I lost a 4 or 5 pound largie  today  right at the side of the boat and I know what happened and it was my fault. Now I have been told a bunch of times that bass don't travel very far very often. The area is paradise for this fish so I'm pretty sure its not gonna go far from this area. It is  a tiny cover between two really pointy points and it  goes from 1 foot deep to about 3foot and then it drops of to about 7 foot deep. There is a ton of brush up shallow and bunch of stumps out in the 7 foot water. I hook the fish in about 1 foot of water and drug it out of the brush and got it beside the boat. It calmed down and I reached down to pick it up out of the water and it freaked out when I tried to open its mouth and bucked one last time and snapped my hook off my leader line. I tried to grab it but it slipped out of my hand. Now my question is how long till that fish goes back up in that cove and I can go search for it again? There is always tons and tons of bait fish in that cove.   

He went back there almost immediately most likely but he might be weary.  Give it a few hours and try again or wait until next time you are out.

Thanks I figured that would probably be the first spot I hit next time I'm out there.

Lots of factors will play into it but as long as the cover and food is there it's likely that fish will at least occasionally revisit the area.