How long to spend on a spot?

[CatfishHunter]

I've been fishing tournaments for a little over 3 years and I have a problem with spending too much time during a tournament fishing for fish that were there two weeks prior. Usually I'll start out fishing action baits, rattle trap, crank, spinner, jerk and then back off and fish plastics and fish shallow to deep. At times the fish will be there but at other times they are not how long of a lull should I withstand before I jump to the next spot?

Bit of a side note -- sometimes I feel Im there too long but other times I feel Im leaving too soon, HELP.

[ALAN_RAMSEY]

Cajun1011 good to sea ya in the time killing bass gods forum.

something that i'v been looking into myself...
seems to me when i was in the back of the boat and the boater insisted they were here in the last week or two!!! About 5 things came to mind.

1. Â*he doesn't know what he's talking about he caught A lucky fish. Â*

2.He's been listening to Â*many other tourney's that don't want to let him know what they did to get in the money. Â*yes i know we all are suposed to learn from each OTHER out in the water during a tourney but sometimes I think he needs to sort the facts from the bull and fish to his strengths. Â*i know it's possible becouse I taught him 60% of what he know's.. ;D ;D

3. "THE FISH ARE STILL THERE" Â*or in the area anyway's. Â*something simple may have changed Â*they may be moving into a spawn of moved out to the deep side of the points. Â*regardless Â*the location and depth probable differant. Â*I would say this is 40% of the time in my lakes

4. Â*"weather"!! something moved them wind, waves temp. moon, baromerter water depth Â*what ever is your weather monkey. adjust and adapt to those changes in the area. Â*they are probable there still. Â*examples; Â*prefished and it was clowdy or good calm overcast with a little wind perfect top water bite. Â*today 1-2 weeks later bright sunny skies not a single idealation of wind or clouds and increasing warer temp. Â*I would say this is 50% of my lakes deal Â*

5. preasure. Â*hard fishing preasure will freak em out. Â*a bunch of sore lipped fishing ain't gonna make that mistake for a while. lots of boats, wave runners and all out lake life may be taking it's effects. Â*this happens on my lake every year and sometimes every weekend. Â*Other cosideration they have been taken by a bass feeder while thats o.k somtimes but alot of people out there just don't understand the positive effects of cath'em-thank'em-release-em.

but thats all easy for me to say now that i'm in the front of my own boat. Â*I get to go out and make my own mistakes!!


somthing I'v been hearing alot about if you givem a break and hit them on way back might get a couple more cullers Â*
hope that helps
2cancass Â* Â* Â*

[Rich]

Welcome to the forum, Cajun!

That is the $64 question. I usually stay on a spot until I feel like I have given it a decent chance to produce-it might be 15 minutes, might be an hour and a half. Just depends on the situation. Sorry if that isn't much help .

[macgyver]

I don't fish tourney's yet, so take this with some salt. But when the situation arises like that on my home lake, I believe the fish are still there, then I will start off with the Plastics, and slower presentation stuff first. You will always get the reaction strike if it's there. But you might be scaring the tight lipped ones away, or at least into hiding in the holes, from the cranks and spinners. If you do it in the reverse perhaps you'll catch some of the less aggressive ones before then getting the cranks and spinners ripping through there. Just my opinion of course Fish are just in a different mood is all, they are still there usually, as long as the weather hasn't changed drasticallly.

Lizards

[ploop...BOOM]

Go with your gut feeling. It's 6 to one, half dozen the other. I guess it all depends on your water. I have been on a spot for an hour and caught nothing. In a matter of 2 minutes, the fish turned on and they were jumpin into the boat. That's a good question - I don't think you are going to find a true "answer." I can tell you though that in a tournament, if you fish an area for 8 hours (assuming your tournament is 8 hours) you'll never know if the fish were "on" in a different area ;D. If you know the fish "were there" mix things up a bit. Try different sized lures, different depths, different presentations - this all can be done in a short amount of time - fine example - Takahiro at last year's classic - how many fish did he boat in the last few minutes? Just by changing things up.
Hope that helps a little - If I had the answer, I can tell you I'd be prefishing somewhere for some tournament and not sitting at work.
-Bob

A friend of mine has discussed this topic in length, and we both agree, that if you've covered a given area throughly, (meaning shallow to deep, with cranks and plastics, jigs etc) then 15 min to one half an hour is plenty. Given the time of year this could change. Jmho.

[mblk181]

A slow falling zoom speedworm body (minus the tail) in watermelon/red presented on a weightless 2/0 hook (texposed) allowed to rest on bottom 25 seconds before lifting to feel for fish will tell you a lot. I don't do tourneys either, like lizardsrule, but contend you can learn a bunch.....just dropping the weightless. Maybe another grain of salt, but certainly worth a try.

[BassNva]

sometimes i'll camp out on a spot for hours.other times,i won't hang around for 10 minutes.it depends on that gut feeling.

[bearpaw]

Cajun 1011, good question.
You mentioned two weeks, well we practice up no more than one week away and sometimes even 3 days away from the tournament.
We hit several different spots and narrow it down to just a few. We consider the weather, the sky conditions, the clearness of the water etc...
Come tournament time we Â*know where to start. If the fish are present, they will "normally" let you know. If they are not there, or not willing to bite, then we may return to the same spot later on that day. We spend appx. 10-30 mins on one spot until we move to a new spot where the fish might be more active.
Not a great answer but it's something that I've always wondered as well.

[Rob Mak]

i have wondered the same thing . i have worked a point for 15 mins. then moved on then again i have camped out for over 6 hours on the same hump. if you have beat an area like it owed ya money and got nothing. i would leave and work something differant. then come back to it later in the day.

zooker

[catfishtonyd]

If you ain't got no place better to go. Â*Why move? Â*If you think you got a better place. Â*Why wait?

Having said that most of my tournament fishing was done on tidal rivers. When the tide is falling the spot you're on is getting better. When it starts to rise, it's not going to get better.

[FatBass]

My rule of thumb is that you never leave biting fish. If you are on a spot that isn't producing, leave after a while and don't look back. If you second guess yourself about it, it will screw you up for the rest of the tournament.

[Worm_King]

We consider the weather, the ski conditions, the clearness of the water etc...

Bassnman30, what does ski conditions have to do with fishing? Sorry, I know what you meant I just found it funny. I don't have 2 cents to contribute to this thread so I thought I'd have a little fun. ;D ;D ;D

[bennersj]

From my experience with tournament fishing I like to compare the conditions of the day I pre fished to the predicted weather conditions of the tournament day and see what is different from the day I prefished. Things such as when the moon comes up or goes down seems to trigger fish so you need to keep up with what time of day the fish bit during the day you prefished so you will know what time to return to the area. I also watch the barometer from the day I prefished and compare it to the tournament day. If the barometer is higher try deeper and start out fishing slower. If the barometer is lower try start at the depth you found fish while prefishing and work shallower and go for a reaction bite. Barometer is the same try the same depth you found the fish at. Other things to think about is weather conditions like fronts, sunny, cloudy, temp, water temp. The main thing is to compare the day you prefished to the tournament day and let that tell you which one of your spots will be the best.

[Rob Mak]

strap
bassman is refuring to the amount of ski boats present in the area. imo 2 is to many 300 is ridculous. and they all want to ski in the small creek where ya just happen to be fishing.

the only good ski boat is a sunk one.


zooker

[bearpaw]

I know, Strap and Zooker I misspelled a word.
Fotunately, I have corrected the error !

[catfishtonyd]

Not necessarly Zook. There have been times when I've wanted to pay a ski boat to ride back and forth where I'm fishing. The wakes they generate can turn fish on under certain conditions.

I've won at least one tournament when I found fish holding on a mud line that was generated by ski boats riding by. And it was more than the mud too. There had to be waves crashing onto the bank. When the water went slack, the fish turned off.

Same thing on a tidal river I fish a lot. Wakes breaking up into the pads stir up bait, and turn the fish on at times.

[RebelBasser]

When I'm tournament fishing, I won't spend as long on a spot as I would if I'm fun fishing. I will however hit that spot several times during the tournament.

Let's assume that you pull up on a spot that you have caught fish on before and you know that it's a good spot. If the bite has been kind of slow then I would throw something in a soft plastic and my partner would throw a jig. That's the old similar but different routine.

If the fish are active then I may throw a spinnerbait and my partner may be throwing a crankbait or Rattle Trap. Same thing, similar but different. That way you can find out in less time what the fish want.

BTW-Welcome aboard the "CRAZY TRAIN". ;D

Anthony