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

[Susky River Rat]

I will pound an area till it dies. If I am running and gunnin you can sure bet I’m having a tough day. When the different areas in a certain stretch of river start to die out I will head to another stretch. You bet I will get back to the original stretch eventually and get them. Your “honey hole” is someone else’s milk run. Just remember that. 

[1984isNOW]

So just to clarify, with what frequency will you hit the same spot?

 

I have about 4 small ponds and one decent size lake (for me) within about 30 minutes, further away than that only adds a few other small ponds. It sucks over here

 

 I can literally kayak 3 of these waterbodies while stopping to pick apart a few spots in merely a few hours. There's been a couple spots, shore fishing only, that have produced some good fish.

 

Should I be blasting the same spots over and over? Like literally the same 20 yards on repeat?

 

What about a multi night trip? Should I not hit the same 20 docks 3 nights in a row? And then again 2/3 nights in a row every other weekend or so for a few months? 

[Swamp Girl]

True story: I was camped on an island in the wilderness of northwestern Ontario. Across from the island was a small waterfall.

 

I'd say to my partner, "Want to go catch ten fish?"

 

"Sure," she'd always reply.

 

So, we'd paddle over and catch ten smallmouth and walleyes. Not nine. Not eleven. Nearly always ten.

 

And then we'd paddle back to camp and wait an hour or two and I'd say, "Wanna go catch ten fish?"

 

That slot of current would reload every hour or two, again and again and again. 

[Swamp Girl]

On 10/18/2024 at 8:28 AM, Swamp Girl said:

 

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.

 

Of course, I went with my walking the dog lure instead of a Whopper Plopper and the big, noisy lure idea worked.

 

[senile1]

As a few of you have alluded to, secret spots are few and far between these days.  Unless you have a lake that is quite secluded or is used by most for some other purpose than fishing, there are likely no secret spots.  Even on larger bodies of water such as Table Rock or Lake Ozark, many bass anglers frequent these lakes and a significant number of them are looking for the same types of structure to hold bass.  Spots that are hidden below the water's surface are more likely to be secret, but with down and side imaging significant numbers of these can be found.  And as @WRB stated, with FFS there will be even less of these spots that escape scrutiny.

[TOXIC]

Sometimes, it’s not the spot that is special, it’s how you fish it different from everyone else.  When I was guiding, I had a fallen tree off a bank on the main part of Lake Anna, it was right out from Sturgeon Creek where a lot of the tournaments launched.  Another guide who was a friend of mine, Wayne Olsen, and we were both at the docks waiting for clients to arrive.  He asked where I was going to fish and I told him I was going to start at my secret tree and that it was always good for a couple 3 pounders.  He also lived on the lake and was in eyesight of my secret tree.  He said, you mean that downed tree across from here and up from the power plant? I said yes.  He belly laughed and said that every tournament he sees no less than 5 boats fish that tree but I was the only one he ever saw pull fish off it.  I said well, that’s because it’s MY tree. 😂😀

[senile1]

20 hours ago, TOXIC said:

Sometimes, it’s not the spot that is special, it’s how you fish it different from everyone else.  

 

I think this sentence nails it.  The combination of the spot and the way one fishes it is the secret spice.