New spots vs Old Reliable

[walt-14]

What are everyone's thoughts on trying new bodies of water when you know that your local spot is going to produce fish?  I am always one that feel like i "want" to fish new bodies of water but then there's always that voice in my head that kind of talks me out of it due to the worry of not catching anything and then essentially I just wasted my time.  My local pond has some decent largemouth in it.  I would say a nice fish in that lake is a 2.5 lber.  I know there are some larger ones in there though.  I hear good reports from other places in the area but are completely unfamiliar with these spots.  Also keeping in mind that I am strictly a shore fisherman and don't have access to any electronics or a boat.  What are everyone's thoughts?  Are you guys the type that are willing to go and have a decent chance of getting skunked at a new place or sticking the "old reliable" home waters?

[MIbassyaker]

I have an itch for discovery. The reward of stumbling on a productive spot you didn't know about  is easily worth the risk of getting skunked.  Every year I identify a few bodies of water near me that I've never been to and try them out (in theory I'll run out of new places eventually, but hasn't happened yet).  I also greatly prefer to diversify rather then go to the same place every time, and most places I fish I visit only once or twice a year.  3 or 4 times max.

 

This is especially true for small waters, which can fish very differently even when very close to each other.

[Team9nine]

Go!! As a bank angler, half the fun IMO is checking out a new location and trying to figure it out. Never a waste of time in my book, even if you blank. You still learned something, and the more spots you have in your rotation, the more fish you’ll likely catch over the course of a year. There’s always the possibility the new lake is better than the old.

[TOXIC]

Go!  New spots offer the thrill of finding new fish and making your brain work which in the long run will make you a better fisherman.  Although from a boat, I did the same the last couple of years branching out from the Potomac river where we had a lot of familiar water to the Rappahonock river where we had to start from scratch.  It’s been fun and rewarding.  

[jimmyjoe]

   You're definitely talking my language! As a died-in-the-wool shorecaster, I've always had the fight inside. It was between the places where I was comfortable, and new spots which I knew could sometimes be total blanks. Going from farm ponds to small rivers to the Mississippi, and from points to dams, I was always frustrated and confounded with each change in surroundings and ecosystem. But I would learn how to catch fish, and I would learn how to love and admire the beauty of the new places and the different natural surroundings as I progressed. Over the years, I met new and interesting people, some of whom were as crazy as I was. Some are still my friends. Some are in my prayers every night.

   And I'm still going. In 57 years of fishing, I've come almost full circle, and now I'm fishing lakes. Yeah, I had a short period of time during which I was frustrated, but the crazy people here helped me kinda like the crazy people on the river helped me, and now I'm comfortable almost anywhere.

   You think I'd give all that up? All that I've learned, all the people I've met, and all the places I've seen up close and personal? Heck, no! Everyone has some kind of key to unlock the doors of their life. Hunting, racing, photography, music, hiking or whatever. For me, it has been fishing. That's been my key.

 

   Sounds like it might be your key, too. After all, it's about more than just catching fish.    ?      jj

  

  

[Bankc]

The more bodies of water you fish, the more you'll learn.  If all you ever do is fish the same body of water, all you'll learn is how to fish in that body.  You won't learn how to fish in general.  But if you fish many bodies of water, then you'll learn how to fish anywhere.  And that information will carry over to your usual lakes and ponds.  

 

You don't get better if you don't challenge yourself.  Failure is only failure if you learned nothing from it.  And success is only success if you earned it.

[soflabasser]

The more different places you learn to fish well the more well rounded bass fisherman you are.

[Miabucman]

I would agree with the others and try a few new spots! I have been in your shoes before and would always go to the same lake/pond or two.  Once I decided to try out a few spots, it was enjoyable to try a new spot or two and actually try and break down the lake.  Should I head over the rip-rap, or try the docks, or skirt the heavily weeded area to fish where there is no sign of life?  Just think of it as an adventure and always know that you can hit your favorites when you definitely want to have tight lines.

 

[scaleface]

I have a new spot I've been planning on fishing every winter for the past ten years. Then fishing season starts I dont go there . 

[Bankbeater]

Go try a new fishing spot.  You can always go back to your old fishing spot on the next trip.

[DitchPanda]

Don't do it man...don't go to the dark side! You know two spots within an hour that have PBs lurking in them just waiting for you. Catch a PB then start trying new spots!

[bowhunter63]

I’m so guilty of fishing my favorite spots. But maybe this year is the year to try some new ones Maybe we will see

[PhishLI]

I have my favorite local spots. My comfort zones. Every other weekend during the season I fish with my brother. Sometimes we fish my spots and sometimes we fish his. We either do yaks, wade, or the boat. This past season we acted on a plan to hit new water as much as possible. We found some off the radar places, and we rarely fished the same spot twice. Yes, we skunked sometimes, but more importantly we got the lay of the land. We graphed and took notes. We pretty much winged it the first time out, but there are a few places we're going back to with a purpose and strategy. We're looking forward to winning in those waters, and that's definitely spiced things up for us.

[Bluebasser86]

I'm always on the hunt for new places to try, even if it's a new area on a body of water I've fished hundreds of times.

[Catt]

I've been fishing Toledo Bend for 52 yrs & it still leaves me scratching my head!

 

Old reliable doesn't guarentee ya will not get skunked.

[DitchPanda]

15 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I'm always on the hunt for new places to try, even if it's a new area on a body of water I've fished hundreds of times.

This is something I did last year more because of the covid crowds kinda hogging my normal spots. It actually worked much better then anticipated.

 

15 hours ago, Catt said:

I've been fishing Toledo Bend for 52 yrs & it still leaves me scratching my head!

 

Old reliable doesn't guarentee ya will not get skunked.

I agree...sometimes it just ain't meant to be

[Catt]

55 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

This is something I did last year more because of the covid crowds kinda hogging my normal spots. It actually worked much better then anticipated.

 

I agree...sometimes it just ain't meant to be

 

The best 2 days they bite, the day before you get there, & the day after you leave.

[roadwarrior]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

 

The best 2 days they bite, the day before you get there, & the day after you leave.

 

I have fished both of those days.

[Koz]

I think some people missed the point that the OP fishes from the bank, so I will add my two cents. As someone who bank fishes I hate trying to bank fish bigger lakes. The few bank spots available are usually crowded and more often than not the fishing isn’t that good. Without a boat or kayak I don’t see the point.

 

But, if the OP has access to more ponds where he can cover lots of ground then that’s a different story. I’d go for it. 

[DitchPanda]

2 hours ago, Catt said:

 

The best 2 days they bite, the day before you get there, & the day after you leave.

Ha yeah I've been that guy that fished those days and tick people off by bragging about it...more often than not tho I'm that middle day guy.

[MN Fisher]

16 minutes ago, Koz said:

As someone who bank fishes I hate trying to bank fish bigger lakes. The few bank spots available are usually crowded and more often than not the fishing isn’t that good. Without a boat or kayak I don’t see the point.

^ This. When I'm relegated to bank fishing - there's only four easily accessible spots near me. One gets weed-choaked early in the season and is home to mostly sunnies. The other three are crowded with sunny/crappie fishers.

 

Ya, I get a line wet those times, but the structure/cover leaves a lot to be desired.

 

There are a few other bank spots - but the local cities have instituted no-parking for quite a distance from them...meaning I'd have to hoof it quite a bit to get to them.

[RoLo]

 

New or old, it boils down to...What have you done for me lately?

Established holding sites tend to cycle in hierarchy according to current cover.

 

Roger

[gim]

1 hour ago, MN Fisher said:

There are a few other bank spots

There are a number of spots where people seem to just stack up along shore on Tonka. I mostly launch at the Grays Bay access and every bridge I go under has people fishing there in the channel. The channel leading to Lord Fletchers from the east has soooooooooooo many people, especially in the spring when the panfish are shallow.

 

Some of them are reluctant to move their bobbers too...

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, gimruis said:

The channel leading to Lord Fletchers from the east has soooooooooooo many people, especially in the spring when the panfish are shallow.

Ya - that's one of the 'three' I mentioned. The others being the North Arm launch area with the channel between North Arm and Crystal Bay, and of course Black Lake.

[Sphynx]

Being on an 18 wheeler and fishing when and where the opportunity arises it's been mostly about discovery for me, met lots of real cool folks around the country, met some real bad ones too, fished some great spots that I enjoyed very much, fished some fish-less waters too (yes, actually fish-less, I found out that evening from a conservation officer that was having a chuckle at my determined efforts to get a bite that the entire reservoir had been drained a month before that and had not yet been restocked) and that wasn't so great even if it's funny looking back, it helped me learn to start paying attention more, catching quality fish is the reward for reading the formula right for a given set of conditions, rather than walking up to a body of water now and hoping there are fish, I am much, much better at figuring out where the fish have a high probability of being and that has made me a better angler fundamentally, I have friends who fish very limited areas, and those guys have named every blade of grass and pebble in the places they fish and you are never going to outfish them on the home water, but you take them to a new lake they are lost in the sauce, nothing necessarily right or wrong with either approach, mostly depends on your lifestyle and how much moving around you either do, or want to do.