How long do you fish a spot before you hoist the anchor and heave ho?

10 minutes if I do not get a bite

SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO? 

The age-old question.  The one so many bassheads, including myself, ask themselves at least once a trip, and oftentimes it’s quite a bit more than that.

I’m referring to when we are on a spot, whether it was producing or not, we’ve given it what in our own minds is ample opportunity to produce, and it hasn’t. 

So, do we stay or do we go?

Clearly no hard and fast ‘rules’ can be drawn upon during these deals, but here’s my version of it. 

I am going to start off with a couple of ‘deciding factors’ that often cause me to lean one way or the other.

Seasonal pattern and what I’m fishing, so boat position. 

Early in the season, before and, of course, during the spawn, fish are looking & wanting to come shallow.  Not exactly a new flash and something we don’t even need FFS to figure out. This can be one scenario where I am often willing to wait it out on a known or recently producing spot or area.  And if I do choose to relocate, I’m generally not going very far, like maybe just 2 or 3 cast lengths one way or the other, depending on what type of structure/cover I am working with. If I’m feel particularly confident that the fish are ‘coming to me’ (eventually), I may Talon down, shut everything off (electronics-wise), and have a sandwich while the area ‘settles down a little.’  Might be just enough to have a few more fatties roll right into casting distance.  Sometimes it happens by itself if I need to retie or perhaps change baits or hardware. 

On-scene weather conditions can & do play a role here as well. Especially skinny water, 10 ft or less.  An increase or decrease in cloud cover and/or wind speed can affect my decision-making matrix.  Forecast or not, if it’s been a sunny day and clouds move in, I may wait them out if I can see an end in sight.  Reverse can be said if it’s been a cloudy skies deal.  Bites in the wind rarely get better if it flattens out, so I’ll usually not put too much extra time into an area if and when it goes flat calm. But going from calm to windy is a whole different ballgame and one I like to play.

Chuck & wind, baby.

 

As the season progresses and the spawn is done & over with, the local brown bass population on the bigger inland lakes makes themselves very scarce by spreading out all over the place. This goes straight into summer and is the time of year when I do The Most are moving around and will only stay on spots very briefly. Except for some early morning or late afternoon topwater off the end of long, deep main lake points, I’m almost always fishing deep(er).  Trying to focus on targets of deep bottom cover (rocks/wood) that could hold bait/bass.  If I can get bait in front of them, they’ll usually eat.  Maxscent flatworm is a confidence bait here for me. Need decent conditions; some sun helps; boating traffic does not.

 

It’s easy to admit that this IS the toughest fishing of the year for me.  Accordingly, I don’t spend a whole lot of time on these bigger lakes from late June through most of July.  But sometime in the first week or two of August, things get much, much better.

Bigger bass start showing up shallow again. It’s almost always on flats.  They seem to be a bit more scattered/spread out, but there are some real brutes up there.  And they are looking to EAT.  As the shallow weeds die back and the bait fish become more and more exposed, the fishing just keeps getting better.

Almost becomes the same type of deal for me as in the spring. Fish are coming to me so I don’t move much.  But that’s sort of a relative thing; I still need to cover water, but it's just over one or two special flats.  So I’m not running all over the lakes, just doing a lot of casting.  From August to say mid-September, it’s all about horizontal moving baits. Could be topwater early and just about whatever you want to throw after that: vibrating jigs, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, swim jigs, A-Rigs, squarebills & rattlebaits. Some of the best flats are also the biggest.  A basshead could spend an entire day just crisscrossing one flat with different baits at various depths.  And this one does exactly that. So in this case, I stay.

Come October, the weeds have died back completely, the waters cooled off considerably, and the bass start looking deeper for their wintertime haunts.

If the weather cooperates, and I can fish the deepest flats that have hard cover effectively, this can be the best time of the year for me for sheer numbers of 3-5 lb smallies. Blade baits & swimbaits on a jighead are big-time players for me now.

I’ll stay on a spot long enough to get a couple of biters and then hop over to the next spot and do the same deal.  It’s usually late enough in the season where boating traffic is not an issue (everyone’s deer hunting), and the few boats on the water are targeting walleye and rarely on anything I’m looking to get on.

That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

Fish Hard

A-Jay

I pick it apart so probably too long. Watched Guido Hibdon alot. I always think

Im leaving fish behind .

I don’t have a set time, it’s more of a vibe I get. Is there any kind of fish activity going on? If so, I may stick around a bit. I’ll also trust my gut. There are some situations where my gut tells me “they really should be here” and my patience is rewarded. Other times my gut tells me after a few minutes “this spot is dry, gotta move on”.

Really can depend, but if I’m hitting fish and then it drops right off…on to the next. I don’t typically try to “clean out” a spot. I catch what I do while the bite feels there and when it drops off a bunch…move

Depends on the size of the structure and amount of cover. Some places get 3 cast with no hits, I'm moving. I can always comeback and check those spots later. Some places I'll give 20 minutes. In the Winter I may spend an hour on certain waypoints.

Noted Yall

Thank you for the feedback

My boat blows around pretty bad. So I’m usually drifting or on the trolling motor. If it looks good I’ll stay and work it for a while. But I’m well known to camp out way longer than I should. Even on a bank trip lol.

Depends on how much experience I have with the area. A productive area I might spend 20 minutes before moving. A good looking area with no previous experience 10 minutes.

I seldom start the big motor once I pick an area of the lake or a canal in the Everglades. I just move a hundred yards with the T/M. Bass are everywhere in Florida, it’s just do they want to play when your there!

I like to spot-lock on areas that I know have held fish in the past, and pick them apart. Probably spend way to much time on any given spot.

Patience is for bobber fishing.

For me it depends on the area I fish. If it’s a small pond, I’ll fish the same spot all day long.

Larger areas like lakes or rivers, I’ll spend Mabye 30 minutes to a hour on a spot and move on

Where I fish it is shallow and clear. There are rarely more than one or two fish in an area so sitting on a “spot” is usually not productive. When I get a bite or catch a fish I stop and work the area over using spot lock if necessary. Otherwise I keep moving at .3 to .5 mph. I’m also ADHD so sitting still isn’t really an option.

Moving around has been my best bet because, frequently, coming back later on to the same spot can produce some nice fish. I launched just the other night and fished right at the launch area, which was unproductive. Came back later on to the same spot and caught a 7 pounder. Yep, moving around has always been my ticket or, as I should say, more a dynamic way of fishing. I just don’t have the patience to sit and sit and sit at the same spot that’s obviously dead as a door nail because, down the way, another spot could be going off and if you’re sitting at the dead spot, you’re missing out on all that action!

I'm a roamer, a rolling stone, a strolling crone.

About 30 minutes, from shore. I usually will try at least two different lures covering two factors. Usually those two factors are fast and slow, and may or may not include different places in the water column. 

So it might be a fluke and a trap, a fluke and Texas rig, a top water and a Texas rig, or a top water and crank bait. It all depends on what I think there after that day.

Then I might sit down and rest five or 10 minutes and contemplate what changes need to be made while the spot rest.

After I make new lure selections and retire, I will hit the same spot again with a different two lures.

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3 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I'm a roamer, a rolling stone, a strolling crone.

Close your eyes and turn around three times, cast your stone and that is the direction thou should just fish.

14 hours ago, LokiDawg said:

How long do you fish a spot before you hoist the anchor and heave ho?

I fish it as long as they are biting. No bites. Not staying.

But to be honest I rarely use an anchor. I am the manual spot lock on my trolling motor.

A good question for this thread would be more like who likes to stay in one spot, and who likes to constantly move around?

I have fishing buddies who will stay in one spot all day long. Needless to say it but we have to be in different boats! It is extremely frustrating to fish with someone who wants to stay in one spot all day long- even when not getting any bites.

I am one of those who constantly is on the move. I rarely stay in one spot unless the bite is on right there, then I will stay around until the bite is gone or moves elsewhere.

So for me it is not a set time frame measured by a clock. It is all controlled by the fish more or less.

When pattern searching, I cover water. Once I’ve discovered what the fish are relating to at that time, I’ll move around to similar topography/cover until that patterns dries up. As an example, if I’m finding fish on secondary points in shallower coves, I’ll keep fishing those areas until the pattern stops working. Then it’s off to pattern search again.

Unless I’m hunting big girls. At which point, I’ll stick to an area I believe in much longer, and fish much slower. I’m okay with getting only a few quality bites when I’m hunting weight. I probably spend more time doing this than I should. I’ve forgotten more 3lb bass catches than I remember, but I can probably give you a solid recounting of most fish I’ve landed over 6lb. That’s seems to be the breaking point for me when they have those shoulders we all love, and what I consider to be a big bass. For a shot at a quality fish, I’m definitely willing to pick apart water.

I work through it as a process, just as @A-Jay, but our circumstances will always be different due to geography. Short answer; if the totality of the circumstances point to the premise that they SHOULD be there, then I'm going to be thorough. And my "thorough" is going to take awhile.

Greetings and Happy Friday All,

Yeah, 'it depends' is a pretty good answer. I rarely have a well defined location persistence criteria because I'm a recreational angler. My goal is simply to enjoy catching fish.

My opinion on the matter is based on a whole bunch of factors. One of which is conservation of energy, mine! I'm frequently in my kayak via paddle power or shore line angling. Thus, there is a cost benefit consideration. I prefer doing more casting than paddling or walking.

Here in AZ, I'm familiar with most of the fishing options in the area (I've lived here for many decades), all which require a good deal of travel. So, quality angling time is a premium with a simple goal of catching. That generally involves a dedicated approach to carefully work the very busy limited number of angling locations. The issue is a limited fishing resource with a massive number of folks at those locations. A good number which are anglers.

Because of the high level of stress on the resource, it is rare that a flamboyant angling effort is successful. I've tried over the decades with very limited success. Over time I realized the UL finesse approach works well to accomplish my goal of catching. Thus, I probably work an area longer than most to get that bite for a selfie with a fish.

At the urban angling locations, I see a lot of folks walking and casting. Hovering long enough for maybe three or four casts (as bass anglers). They then move on from there. So, it is rare they stay more than 5, maybe 15 minutes. The catfish folks are camped out at their locations. They rarely move, even when there is a bite on-line. There have been many times I've notice rod tip movements and they are not interested in responding. So it goes...

I tend to stay on location (roughly speaking, due to wind and other influences) for at least 15 minutes, frequently longer. I'm not subscribing to an objective of covering water and looking for a fast bite. I am looking for that bite and I'm willing to make it happen.

Using the UL gear, it is pretty easy to detect even slight interest from timid fish or small fish. That opens the potential for better fish. When working the area carefully, I'll feel those small inputs and focus on working the area even more. That has resulted in some nice success stories and photos.

Yeah, not the approach for most general anglers. It does suit my angling style. Just my $ 0.05 tossed in for consideration. Yes, adjusted from $ 0.02 due to economic escalation.

Wishing all well, and a fun safe weekend. Cheers!

If I have confidence that fish are there, I will give it a good going over. The more confident, the more of a going over it gets. I’ll typically throw moving baits until I see what the fish are doing that day. One fish is just a fish, two is an inkling, and 3 is a pattern. One is a little confidence in a spot and will make me slow down, 3 is a pick it apart with 3 variations of a theme to pick it clean. If I haven’t caught a fish on a spot but still have faith that the problem is me, then I’ll try 2-3 things (usually a moving bait, a bottom bait, and a finesse bait) before moving on.

This indecision's buggin me.

I have zero patience. I fish fast, and am always on the move. I'm not saying it is the best way to catch the most or biggest bass, but It is just the way I'm wired. If I think a location needs to be fished more thoroughly, I will go back to it later. Sometimes I fish the same piece of cover numerous times in a day, but never stay longer than a few casts at a time. Even when I fished from shore I put more miles on my shoes, than number of casts. I would go to the lake with a friend, who always stayed at our favorite whole, while I explored every possible place to make a cast. When I would get back to where my friend was, we usually had about the same number of fish, but I always felt I had more fun.

17 hours ago, Columbia Craw said:

Patience is for bobber fishing.

Some ice castles park in one spot for a month or more. Just waiting. And drinking beer.