spot it may be gone when you return.

Fun fishing is easy, no time constraints and few competitors for your spots, that is when you learn a lakes rythym, not during a tournament. Tournaments you trust your instincts.

Tom

[mheichelbech]

Not sure why but it seems like with spotted boss, at least where I fish, just turn off and on like a light switch.  I’ve pulled up on areas that I knew held fish in tournaments that guys were already there and hang back until they leave due to not catching fish, I moved in and fish it for an hour and they turn on and I load the boat.   Seeing the guys at the tournament and they thought I was lying about where I caught them!

[geo g]

A lot depends on how familiar you are with the location.  If you new to an area I move within a half hour of no bites.  But a proven spot I might last an hour.  

[slonezp]

The issue is how patient are you. Did you spook the school? Did they move? Did they turn off? Did an outside influence change the bite? My home water, in general, doesn't have schooling fish. If they are schooling, it's really obvious and predictable. The average depth of the river system I fish is 4ft deep. Bass schooling occurs during the carp and catfish hatch, and it is definitely a site to see. Watching the bass ball up a pod of minnows and take pot shots at them is better than anything you'd see on Discovery Channel.

 

If I'm tournament fishing, it's a judgement call. First thing I do is change it up. If that doesn't work, it's time to go. If I'm fun fishing, it doesn't matter.

[813basstard]

You can always circle back...

[CrankFate]

When it’s so windy that my nose is running, I usually call it quits after about 1-2 hours of that. When it’s so cold and windy that my eyes are tearing and my nose is running, maybe an hour to an hour and a half, tops. Unless fish are biting. But they never bite on those days.

[A-Jay]

9 minutes ago, CrankFate said:

When it’s so windy that my nose is running, I usually call it quits after about 1-2 hours of that. When it’s so cold and windy that my eyes are tearing and my nose is running, maybe an hour to an hour and a half, tops. Unless fish are biting. But they never bite on those days.

Add some Coppertone and you've got July in Northern Michigan 

@12poundbass

A-Jay

[WRB]

Fun fishing you control the time and place tournament fishing you usually don't have that option. Big difference between fishing for a pay check and recreational fishing.

I prefer fishing at my own pace but enjoy competition, it's different worlds.

I catch a lot of bass behind other anglers who don't know what's going on and had anglers catch bass I missed.Tournament fishing is both awarding and humbling. Give it try before you critique one or the other, you will understand the meaning or hold them or fold them.

Tom

 

[RoLo]

 

Whenever I retrieve my boat, that's generally a good time to be launching  ? 

[NHBull]

In the Spring, winds and temps are always changing so I tend to move a little more often....sometimes out of necessity.   I think it is also easier to move in the spring because a lot of water and technics can be eliminated.

 

Summer I move less unless the pattern is clear

[Catt]

Let's make one thing perfectly clear there's no difference between "fun" fishing vs "tournament" with this Cajun.

 

There's bass fishing! ?

 

Probably agree with @NHBull during pre-spawn/spawn it's easier for me to move. Dog days of summer & dead of winter I tend to grind it out.

[scaleface]

If I'm fishing for five bites like in a tourney situation I might stay on a spot for hours , have done so before . If I'm fishing for fun I'll leave after the fishing has slowed down considerably . It also depends on the size of bass and where it was caught  . I catch a lunker on structure I'm staying for a long time . I catch a lunker in cover I'll try to get a pattern going .Structure like in  points might harbor a school . Cover like laydowns usually dont give up more than a fish or two . Then there are the grass flats . Sometimes I keep going back and forth over and over . 

 

In other words "whatever floats my boat " .that day .

[ww2farmer]

3 minutes ago, Catt said:

Let's make one thing perfectly clear there's no difference between "fun" fishing vs "tournament" with this Cajun.

 

There's bass fishing! ?

 

 

Same here. I can't "turn it off or on" like some other people. So I go out every time with the same mindset....find them and catch them like paying the bills depended on it. Tournament or not. Sometimes I'm the only boat on the lake, and I'm fishing as if it was a tournament. I can't help it.

 

When to stay and when to go depends. On what? I wish I could tell you....It's really "gut feelings" for me most of the time.  Sometimes I have made the decision one way or the other and it's worked, some times it has not. That's the way it goes.

[Dirtyeggroll]

With few to no other boats on the lake, leaving and then coming back is my first instinct. That being said, on some bodies of water that I fish very consistently, I have been dwelling in a spot I know there are fish and exploring different presentations (fishing out a little deeper/faster vs slower) in the same spot. Mostly I have been doing this for anticipation of times when the lake would be full of other boats or fishing in a tournament, so I can maybe put a few more fish in the boat.

 

As far as tournament fishing is concerned, I stick pretty closely to “don’t leave fish to find fish.”

[papajoe222]

For me, if I am confident that there are numbers of fish there, I'll stick around. How I determine that is by the number of bites I get over a given time frame. In a tournament situation, if I get four bites in an hour, I'll stick around, especially if all four are in the live well.  That decision comes from a bad experience. I had four nice 16in.-17in. fish off a spot and left to check out a few others. I returned a couple of hours later, still with only four in the well and another angler was on the spot. He ended up winning by 8oz. over me as my 5th was barely legal.

Bass, especially off shore bass, may move off a spot to feed, but will return to their summer home. If they were feeding on the spot when I got there, I may move to the nearest, deeper, structure change when the bite dies. 

[NHBull]

.....I think this decision has more to do with experience and time on the water.  When first getting back in the sport, I over thought everything (sometimes still do) but after putting your time in, your gut is your best guide and your mind becomes more quiet.

 

No substitute for time on the water

[Sam]

I have seen Ike catch a beautiful bass after two guys had fished in the same area ahead of him. In fact, the two guys in their bass boat who had just left the area stood there and watched Ike land the big bass.

 

I caught a bass to the left of the Route 5 Chickahominy River's Riverfront Park's Gordon Creek ramp after another guy in my club fished it ahead of me. He could not believe he missed it.

 

So when the bite stops are all of the bass gone?

 

Maybe.  Maybe not.

 

I change my presentations or baits and give it another chance. If the changes do not produce bites then it is good bye and I go to another spot.  Later in the day I will go back to the spot and give it a try again.

 

I read a story about a tournament where the two guys in the boat, both pros, were fishing a lake.  The boater was running around to all kind of spots while the non-boater sat in  his seat and took naps and ate snacks.

 

The non-boater had the boater agree that when the non-boater wanted to have his say in where they went he would get it and that was the agreement.  So at 2 PM, with an hour left in the tournament, the non-boater told the boater where to go and stop. They sat there until 2:15 when the non-boater said here we go and he started to fish for the first time all day.

 

He caught nice bass on every cast made and the so did the boater. They must have caught at least 15 to 20 keepers each during a 15 minute time span.  Then the bite stopped and the non-boater said "OK,the boat is yours now."

 

This story taught me that you have to be in the right place at the right time and you got to know the right time.

 

The non-boater new that the bass would pass by this one spot every day and it was easy pickings. Unless you knew the exact place and exact time you would not enjoy catching them as they went by.

 

So go back if the place is a good one. The bass will repopulate the area sooner or later.

 

Go figure???

[Logan S]

Since it's a tournament situation, a big part of the decision is what you've already got in the livewell.  If you've got a decent bag already and are looking for upgrades, it's a lot easier to hang around...If not it's a bit harder.  

 

Beyond that, it's tough to say.  I think we've all been in that situation before and can sympathize, it's not an easy decision.  For me, it sometimes can be dictated on specific things like the time of year or type of water.  Unfortunately, the answer is the always unsatisfying, "It depends....."

[Glenn]

 

[N Florida Mike]

I fish through an area once. If I do well , I fish it again. If I don’t that time , I move on. Its that simple with me.

[mheichelbech]

An area I fish on the Ohio River, what I have seen is the bass seem to turn on and off throughout the day.  The key to me is, as mentioned earlier, knowing an area well which can be difficult to learn if you aren’t fishing at least every week.

[frogflogger]

After decades of bass fishing, tournament fishing, guiding and taking children fishing - whether to leave or not -flip a coin.