When to move on?

[OG SmashSauce]

Sooooo, I am officially addicted to bass fishing! I have been going out on my Bass raider every weekend for awhile and I dont want to do anything but bass fish!!! I am still new but I think I am getting the hang of it....

 

One of my questions when I am on the water is.....lets say I get to a hole and I catch a bass. I automatically move on down the lake to a diff spot. Should I continue to fish that hole for more or is it pretty much one bass a hole?

 

Also side question....if I catch a small bass in a hole...does that mean there are no big ones in there because there are smaller ones? lol

 

Sorry if these are dumb questions!

 

Thanks!

[Dens228]

Never leave fish to catch fish.  

With that being said I generally don't catch my bigger bass in a spot I've been catching smaller bass.  

I do however catch bigger bass at spots that I've caught smaller bass at a different time.  But when I catch a bigger bass there I generally don't catch the smaller ones.  LOL

[scaleface]

I really dont know what you mean by a hole , but I usually fish the area more after I caught a bass .There can be a big bass nearby but probably not in the exact spot . Big bass will most likely  be in the prime spot .

[BigAngus752]

27 minutes ago, Dens228 said:

Never leave fish to catch fish.  

With that being said I generally don't catch my bigger bass in a spot I've been catching smaller bass.  

I do however catch bigger bass at spots that I've caught smaller bass at a different time.  But when I catch a bigger bass there I generally don't catch the smaller ones.  LOL

^^^this^^^

In my lakes this is also true.  If I catch a 1 to 2.5 pound bass I can guarantee there are more in the same area.  If I catch a 3-4 pounder I might find some smaller bass in the same area or I might not.  If I catch anything over 5lbs I might as well move on.  The big mamas are loners.  

[scaleface]

6 minutes ago, BigAngus752 said:

^^^this^^^

In my lakes this is also true.  If I catch a 1 to 2.5 pound bass I can guarantee there are more in the same area.  If I catch a 3-4 pounder I might find some smaller bass in the same area or I might not.  If I catch anything over 5lbs I might as well move on.  The big mamas are loners.  

Thats not always the case though , especially post spawn . I caught back to back 6 lbers on the same small stick up . . 

[OG SmashSauce]

18 minutes ago, scaleface said:

I really dont know what you mean by a hole

Maybe its a washington state thing or just my area lol.... A fishing hole is just a spot where you think there are fish at is all...nothing crazy

[Hammer 4]

What type of baits are you using..?

[OG SmashSauce]

14 minutes ago, Hammer 4 said:

What type of baits are you using..?

I normally start off using a nightcrawler and try to get in and around the docks and then eventually i switch to pumpkin senkos......typically. I bounce between using a top water bait but only have caught one tiny one with it.

[Hammer 4]

Maybe try some different baits, like a jig with a decent sized trailer. Those have caught many big bass, and while smaller bass will bit them, they attract bigger fish too for the most part.

[OG SmashSauce]

34 minutes ago, Hammer 4 said:

Maybe try some different baits, like a jig with a decent sized trailer. Those have caught many big bass, and while smaller bass will bit them, they attract bigger fish too for the most part.

I will give that a try.... off to youtube i go! lol

[BigAngus752]

3 hours ago, scaleface said:

Thats not always the case though , especially post spawn . I caught back to back 6 lbers on the same small stick up . . 

Not in central Illiinois you didn't....LOL. 

[scaleface]

1 hour ago, BigAngus752 said:

Not in central Illiinois you didn't....LOL. 

Hannibal Mo . It borders Central Illinois .

[Bass Ninja]

11 hours ago, OG SmashSauce said:

Sooooo, I am officially addicted to bass fishing! I have been going out on my Bass raider every weekend for awhile and I dont want to do anything but bass fish!!! I am still new but I think I am getting the hang of it....

 

One of my questions when I am on the water is.....lets say I get to a hole and I catch a bass. I automatically move on down the lake to a diff spot. Should I continue to fish that hole for more or is it pretty much one bass a hole?

 

Also side question....if I catch a small bass in a hole...does that mean there are no big ones in there because there are smaller ones? lol

 

Sorry if these are dumb questions!

 

Thanks!

I'm like you, I keep moving, and I've done fairly well. But a couple weeks ago an older gentleman who is a local legend took me fishing on his boat and schooled me lol He flipped weeds 90% of the time, and at one point we came across this patch of weed mats probably 5ft wide and 30ft long at an entrance to a cove. A boat in front of us circled it once, flipped the edges and moved on. We pull up, and he goes to work, methodically picking it apart. He caught a couple 2lbers the first time around. We go around again, and I'm like, there can maybe be one more fish in here. Sure enough, He catches a 1lber. I'm getting bored so I started throwing a chatterbait at deeper water, waiting to go back in the cove and flip some new weeds. Well, he circles it again the 3rd time. At this point we've been flipping this patch of weeds for almost 2 hours now. I'm getting annoyed but not saying anything because we've thoroughly picked this patch apart, but around we go again. Halfway around, he catches a 5lber. Totally blew my mind. I would never have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes haha. I don't know if that fish came in while we were circling or if it had been there the whole time. All I know is, my friend made sure there were no fish left in those weeds, and if I had been by myself, I would have gotten maybe one and figured nothing else was there. Lesson learned. 

[BassNJake]

15 hours ago, Dens228 said:

Never leave fish to catch fish.  

With that being said I generally don't catch my bigger bass in a spot I've been catching smaller bass.  

I do however catch bigger bass at spots that I've caught smaller bass at a different time.  But when I catch a bigger bass there I generally don't catch the smaller ones.  LOL

I routinely leave fish to find fish.

I am looking for active bass, I'm not trying to spend 30 minutes coaxing a shy bass into biting.

Often I will find schools of fish suspended , some of these schools are actively feeding, others are not

I have wasted countless hours trying to get the school to "fire up"

The same thing applies to deeper brush, standing timber a lot of time fish just hunker down 

In my experience I do better trying to find active bass than I do trying to "trick" a weary bass

15 hours ago, OG SmashSauce said:

One of my questions when I am on the water is.....lets say I get to a hole and I catch a bass. I automatically move on down the lake to a diff spot. Should I continue to fish that hole for more or is it pretty much one bass a hole?

Here in TN for about 8 months of the year here is my routine

I will break the section of lake I'm fishing into 50- 100 yd stretches depending on how many targets are there.

(targets being both cover and/or structure)

I'm throwing a top water (9/10 times its a toad and my favorite way to catch fish) once I get to the end

I will go right back down the same section pitching/flipping a reverse rig senko at the same targets

This allows some time for the area to settle a little but I'm not missing the active fish that are in that area

This is way more productive for me than if I was to milk each target with 7-10 casts before moving to the next one

My lake has no weeds so that also comes into play, when I go fish at Chickamauga, you can sit on one patch of weeds all day

[Captain Phil]

Never leave fish to find fish.  Nine times out of ten you will do better staying where you caught fish. 

4 hours ago, Bass Ninja said:

I'm like you, I keep moving, and I've done fairly well. But a couple weeks ago an older gentleman who is a local legend took me fishing on his boat and schooled me lol He flipped weeds 90% of the time, and at one point we came across this patch of weed mats probably 5ft wide and 30ft long at an entrance to a cove. A boat in front of us circled it once, flipped the edges and moved on. We pull up, and he goes to work, methodically picking it apart. He caught a couple 2lbers the first time around. We go around again, and I'm like, there can maybe be one more fish in here. Sure enough, He catches a 1lber. I'm getting bored so I started throwing a chatterbait at deeper water, waiting to go back in the cove and flip some new weeds. Well, he circles it again the 3rd time. At this point we've been flipping this patch of weeds for almost 2 hours now. I'm getting annoyed but not saying anything because we've thoroughly picked this patch apart, but around we go again. Halfway around, he catches a 5lber. Totally blew my mind. I would never have believed it if I didn't see it with my own eyes haha. I don't know if that fish came in while we were circling or if it had been there the whole time. All I know is, my friend made sure there were no fish left in those weeds, and if I had been by myself, I would have gotten maybe one and figured nothing else was there. Lesson learned. 

What happened was the old guy knew the fish were in that weed bed.  He also most likely knew when they would bite as well.  Back when I was tournament fishing the Harris Chain, I found a weed bed on Little Lake Harris that held some large flipping fish.  In some tournaments, I would fish that same weed bed all day.  You couldn't get a bite until around 11 AM.   Like clock work, the fish would start biting around 11 AM.  To this day I do not know if the fish moved in at 11 AM or they just became active.   

 

Back then, I knew where fish were on a daily basis.  In the fall I would follow them into and out of Haines Creek.  In one tournament I caught a 8 pound bass at the bend around 9 AM.  I rode for hours without another hit.  About an hour before the tournament ended,  I went back to that same place and caught a 9.  I won the tournament with two fish.  

 

Searching for fish is different than fishing for fish you already know are there.

[scaleface]

19 minutes ago, Captain Phil said:

o this day I do not know if the fish moved in at 11 AM or they just became active.   

Kind of like catching them at the mouth of creeks in the morning and the rear in the afternoon . Did the fish move or did the bite move ? I dont know why it happens , it just happens .

[Dens228]

4 hours ago, BassNJake said:

I routinely leave fish to find fish.

I am looking for active bass, I'm not trying to spend 30 minutes coaxing a shy bass into biting.

Often I will find schools of fish suspended , some of these schools are actively feeding, others are not

I have wasted countless hours trying to get the school to "fire up"

The same thing applies to deeper brush, standing timber a lot of time fish just hunker down 

In my experience I do better trying to find active bass than I do trying to "trick" a weary bass

Here in TN for about 8 months of the year here is my routine

I will break the section of lake I'm fishing into 50- 100 yd stretches depending on how many targets are there.

(targets being both cover and/or structure)

I'm throwing a top water (9/10 times its a toad and my favorite way to catch fish) once I get to the end

I will go right back down the same section pitching/flipping a reverse rig senko at the same targets

This allows some time for the area to settle a little but I'm not missing the active fish that are in that area

This is way more productive for me than if I was to milk each target with 7-10 casts before moving to the next one

My lake has no weeds so that also comes into play, when I go fish at Chickamauga, you can sit on one patch of weeds all day

It depends on what's going on.  If I'm in a tournament and find keepers I stay until I have my five.  Then I start picking spots apart that may have larger so I can cull.  If I'm on a spot and catch a couple around the same size that won't cull, I'm out of there.  Also when I catch a large bass, knowing it's probably the only large one in the spot, I still cast a few more times just in case! LOL

 

But sometimes when it's been a few slow outings in a row and I want to just catch, catch, catch, I go to a certain couple of places and get my 30-40 12-14" and am happy! 

[txchaser]

I'll usually step down in intensity of presentation a few times, and more often than not it'll pull more fish out. Example if I caught one or two in a spot on a chatterbait, and I've put the chatterbait all around the spot with nothing else, I might throw a paddletail at it a bit, then a senko or a jig. Part of what I'm trying to do is get a bit of a pattern - some days I can't get them to bite anything else, others it pulls quite a few more out. Like people, some are more aggressive than others for specific food. I won't get out of the chair for a PBJ sandwich, but bacon will pop me right out.

 

To your question about little fish, one of the things I learned here that seems to almost always be true is that big fish don't do little fish things. They do big fish things. So they are likely somewhere else.

[Boomstick]

Well they say one is a fluke, but two is a pattern. If you caught one fish and didn't even get a bite for a while, I would probably move on. As a kayaker, if I get a fish, I'm going to target that spot for a while maybe 15-30 minutes and move on. If it's a small lake and not crowded, I'm more inclined to move to similar spots because I can always move back in less time. If it's a large lake or crowded, I'll be more inclined to target the same spot for longer.

[DitchPanda]

I fish an area until they shut off...I don't cast catch and instantly move on. For example I caught 14 Thursday....random 1 here random 1 there then boom 12 from the same small area.

[Jleebesaw]

I used to be on the move the whole time. Always wanting to hit that next spot. With experiance ive gotten to a point where i feel confident in my decision to fish a spot. I have a good idea where i will catch them before i launch the boat. Ive learned to eliminate spots for many reasons. So that in turn has got me to where i generally fish slower. I pick apart places that i think will be good thoroughly before moving on. 

   On a side note, i have done some scuba diving. One thing that surprised me is the amount of bass that are in the water. They are all over the place. Its amazing. I now know for a fact that there are always bass in the likely spots. Our lures go by bass all day long and only a few of them decide to bite. This fact also contributed to me slowing down when i fish. The bass are there. No doubt about it. If you work an area enough, you will figure out what they want.

[Bankbeater]

As long as the bite is regular I stay, but if it turns off or changes I move. If I'm in a spot where I'm catching say 3 lb bass, and I start catching dinks, or start getting bluegill taps, I move on. 

[schplurg]

1 hour ago, Jleebesaw said:

-- snip --

   On a side note, i have done some scuba diving. One thing that surprised me is the amount of bass that are in the water. They are all over the place. Its amazing. I now know for a fact that there are always bass in the likely spots. Our lures go by bass all day long and only a few of them decide to bite. This fact also contributed to me slowing down when i fish. The bass are there. No doubt about it. If you work an area enough, you will figure out what they want.

After fishing clear water for a few weeks in a local creek, I now know I can drag a lure right by a bunch of bass and they will watch it, follow it, but not bite. If the water were stained I'd have no idea they were doing this.

 

A lot of the fish in question are too small for my bait though. They'll follow my worm, watch it drop and lay still, and just stare at it. Twitch, hop, jerk, doesn't matter. Sometimes the little ones do strike it though.

 

It's awesome seeing a fish hit after you've enticed it for awhile. I'm learning a LOT watching these fish - where they hide, how fast they strike, how long they examine a bait before striking or giving up - very very cool stuff.

[lo n slo]

20 hours ago, DitchPanda said:

I fish an area until they shut off...I don't cast catch and instantly move on. For example I caught 14 Thursday....random 1 here random 1 there then boom 12 from the same small area.

this sounds a lot like the spotted bass bite that i experience. find a good school and for the next hour you’re Billy Dance ?

[slonezp]

In general, fish of the same year class, hang together. If you have 5 fish totaling 10lbs in your livewell, you will be culling ounces, not pounds fishing the same school.