How Common Is For An Area To Be Hot One Day, And Dead The Next?

[TheBassMan79]

I got a question for you guys, since you are more experienced than I am on this.

How common is it for a fishing spot to be hot one day, and dead the next?

For example, yesterday morning, I had strikes left and right at this one spot.

This morning, nothing at all at the same spot. It was strange to me really.

[webertime]

Pretty common with plenty of reason.

Bait/food movement, wind change, barometric pressure change, you stung most of the fish and they are a bit sore . If it rains a lot and cools off or muddies the water...

[salmicropterus]

Happens in Florida a lot, particularly in the times of the year when the fish are schooling and moving around herding bait like summer and fall. In my case, it's usually "there for you yesterday, gone for me today" LOL. On the other hand, when we have our pre, spawn and post times all of which can be concurrent with different cadres of fish, the locations can be locked down pretty good and I think that may be the case in a lot of areas of the country

[tholmes]

It's much more common than I'd like it to be

Tom

["BRB"]

Sometimes its just not the right time. I went out had a really good luck one day next day back to the same spot next morning and nothing. I would leave it and fish other spots and come back later in the day and they start feeding and have more luck and other times I would hit it up 2 or 3 times a day and nothing. You can just never can tell.

[RoLo]

That's "extremely" common, in fact it's not uncommon

for fishing to flip from Hot to Cold within the hour.

Not catching bass does not mean that the bass are gone.

In my opinion, not catching bass in a known hotspot usually means

that changing conditions have made them less catchable in that location at that time.

Roger

[Catt]

That's "extremely" common, in fact it's not uncommon

for fishing to flip from Hot to Cold within the hour.

Not catching bass does not mean that the bass are gone.

In my opinion, not catching bass in a known hotspot usually means

that changing conditions have made them less catchable in that location at that time.

Roger

Exactly

[Sam]

Very common.

Sometimes you do great and other times you skunk.

Study your body of water and keep notes for every time you fish so you can determine if there is a pattern.

When I fish tournaments my partners always want to go and hit their favorite "secret places" which may or may not produce.

Last year on the Rappahannock River we hit one of my secret places and the guy with me caught three big ladies and won the tournament. This year we went back and never got a bite.

Go figure.

[Gotfishyfingers?]

In general yes it's pretty common. There a a ton of reasons why as well. How big or small of a "Spot" are you talking about? A rock pile, A 50 ft long ledge, 100 yard shoreline or a local pond? Also are you fishing from shore or on a boat? `

[J Francho]

Or dead on tournament day, and hot the next? Pretty common, LOL.

[TheBassMan79]

In general yes it's pretty common. There a a ton of reasons why as well. How big or small of a "Spot" are you talking about? A rock pile, A 50 ft long ledge, 100 yard shoreline or a local pond? Also are you fishing from shore or on a boat? `

I'm fishing from shore on the river where there is an eddy My target area is about 50 yards wide.

[NBR]

Years ago fishing a lake on the MN/ONT border we pulled onto an island point and caught several walleyes right up against the shore. We fished that lake for many years shallow, medium, deep and never caught another walleye there. So the islands name became "One-Time Island".

[Siebert Outdoors]

Pretty common with plenty of reason.

Bait/food movement, wind change, barometric pressure change, you stung most of the fish and they are a bit sore . If it rains a lot and cools off or muddies the water...

Yes sir.

[TheBassMan79]

Years ago fishing a lake on the MN/ONT border we pulled onto an island point and caught several walleyes right up against the shore. We fished that lake for many years shallow, medium, deep and never caught another walleye there. So the islands name became "One-Time Island".

So basically its smart to move spots since this spot is cold right now, correct?

[RAMBLER]

A friend and I went out on a lake, the other day, that people had been catching fish on. My second cast, I had a hit on a buzzbait, but no hookup. That was the best we did all day. We tried buzzbaits, pop-r, spinner baits, weightless worms, carolina rig, bouncing strike king square bill plug off of sunken logs. Tried a hole that Evers caught bass in during the Elite seires tournament here in Florida. Nothing. The weather had been HOT. A cold/high pressure front came through. Made the weather absolutely beautiful to be out on the lake but the catching was horrible. Still, we had a really good boat ride.

[Jim H.]

A friend and I went out on a lake, the other day, that people had been catching fish on. My second cast, I had a hit on a buzzbait, but no hookup. That was the best we did all day. We tried buzzbaits, pop-r, spinner baits, weightless worms, carolina rig, bouncing strike king square bill plug off of sunken logs. Tried a hole that Evers caught bass in during the Elite seires tournament here in Florida. Nothing. The weather had been HOT. A cold/high pressure front came through. Made the weather absolutely beautiful to be out on the lake but the catching was horrible. Still, we had a really good boat ride.

Fish, especially in shallow water, are very sensitive to change. I used to fish a flatland lake that had a relatively deep river channel with shallow flats on either side. Those flats could be treacherous to folks not intimately familiar with them so every body would "run" the channel. There were stumps and other cover along the channel that held fish most of the pre and post spawn seasons. I've seen lots of people pre fish a tournament and be 100% convinced they were going to have a big bag come Saturday catching fish on the main channel. On Saturday a hundred or more boats running up and down the channel would give those fish lockjaw until sometime around Tuesday!

If you have fish located, and a pattern established, don't count on it holding if a change in conditions occurs. That condition may be obvious to you (big storm) or as subtle as a small change in wind direction or speed. Some things that will almost always change the bass' routines are what I call the "too factors." It can be either: Too hot, too, cold, too calm, too windy, too muddy, too clear, too, too deep, too shallow, too early, too late, too crowded, too anything!

The risk is that the "too factors" can ruin your mental attitude. You can see all the reasons you should not catch 'em, while overlooking the reasons you should! Just my $.02.

Pn S

[BassThumb]

Just going from cloudy to sunny on back to back days will do that sometimes.

[Triton21]

The biggest factor for 'here today, gone tomorrow' is that FISH SWIM. Unless you have a tracking device implanted sometimes they are hard to find.

Kelley

[jignfule]

Happens all the time. Day to Day, Hour to Hour, and even one minute to the next. I've seen it slow for hours then hot for 4-5 minutes then back to slow.

[skeetercraig]

when they are hard to catch go through a progression start at the top of water column and work to the bottom or the other way around

[CWB]

I got a question for you guys, since you are more experienced than I am on this.

How common is it for a fishing spot to be hot one day, and dead the next?

For example, yesterday morning, I had strikes left and right at this one spot.

This morning, nothing at all at the same spot. It was strange to me really.

You just described the story of my life.