Let's say you're out on the lake in your kayak or boat and you come across a spot holding ideal baitfish and conditions to hold bass. You take 4 or 5 casts without a strike. Or maybe you check your imaging or FFS and you see the bait but no bass. Either you know this spot generally holds good bass or all the topography, structure, and cover tells you it's a good spot to fish.

 

Do you hang out there making some casts and waiting for the bite window or do you move on to a new location to fish?

 

Does it make a difference to you if you're fishing a tournament and looking for 5 good bites or if you're fishing for fun?

 

The reason I ask is that I notice that I fish much differently in my kayak than I fish from the bank. There are bank fishing spots where I know I have caught good bass before and I can cast there over and over for 30 - 40 minutes because I know the odds are I am going to pull one or two good bass out of there.

 

But in my kayak I almost always hit and run. Even if I see bait fish on Livescope, if I don't see predators I make maybe a handful of casts and move on. Because I have more mobility on the kayak I get a case of FOMO - fear of missing out. Then driving home I kick myself for not sticking it out.

 

How about you?

 

Simple leave and come back in an hour.

Tom

6 hours ago, Kayak Koz said:

case of FOMO -

Your not missing out, it’s all around ya…..

I’d fish it for a while and come back to it. 
 

I'm not going to camp out on a spot in hopes that my luck will change. I'm not a run and gunner either.  Theres a lot of lake to be fished , so usually I'll just fish my around it, especially if its a 200 acre or less body of water.

If @WRB-2.0 says leave and come back, you leave and come back.

The smallest lake that I normally fish is 26000 acres with 300 miles of shoreline.  I like to cover ground so I won’t stay on a place that isn’t producing.  Like Tom said leave and come back later which I plan to do but often find myself out of time or energy before I have hit similar spots within a few miles.

I find myself moving around a lot more than I probably should, when I was bank fishing I would definitely fish a spot more thoroughly. This is my first year with a boat and while I didn't do to bad overall I know I could have made some changes, I guess that's why we are all here to gain experience and apply it.  

If I saw baitfish, I'm not going to bolt after four or five casts. I'd cast 20 or 25 times...and I'm a runner and gunner, but baitfish make me tap my brakes.

 

I was working the shallow end of a bay this fall and I was spooking baitfish with my walking bait. When it landed near them, they jumped. This happened about half a dozen times when suddenly the whole area erupted with jumping baitfish. Then the bass crushed my lure and because the water was shallow, I saw the line of its attack and it came in HOT.

 

The baitfish all jumped at once because of the charging bass, I think, but I think their jumping before that attracted the bass as much as my lure. 

I fish mostly saltwater and fishing structure is relatable to both salt and fresh water. I will stay on a piece of structure while slow drifting...it's moving but still saturating the area. It works until it doesn't. Sometimes they move and relate to a new break line. It's still fishing either way you look at it.

My thoughts:  If you catch an adult bass in an area or spot there are probably more there.  I think bass are easy to catch but can be hard to find.  So if you catch one or two and then nothing that is when an adjustment of speed and/or depth, color, size, etc is needed.  If changes don't result in more fish then move on, you have been fooled or they have been spooked, but always come back!

Ahhh, the age old question. Should I stay or should I go.

Everytime I'm in that situation I immediately hear that song by the Clash in my head.

What WRB said, swing back later. 

2 hours ago, 12poundbass said:

If @WRB-2.0 says leave and come back, you leave and come back.

 

Maybe it's different fishing in a kayak because it takes us a bit of time to get somewhere. In a boat, you can be 5 miles down the lake in 10 minutes. In a kayak, it takes an hour to get that far.

 

The more kayak tournaments I fish, the more I hear the top finishers say they stayed within a 100 yard stretch for most of the day looking for that one good bite an hour. I tend to roam, and if it should take me 20-30 minutes to get to my next waypoint I invariably end up pulling up to a few places along the way and fishing them.

 

My thought is that I need to be more disciplined in my fishing if I want to improve my results. It's something that I plan to practice this winter.

I am outta there if I don't get a bite within 10 minutes.  That's what I call "dead water."  Ice anglers here camp over dead water for hours, days, or weeks at a time.  Don't be that guy.

 

The old saying goes "don't leave fish to find fish."  That only applies if you've caught one though.  Seeing marks on a graph is not good enough for me.

I don’t think I can boil the process down to a few words. It depends on so many factors. Is the spot a stump, or a 100-yard-long point? Have I caught fish on this spot before? What am I seeing on the graph? How confident am I that I can find fish on other spots I might try?

Generally speaking - the bodies of water I fish are so small - you just move because they know you’re there and stop biting if they didn’t bite and they know you’re there and stop biting if they did bite whether you catch one or not.

 

I will check good spots a couple times in a day sometimes but for the most part - moving seems to work best on very small fisheries that see a ton of pressure.

 

 

Every DD bass I have caught has been on the first cast to a piece of cover or structure.  If I make a poor cast on the first cast I will stay until I feel I have made the best presentation I am capable of making.  I realize I miss many opportunities by not being patient and thoroughly working a good area over, but I also don't waste my time casting to empty water, or bass that don't like me.  I will come back to prime spots numerous times in a day to try a few more casts or a different lure.  Run and Gun is the road I have always been, on and I'm too old to change my ways.  Both methods work, but I simply have zero patience.    

My defintion of run n gun is making a few cast then go to the next spot. I'm not in a kayak but often in a plastic boat fishing with elec. motor only. I fish my way from spot to spot.

My best waters are bigger waters, relatively speaking.

My style/process is to hunt areas/spots.

The next part of that is to vary my 'timing' when fishing said spots.

Clearly early and later in the day are by far the best 'times.'

However, there's plenty of room for variation on that.

So being a bit flexible and adaptable can occasionally produce. 

All that said, I am SQUARELY in the CAMP OUT category.

In fact, I almost always want to be there 'earlier' than I believe I need to.

I want to be set up & quiet when she comes by.  

Many times I do not fish in advance of when I think the bite window will happen.

Mind you, this often occurs in some skinny water (a relative term for big water brown bass).

However since the bass need to be within casting distance and with the gin-clear water here, 

Stealth is a lifestyle.

It often takes me years to locate a few golden zones.

So doing whatever I need to not to jack it up becomes the mission.

YMMV

https://youtu.be/zIqCmH_52IQ?si=67q3l5uUeBjdOgxG&t=2048

A-Jay

4 hours ago, Lottabass said:

My thoughts:  If you catch an adult bass in an area or spot there are probably more there.  I think bass are easy to catch but can be hard to find.  So if you catch one or two and then nothing that is when an adjustment of speed and/or depth, color, size, etc is needed.  If changes don't result in more fish then move on, you have been fooled or they have been spooked, but always come back!

 

...is why Al catches so many bass. 

 

1 hour ago, king fisher said:

Every DD bass I have caught has been

 

This sounds so sweet that I want to be able to write something similar. This is the best I can do:

 

Every DD bass I have never caught has been....

The OP asked if he should stay or move if he HAS NOT caught a fish there yet.

 

Not if he should stay if he has.  I don't think anyone would be foolish enough to leave after they have just caught a fish.  Especially a sizable one.

 

"I think I'll leave" after having just landed a 6 pounder, said no one, ever.

If you have made several casts without any strikes the odds are you spooked any active bass or the bass there are not active at that time. By leaving and letting the bass settle or return in most situations your odds go way up.

Yes you can camp out and hope bass become active or move in but why waste good fishing opportunities at another spot? The risk of moving is another boat could move onto your spot. Depends on the situation.

Tom

2 hours ago, gim said:

The OP asked if he should stay or move if he HAS NOT caught a fish there yet.

 

Not if he should stay if he has.  I don't think anyone would be foolish enough to leave after they have just caught a fish.

 

Well, there was this one tournament on Guntersville...

2 hours ago, gim said:

The OP asked if he should stay or move if he HAS NOT caught a fish there yet.

Not if he should stay if he has.  

I get that.

When I'm looking to fish bite windows,

I'll camp out.

When I get bites, obviously I'm staying well past when the batteries die in my GoPros.

No bites through whatever I believe the duration of a bite window might be,

I might stay a little longer but usually I'm bailing and heading toward plan B.

A perfect example of that is when the early morning shallow water topwater bite is over.

Often fades as the daylight or sun gets brighter.

Finally, if this topic is directed at derby participants, 

then my deal is most likely far less applicable.

Because "time is on my side, yes it is." 

https://youtu.be/TUA-s2SZZr0?si=rmHU75u2fqnUX2__

A-Jay

Predator fish follow bait fish, but not every school of bait is holding fish. If I'm not marking fish on a school of bait, and I'm not getting bit in pretty short order, I'm moving on to find another school.