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Posts: 63
Location: Maribel WI | Curious about other experiences of a tried and true productive spot that has seems to "dry up" in a relatively short period of time. Ive had other spots/area have their up and downs, but not to this extent. This specific spot has is a fairly steep dropoff from a big weed flat to 30' of water and is about 200 yrds long. The whole area with a few "spot on the spots" have been money, especially in fall - but the last 2-3 years have only seen a couple of sub 40" fish. Should add it a few thousand acre lake and overall the fishing throughout the lake has been stable. Any ideas or experiences that relate?
Edited by H2O 12/29/2012 2:12 PM
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Posts: 2009
| yep..there are a lot of factors to a "spot" being a good "spot". Lake levels, weed growth, baitfish, water temps, wind direction, other anglers picking off the aggressive fish...and on and on. Interestingly, this often leads to other "spots" that you didn't normally see many fish start producing "better" and sometimes the "old honey holes" do come back when "conditions" change the next year. Adapting to daily, monthly, yearly conditions...makes it "fun"....who wants to go fish the same spots all the time?  |
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Posts: 619
| i always wondered the same thing. i have had some spots that produced well for the last 5 years in a row, however the last 2 yrs have been way down to almost nothing there. the spots still have bass, pike, sunnies and other fish there, just seem to be no muskie around like in the past. tried spring, summer, fall and thought maybe the fish were just mabye only using it at certain times. tried fishing them all different times of the day, tried shallower, tried deeper, different lure presentations, etc. |
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Posts: 833
| Invasive species can have an impact as well, that was certainly the case on Tonka this past season. One of the things I picked up on this past year was to stop pigeon holing my "spots" in a milk run and instead let the conditions dictate where I think I should be fishing. I wasn't always successful, but it lead me to finding more productive locations as well as catching more fish. To make matters worse, you also have to make the right call on how you fish a location. Had several trips where I had the right location but was casting in when I should have been casting out and so on. |
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Posts: 742
Location: Grand Rapids MN | Justin hit a lot of it. I can't believe how much the water levels have changed (and still changing) the past few years. Throw in changes in the weeds and you'd swear it was a different lake all together. Hit one of my favorite early season lakes last year with a new guy and got onto a pattern after a handful of spots. So off I go to where I "know" these spots exist just to find most were way behind in weed growth and sparse at that. Finally one area was still the same as previous years and we found fish. I was just shocked at the difference a year makes. And like others mentioned milfoil and other species took over and changed how I had to approach the area; if possible.
I'm an opportunistic fisherman meaning when the wife ok's it and I'm not working OT I like to get out no matter if it's ideal or not. It may be a month later as well so I always take each trip one at a time and learn something new every time. Part of the fun in it and if it works out right feel like a rockstar when loading the boat! |
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| Posted this on another thread which was unread.....(.I think people should reconsider what they think a (spot is) every conceivable area is a (spot) at one time or another during the fishing season.....caught several big fish this fall off areas that no one would look at.... but other factors contributed to the fish location.... be a leader not a follower....never trolled a spot this fall that had a summer marker buoy...)and as i said in another thread....something is going on with the Eco system...catching mid 50 inch fish with less than average girth.....fish seem to be running more solo and not grouped...this happened on leech for awhile but now that has turned around.... don't know if it will on a stocked lake.... just my thoughts....new years cheers... |
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Posts: 1529
| no bait theres no fish. thats the key. |
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Posts: 1220
| Not sure if I missed this above, but a whole lot more anglers that are a whole lot more skilled and efficient pick a spot apart beyond belief these days. GPS coordinates are traded or given away like candy. It's harder and harder to meet someone who can't pick a lake map apart, and all the stuff we readily swap on sites like this one, pretty much guarantee that a primary spot will have been picked apart by 30 boats a day. Other factors mentioned above are clearly relevant as well, but it's a fair guess that you are going to have to either fish a private lake or learn how to find where fish are less molested but still present. |
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Posts: 20212
Location: oswego, il | Justin touched on it. If you were producing fish in thos area you were not the only one. Fish have been caught maybe kept. Find other spots nearby or simolar spots on the lake. If other spots are not producing as they have then the lake conditions may not be prime for producing fish consistently. |
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| You know the guy that always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else? Be that guy. |
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Posts: 5161
| Maybe your spots are going thru the change off life.0723 |
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Posts: 1036
| Dried up or have the fish become conditioned?
Try fishing it with different baits, hitting it at different angles at different times of the day.
I had a favorite spot up north that dried up on me a few years ago. Until I fished it at night. Yah, not dry. Just different. |
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Posts: 688
Location: Northern IL |
A productive spot will remain productive unless something along the way, (migratory path) changes. Fish use physical objects to move from one place to another on a migratory path to the shallows. The rotting away of a break such as a stump, brush pile or a sunken boat can turn a once known producer into a dead end.
Without a doubt every body of water has its "best spot", second best and so on, however with nomadic fish such as the muskie/walleye/white bass etc when an activity period begins they will use the structure situation closest at the time. They can spend long periods of time in one area of a lake but with a simple weather change they can move many miles. Seasonal movements also should be factored in.
One thing is for sure, on an average fishing day fish will get active once or twice and "may" move towards the shallows, when this happens its any body's guess. Whether they move to our favorite spot only depends on if they're in the neighborhood at the time.
It's impossible to be on the water 24/7 but with that being said what we try and do to get the answers if we didn't run in to the fish, "if time allows" is fish consecutive days, 4 is usually enough. While we know a activity period or movement can take place at any given time during a 24hr period we also know in most cases these movements should be thought of in terms of minutes not hours. We also understand that it "IS" possible we didn't present our lures or bait in the right place (depth) or move our lures or bait at the right speed or do so at the right time when this short window may have been open.
We must always be a where of any signs that a movement is beginning or under way and be prepared to act quickly. Most days we can look back and say it happened at "....." time and they moved to "this depth" and we got em at this "speed".
Being at the right place presenting lures or bait at the right depth and moving a lure or bait at the right speed can be a tricky balancing act. We must check all depths because, no one ever said the fish will move into the shallows......
If we fish a couple of days from sun up to sun down under decent weather and water conditions and feel we have done a good job checking all depths and speeds on potentially productive areas, (if on a new lake) and we come up empty then we probably need to fish into the dark. Having a second boat on the water at the same time, one who also understands how to control his depth and speed will hammer home our findings.
Edited by jerryb 1/4/2013 10:14 PM
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Productive Spots "drying up"