When the fishing is tough.. do you tend to change bait/lure more often or location?
If you fish a spot without a bite how long until you change location?
I'm curious if my problem is wrong lure, or just need to get what I'm throwing in front of some active fish..
Try to cover a lot of water and relate my bait choices to the most readily available forage until I get a bite and then slow down and answer why.
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If it's slow, running through a multitude of baits in a know good area is probably smarter than bobbing and weaving while swapping lures, you may miss fish with the wrong bait. Shoulda zigged instead of zagged.
then after getting bites or catching, continue on with those baits in new spots.
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I give a spot 20 minutes. If the fish don’t bite in that time period, I’m off to another location. BUT, I only fish high confidence baits. As a result, I know that if the fish are there and in even a slight mood to feed, one of my baits will catch them, if not, I’m gone looking for fish that will bite.
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Friday I was fishing on Table Rock, the bass were biting but you had to find them and when I found them it was almost a bite on every cast. I used my confidence baits and if I wasn't getting bit, not seeing anything on the sonar, then I would move to other spots until I found them. My first goal is to find fish and when I find them if they are not biting on what I think they should be biting, then I'll switch out lures.
Great question... Sometimes I get in zombie mode and just keep fishing with no results. Or changing/ swapping lures. I gotta talk myself into making a change.
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Same thing here. I feel like I need to move more for sure. Especially after reading here.Originally Posted by Alumicraft145
same here. I’ll get to my first spot and use the trolling motor to putt around the lake. I definitely need to move locations more often and not just try to milk an area. I’ll make the same drift 5-6 times on the 1000 islands before moving to a different spot.. every person who I know that excels up there will do one drift and move if they don’t get bit
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I do this on tournament day, and before you know it it's 12 o clock and I spend the rest of the day scrambling to get a bite
I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.
Last Thursday I stopped on a spot first light , caught a 4 on a jig then fished there for 2 hours without a bite. Fish were there but just not biting well in 49 degree water
I'm not patient enough to stay in one place unless I'm catching them one after the other. My foot is almost always on the trolling motor. I swap baits several times in one spot and if I don't get a bite relatively quickly, I'm moving on. Probably miss quite a few fish that way, but I'm just not wired to stay in one spot.
I've got a fishing buddy that will make a plan, and he sticks to it to a fault. I can't count how many times I've seen him fish one spot all day and not catch a thing, but refuse to give up on his strategy.
Total cop out, but for me, "it depends," and I think time on the water is the best way to get the feel for that. Generally speaking, when it's summertime and the fish tend to get in certain areas or on certain cover, I'll rotate spots a lot. Maybe 20 minutes a spot. Maybe. Most of the areas I'm fishing that time of year I've spent a ton of time graphing and learning, and like Jeff mentions, I have several confidence techniques that I'll throw that I'm confident will get bit. I'll hit it from different angles, then peace out to the next spot looking for fish that will bite. If I've got a good bag coming together, I do tend to stick around on known big fish spots longer. There have been multiple times where I've found that really saturating those areas can pay off with a key bite, particularly later in the day. That said, those spots are often one bite type spots where you feel like you're likely to win if you manage to get two or three bites there.
I also tend to pay attention to what others are doing: If I see boats moving around a lot, I tend to take that as a sign that the fish aren't biting well and that I may need to slow down a little in my spots. If people aren't moving much and I'm not catching, that tells me it's a wrong place type of issue and I better get a move on. If it's spring or fall, I'm usually pattern fishing or covering a lot more water, so I think it's different then.
For what it's worth, the above is my ideal approach. When I'm fishing well, that's usually how it goes. Interestingly, I always seem to do much better with this earlier in the season after I've spent all winter learning and convincing myself that I need to approach things a certain way. But I definitely tend to get into zombie mode at times, especially as the season wears on, finding myself spending way too much time at one technique or in one area, and it almost never pays off. I've not lived in MN all that long, and there was a learning curve to having success fishing here for a guy who grew up fishing man-made reservoirs that get dropped 30-80 feet in the winter (read: no grass), that max out at like 2,500 acres, and where it's surprisingly common to win tourneys with less than a limit or a 5 fish limit that weighs less than 5 lbs. On one hand, knowing how to fish around here (and what quality of fish I need to find) has been a big help. On the other, I do find myself getting too locked in on what I think the fish should be doing instead of figuring out what they are doing.
One thing that sticks in my mind is the answer that basically every pro gives when asked about the difference between a weekend angler and a pro: The ability to cover water. To me that says that the average guy spends too much time in one spot, and it's my number one goal to work on for the upcoming year.
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I move but not necessarily to a new area I might fish shallower or deeper spots in the same area with a few different techniques
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I get in zombie mode all to often. I think a large part of your question has to be where, when and how big a lake you are fishing. Some small lakes like in MN, you can cover 1/4 to 1/2 a lake in 4-6 hours. On large impoundments might take 30 minutes just to get to your first spot. Look for activity, both above and below the water. Signs of life. On impoundments a creek can be full of fish 1 week and void of fish in a few days. But no more than 30 minutes with a few different lure types on a spot. And don't get locked in on the 1 FISH.
When the fishing is tough I first have to figure out why. If it's normal water conditions, season, weather, etc. and the fish just aren't biting. I will be more apt to move until I locate fish willing to play along. Now if it's tough because of abnormal conditions such as high/low water, muddy water, or extremely hot/cold then I will generally camp out in a high percentage area and rotate baits/depth range until I get a gauge on what the fish are doing.
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10 casts im gone. two guys two different baits one with a bobber and a spinner bait, the other carolina rigging a floating jerk bait.
Was watching the 2015 Chesapeake bay bassmaster event last night. On the last day, Aaron Martens spent all day fishing on set of docks and hadn't landed a fish. He was melting down after missing a couple bites but stuck with his plan.
He knew the fish were there and also knew that the bass don't really bite until the tide starts dropping which condenses all the bait in the area. In the last hour of the tournament the tide changed, he got a limit and won.
Great tournament to watch.
^^ I agree. I remember watching that final day. It was agonizing to watch and the ending unreal.
To the original post question, I wish I could tell you a good answer or some sort of time formula. I find myself asking the same thing you have many times on the water. A good spot or past success can make me stubbornly use to much time in one spot or area. Then on the other hand that same scenario has worked out for me after repeating the same cast a dozen or more times. That's the confusing part for me at times. In VERY general terms I feel like the spring and fall moving faster and covering water may have the edge. Winter and the dead of summer, for me, slowing down and picking apart things has the edge. Not saying this is right and I'm sure guys that do very well can prove the contrary. Finding your own style and what works best for YOU I believe is the key. I'm still trying to learn what that is for myself and enjoy doing so any time I can get on the water. It's been said thousands of times and I do agree that "nothing beats time on the water." I will add that if you don't try to apply yourself and anything you learn from others, online, any info source that you trust....and just spend your "time on the water" in that zombie mode doing the same thing...you aren't going to get any better. Hell of a run on sentence, but hopefully it makes sense.
I'm also enjoying hearing some others response to this good question.
Last edited by white gambler; 03-05-2021 at 10:17 AM.
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Hit the high percentage spots.
Rinse and repeat...
Catch one- Luck
Catch 2- you have a pattern...
I will rotate 2-3 times on areas within close proximity and not waste time running up and down the lake. When I find a pattern or technique that works then I look for similar areas; hence Rinse and Repeat...
Thats my approach
exactly what I do. Based on time of year and conditions I hit spots I think they should be on then hopefully develop a pattern and can run it all over the lake.
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