Timing

[deep]

With all this talk about right spots and right baits, I thought this might be interesting. (From In Pursuit of Giant Bass, Bill Murphy)

 

 

[Deleted account]

Yup, that applies to most fish.

[WRB]

Good to see you posting Deep!

As you all know I on the same page with timing and bass activity levels.

Tom

[Catt]

Some idiot wrote this ?

 

Understand that next after location is timing; just because you don't get bite does not mean the bass aren't there or you tied on the wrong lure.

[ironbjorn]

A 10-12 hour day diehard will certainly find themselves within this time zone at some point, most likely quite often.

[LrgmouthShad]

50 minutes ago, ironbjorn said:

A 10-12 hour day diehard will certainly find themselves within this time zone at some point, most likely quite often.

This is why I’ve been trying to spend longer periods of time on the water. Getting myself on the water is second nature. Keeping myself there after 6-7 hours is a work in progress.

[A-Jay]

Figuring out when it will happen seems almost as tricky as where.

But I have been known check & re-check a spot and even to 'camp' on a Good One

waiting for the 'right time'.

I'm a believer.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

 

[TOXIC]

There are 2 predominant strategies of fishing the Potomac or any other tidal water.  Once you figure out what tide condition the fish are biting on, you either camp on a spot and wait for the right tide or you run the right tide to multiple spots as the tide moves.  

[Tennessee Boy]

Fishing is more complicated than we like to admit.  Here in Tennessee,  the power generating schedule on the local lakes plays a big part in timing.  Wind,  sun position,  and countless other mystery factors also play a role in timing.  If you watched the final round of the last BPT tournament at Chickamauga,  the leaders were all on fish.  They all went through periods where they were catching fish on almost every cast and then they would go an hour or more without catching anything.  The fish didn't move,  they just stopped biting.  That's classic Tennessee river ledge fishing.  Some of the anglers moved when they stopped biting.  Others,  like the winner KVD,  stayed put and waited.

 

Rick Clunn recently said that he has adjusted the way he fishes in recent years to catch bigger fish.  He finds the best locations for big fish and then makes sure he's there when conditions are the best.  

 

It's a fact that timing matters.  How to adjust your fishing to account for that fact is important and very complicated.  Someone who has mastered timing (if that's even possible) is truly a master angler.

[Bird]

27 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Rick Clunn recently said that he has adjusted the way he fishes in recent years to catch bigger fish.  He finds the best locations for big fish and then makes sure he's there when conditions are the best.  

 

 

We had a local who caught citation after citation by doing just that. 

He would sit on a section of submerged cover for hours and not move if he thought a big fish was on it.

Actually thought he was catfishing one day when I passed by and asked. 

He said gotta keep this jig wet.

[Catt]

4 hours ago, A-Jay said:

I have been known check & re-check a spot and even to 'camp' on a Good One

waiting for the 'right time'.

 

Some spots I never check with electronics, only with lures.

[WRB]

I check after fishing a spot to see if anyone’s home and revisit it.

What folks are missing is bass are individuals on their own time schedule. Bite windows can be 20 minutes for a area or individual bass. You fish all day out of timing sequence and blank or be at the right place, time and lure the same day and kick bass. Time on the water is important.

Tom

[Catt]

18 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Some spots I never check with electronics, only with lures.

 

I need to clarify, these two items stay stay within hands reach. Once I have the boat positioned, I anchor down, turn all electronics off.

 

I may sit for an hour or two & have been known to camp out. This done on structure that's known to hold big momma.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Catt
Operator Error

[DitchPanda]

This is why in threads that ask if you fish fast or slow\methodical I say methodical. This is also why I say I'm a grinder. Being a bank angler this is even more crucial at times seeing as your already limited on the water you can cover. I have a couple spots on my local ponds that always have bass on it around...sometimes they bite right away sometimes its a matter of waiting them out. I remember last summer fishing a big piece of shallow wood. Caught a bass on a worm first flip. Missed one on the second. Then I bet I worked that cover with 3 presentations from 3-4 angles for another 25 minutes. Finally on about the 60th cast I got her.

[Rich12]

Caught a couple of hundred 10 plus fish out of Lake Fork when I guided there.  90 percent of those fish came between 11am and 1pm, the rest very very early or very late.  Dont know why, but I guess there is less work for them to do to feed without all the dinks running crazy.

 

[TnRiver46]

12 minutes ago, Rich12 said:

Caught a couple of hundred 10 plus fish out of Lake Fork when I guided there.  90 percent of those fish came between 11am and 1pm, the rest very very early or very late.  Dont know why, but I guess there is less work for them to do to feed without all the dinks running crazy.

 

I was about to post that we all know timing is important but no one has said anything about when the important times are until you posted

[roadwarrior]

15 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

I was about to post that we all know timing is important but no one has said anything about when the important times are until you posted

 

It has often been stated that Prime Time is 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM.

Maybe this corresponds to maximum light penetration in the water.

 

[LrgmouthShad]

50 minutes ago, roadwarrior said:

 

It has often been stated that Prime Time is 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM.

Maybe this corresponds to maximum light penetration in the water.

 

Why is maximum light penetration beneficial?

[TnRiver46]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Why is maximum light penetration beneficial?

Because the predator can see the lure/prey better is my guess 

[E-rude dude]

There are days I’ve fished all day till sundown and caught a sunburn. Then just after the sun goes past the horizon Caught fish after fish on a black spinner bait for 20-30 minutes. Suddenly it becomes a day you always remember.
 

 

 

[Mobasser]

My " timing " is best in hot summer, at sunup until around 11:00. Hot weather is usually easier to pattern bass and find the bite. Spring and fall are hit or miss. I like to fish shallow for about 1 HR when it's really hot, then check on deeper water areas to finish the trip.

[CrankFate]

Activity levels are huge. I always pray that I'm walking into a feeding frenzy as I first get my line in the water. When I am in fishing mode, I am practicing in my sleep every day. Then, the night before I go, I'm dreaming about walking into a starving fish with lots of competition situation, biting just to stop the rest of the fish from eating more. Which makes getting skunked even worse.......

[Catt]

5 hours ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Why is maximum light penetration beneficial?

 

5 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Because the predator can see the lure/prey better is my guess 

 

My guess is it's has something to do with plankton, baitfish, & bass...ya know that whole circle of life thing.

[scaleface]

I dont have time to wait them out , I'm going fishing . Works for me .

[TOXIC]

At one of the cottages we rented for years in Wisconsin, it was on 2 lakes that were shaped like a figure 8 connected to the other lakes by a canal.  The 2nd story deck overlooked the lakes and I could pretty much see all of the lake on the bottom of the “8”.  I would sit on the deck at sunup drinking my coffee and look out over the lake and it never failed that the bass would school up and start feeding on bait.  I would finish my coffee, walk down to the dock and get in the boat and use the trolling motor to get within a cast of the school and just wear them out for the next hour or 2 with a Yamamoto DShad moving the boat with the school.  After the bite quit, I would motor back to the dock and go in for breakfast.?