Fishing With Kenny

Should I Stay or Should I Go

article by  KENNY COVINGTON

One of the biggest questions asked in bass fishing has always been, “When do I leave an area or how long should I stick around to see if I can make the fish bite?”  For the angler, be it tournament competitor or just your average angler, there are no easy answers.  In this month’s Bayou Life article, we are going to look deeper into this age-old question and see if we can help you out with some answers.

Recently, I competed in two tournaments where my decision making allowed me to have good finishes in both events. The first event was at Lake Enterprise in Arkansas and having only been on the lake once before, I knew if I figured something out, I needed to really focus on the location and what potential existed in the area.  In my only scouting trip a few weeks earlier, my friend Lee caught a small female on a long stretch of a cypress tree covered bank. One bite, one fish.

The morning of the tournament, I went to the area close to where my friend had caught that one fish and I quickly caught two decent fish, both spawning females, on a jig.  Realizing the fish were both pre-spawn and spawning and the location of where the bites came, I knew with a bit of patience, I could put together enough fish for a good finish. Seventeen pounds later, I ended up in 2nd place.

Another example of this happened a few weeks ago fishing a Media Bass singles event on Cheniere Lake in West Monroe. The lake had been drawn down for several years erasing my previous knowledge once it filled back up.  When I began practicing for the event, I knew I also had to start from nothing trying to find potentially good areas.  On my first of three different practice days, I caught a single three-pound fish, a female bass that looked like she was about to spawn. This fish in one area gave me enough information and confidence to fish patiently in what turned out to be a grind of a tournament.  In the end I finished in 3rd place and potentially could have won.

In both situations, I have to admit years of experience spending time on the water makes decision making a bit easier.  Sometimes the mistake anglers make when fishing is tough, they tend to speed up, thinking if they cover enough water, they will eventually run into enough fish to do well. Actually, most of the time the best thing to do is slow down, pick apart the area you have the most confidence in, and believe in what you are doing. Arkansas fishing legend Larry Nixon put it best when he said, “Never leave fish to go find fish.” That is a lesson I am still learning.

So, you may be asking yourself, when is the right time to pull up stakes and move to another area?  Well, I have a series of questions I always ask myself when I am faced with this situation, and they are as follows:

1. How many other boats are there in my area, and what are the chances they are clued into the same thing I am doing?

2. What other options do I give myself if I leave this area?  Does my back up area have the potential to bail me out?

3. Do I give myself a better chance to win or do well if I leave?

4. Is my main area go enough to live and die in for the duration of the tournament?

All four questions are hard to answer, but I will give you the scenarios where I would jump ship and move to my next spot.  

If I am in an area that is known to produce bigger fish and there are other boats in the area, I tend to pull the plug a bit quicker.  Boat traffic can shut down a good area and keep it from producing, simply because bass, like big deer, will react to heavily pressured areas. One thing I like to do, however, is re-fish the area another hour or so up in the day once a lot of the boats have left and the fish will often set back up in their original areas.

In every tournament I fish or even if I am fun fishing, I make a short list of areas that I believe have the most potential for the day or situation where I am fishing.  Usually, my second or third areas are potentially as good as my first area, so I don’t lose confidence if I have switch to a different location.

Both of the examples I spoke of earlier address questions three and four. I knew the areas I had located gave me my best chance to win, so I stuck to them.  Honestly, not having another option is what allowed me to do well in both tournaments.  Sometimes sticking with all you have is all you need to do well. These two questions are much easier to answer if you don’t know a body of water exceptionally well.

One of the reasons why it is so hard to win on a lake you are intimately familiar with is due to the fact you know too many places where you can catch fish.  If this spot doesn’t pay off in a few minutes, you know another area not too far away so you can see what is happening there.  The next thing you know, you have burned a tank of gas and had a bad event, simply because you didn’t give your areas a chance to produce for you. 

Should I stay or should I go; that is just another small part of the puzzle!

Well, it looks like we have run out of space again for another month.  I hope we have been able to share with you some information that will make your next trip to your favorite lake a better one. Take care, catch one for me and we will see you next month!