Found a hot-spot -- pick it apart, or get in and get out?

[DaubsNU1]

I have found a good area on my home lake that has produced some really good bass over the past month. Four over 4 lbs, one over 5 lbs.

 

• Water is 3-4' deep with lay-downs and trees, adjacent to a creek channel that is 12-16' deep.
• I've had good luck by first tossing a spinnerbait or square-bill.
• If that doesn't yield any bites, I move to t-rigged plastics or a Senko. 
• I generally make one slow pass of this area, spot-locking a few times to make just a few extra casts.
• And then I move on to other parts of the lake.

 

I do not want to over-fish the area, run bass off, or educate fish. And I don't fish this area when others are around, or within eye-shot (made that mistake on another area of this lake earlier this summer....I see boats fishing that spot hard....and I have not landed a fish on that spot since).

 

When you find a good spot, do you pick it apart? Or get in and get out, saving it for another day?

[LrgmouthShad]

40 minutes ago, DaubsNU1 said:

When you find a good spot, do you pick it apart? Or get in and get out, saving it for another day?

I prefer to get in quietly and fish slowly, then get out. I will come back later if it is a really good spot and I want to test the timing. A much better fisherman than me would already know the proper timing and he would be set up prior. 
 

I will only anchor down and camp if I catch two quality (5+) bass in a short period. Then I’m locking down and throwing everything in the tackle box at them. Once I’m done, I probably won’t move far. Just check out another angle or another small spot nearby. The game of do I stay or do I go is entirely results driven. If I see and catch the quality of fish I am looking for, I am going to stay until that stops happening for a while and I just might be back later, too.

[Functional]

personally in that specific situation I would quickly hit the area if possible (others around or not) and confirm thats where the fish are and at what elevation they are hitting. If I'm trying to not overfish it Id then pick up and hit other areas that match the same conditions (depth, drop off, cover, etc.) and see if I can replicate it with what I know they are keyed in on. Should make exploring those new areas quicker and give me more confidence in what I was throwing. 

 

Just one mans approach. 

[TOXIC]

For whatever reason a spot is good, it will “reload”. I don’t believe in educating fish when I have broken off a bait, come back in a short amount of time and caught the fish with my bait hanging out of its mouth.  When I was guiding I had a “milk run” that was productive for most clients.  I fished it over and over (multiple spots) and it most always produced.  If I were you, other than trying not to be obvious on the spot, I would fish it until the bite died.  Give it some time and come right back. 

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, DaubsNU1 said:

When you find a good spot, do you pick it apart? Or get in and get out, saving it for another day?

I name it Lake Menderchuck and

visit at the best times. 

That usually means early season and tomorrow.

A-Jay

[Zcoker]

The fish are there for a reason. Take away that reason, and the fish just may go somewhere else. Some places, though, produce all the time. Maybe not instantly but sooner or later they come to life. I have a number of spots like that, producing quality fish (6lbs and up). It may not happen instantly, but it does happen, one way or another. The secret sauce is to be there casting when it does. 

 

 

[gim]

2 hours ago, DaubsNU1 said:

I do not want to over-fish the area, run bass off, or educate fish. And I don't fish this area when others are around, or within eye-shot (made that mistake on another area of this lake earlier this summer....I see boats fishing that spot hard....and I have not landed a fish on that spot since).

 

I think you found your answer right here.  Your previous example proved that if someone else sees you hammering them there, they will fish it too.  And then they might tell someone else, or someone else sees them fishing there.  Then the pressure exponentially increases and everyone knows about it.

 

Doesn't mean you'll never catch another fish there, it just means that it will become that much more difficult.

 

I think you have the right approach.  Sneak in with no one around, give it some time, and then get the heck out of othere.  Don't be fishing it with others around.  Its certainly possible that eventually it may be found anyways, but it won't be because you leaked it.

 

I watch other fishing boats all the time...if I see them catching fish, I take mental note of where it is.  I'd be lying if I said I never fished spots I saw other people at.

[DaubsNU1]

Yep, @gimruis, this lake is just 225 acres...and last Saturday, 45 minutes before sunup, there were five boats in front of me at the ramp....

 

It's good to be sneaky....

[gim]

14 minutes ago, DaubsNU1 said:

It's good to be sneaky....

 

[king fisher]

Does your water level fluctuate much?  Do you think your spot will be good in different seasons and conditions?  There are many factors involved in making a decision weather to beat a spot to death, or try and save it.

 

It is best to have enough good locations, that you can give a good hole a rest and not have to count on one spot every time you go fishing.  Resting a hole can often pay off, but it can also be a waste of a good fishing opportunity.  Just like many things in life, what seems like a great plan, may turn out to be a disaster.  You already pointed out one possible problem.  If some one else starts fishing your spot, it may not produce as well for you.  Another problem may be if the water level changes, or other conditions change and what was once a great fishing hole is now high and dry, or simply void of bass.  It may be best to catch what you can while you can, and not worry much about the future, or it may be wise to baby the spot, and always have a an ace in the hole for when you need it.    I have had success both ways.  I fished a river where I wouldn't fish the same hole more than once a week, and I fish a lake where every time I go there, I fish one place almost all day.  It would probably be best to keep fishing it hard for awhile and see what happens.  You can always back off on pressure and give it time to rest but you can't get back the time that you didn't fish it.  Good luck.

[Catt]

@TOXIC That's how it's done right there.

[Pat Brown]

I've seen spots that always produce bites get turned off and I've seen spots where there's never fish turn on suddenly and then turn off just as fast. 

 

I think if they're there and they're biting - Get while the getting is good!  Especially with the technology people have available to them these days. It's only a matter of time before it's somebody else's honey hole anyway.

[Bankbeater]

Strike while the irons hot!

[TOXIC]

And I’ll add that on a body of water that small, there are no “secret” spots. 😉

[looking45]

i don’t leave fish to find fish. If they’re biting I’m staying. There are no secret spots on a lake.  If you’re spot is that good,, others have found it too.

[Swamp Girl]

18 hours ago, DaubsNU1 said:

I have found a good area on my home lake that has produced some really good bass over the past month. Four over 4 lbs, one over 5 lbs.

 

That is a hot spot. @A-Jay has stated many times that he targets big bass and one time, he said he does so by returning to the places where he's caught big bass, but it doesn't work that way for me. I have a near photographic memory for where I've caught big bass and so I hit those spots that have produced big fish again and again and again, but rarely with success...except for one bay that has produced multiple four and five-pounders and one river headwaters. Otherwise, it's a crap shoot, but I'm glad it isn't for you.

 

15 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

I think if they're there and they're biting - Get while the getting is good!  Especially with the technology people have available to them these days. It's only a matter of time before it's somebody else's honey hole anyway.

 

I agree with Pat.

 

However, I also agree with @gimruis in keeping as low a profile as possible. If someone parks near you, start bragging about how you caught a 14-incher on that spot back in aught-8 and you've fished it ever since, hoping for a repeat of "the magic."

[Pat Brown]

@Swamp Girl I think also you gotta lie about the bait - and it's always 'i caught every fish today on a R2S whopper plopper 120 in bone' 😉😉😉😂😂😂 

 

Send em on the wildest ploppiest goose chase of their lives.

[Swamp Girl]

27 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

@Swamp Girl I think also you gotta lie about the bait - and it's always 'i caught every fish today on a R2S whopper plopper 120 in bone' 😉😉😉😂😂😂 

 

Send em on the wildest ploppiest goose chase of their lives.

 

Now, your post made me laugh out loud because I've been thinking about casting a big, bone-colored Whopper Plopper tomorrow morning at the pond that's become a river. I think all those fish squeezed into a river might react to a big, noisy bait.

[J Francho]

For recreational angling, my advice is as follows. 

I've been fishing my "home lake" for more than four decades.  Those "spots" are pretty much community spots, though their popularity may ebb and flow with angler turnover.  Like A-jay says, fish them when your chances are greatest - which usually means my next trip there, lol.  I've fished behind enough boats and caught fish, and left a hot spot that wasn't producing, only to watch someone else clean up there.  Not fishing is complete waste of time for me these days.

 

For a multi day tournament, it can get a little more complicated.

[Tennessee Boy]

Where I fish there are no secret spots.  I feel like I do have a few secrets that combine spots with other details like timing and techniques.   I can’t imagine a public lake where I would worry about overfishing a spot or educating the fish.  There could be lakes in remote areas where this might be a legitimate concern but those place do not exist in my world.

[Catt]

2 hours ago, J Francho said:

I've been fishing my "home lake" for more than four decades.  Those "spots" are pretty much community spots, though their popularity may ebb and flow with angler turnover

 

1 hour ago, Tennessee Boy said:

Where I fish there are no secret spots.  I feel like I do have a few secrets that combine spots with other details like timing and techniques.  

 

What I've noticed is just because someone is fishing a "community" spot doesn't mean they know what they're doing. Heck I see guys getting skunked or only catching 2-3 with FFS 😅

2 hours ago, J Francho said:

For a multi day tournament, it can get a little more complicated

 

Or guiding 

 

[FishTax]

I'd catch them as much as possible, but not too close to another boat. And definitely always on a Whopper popper. Which in our area definitively doesn't catch anything, although we may try it again soon just to be sure 😎

 

But seriously, if the bite turns off you gotta keep moving, but that doesn't mean you don't hit that spot again later in the same day... 

[WRB]

I had a few honey boles back in day that held big bass that didn’t attract other bass boats. The few boats that did just fished past them without stopping because the spots didn’t standout to them.

Today the FFS would possibly reveal the big bass.

I had to fish these spots from near the steep walls casting outward to specific structure elements and it required repeated casts to get those big girls to strike. So I was at those spots a few hours but a low traffic area that was passed by.

My favorite spot was the “old folks home”

where I caught several giant bass over the years.

Tom

[J Francho]

I like "old folks home" as a name for a spot. It reminds me of a trout spot called "meat and potatoes" hole. 

[softwateronly]

@TOXIC is right; there are no secret spots on a 250 acre lake, but @Catt is also right; lots of fisherman on my water park on the bass and cast toward the shore.  I will gladly fish behind boats if I think I have a pattern for that spot, or more likely the deep water holding area adjacent to the spot.

 

scott