Covering water?
 

Do you prefer to pick a likely spot and wait for fish to come to you, or to pick a likely area and keeping moving hoping to find them?

locally I almost always wait it out, stand and cast a million times....they usually show up
in the days of fishing the sand...it was a hunt...I miss that...walk for miles
now I also enjoy riding the bike covering ground....

so different apps for different terrain.....I like em' all, don't prefer one over the other

20 years ago it was cast and search,then go back to the truck,go to a new spot and cast and search again.All night long.

Now its go to one spot and cast untill they bump into me.This way of surffishing suits my lifestyle now.I do not fish all night long any longer.

Strange thing is that I enjoyed both styles with equal enthusiam.One style suited a young man in his 20's.The other style suits a middle aged man in his late 40's.

Oh yeah,my answer.Cast and search.I allways said its striped bass hunting not fishing.

I look for active fish - plugs are my search tool. If I get bites on the plugs I know I have interested fish. I cull the stupid fish with fakes then go after the smart fish with eels. In my neck of the woods I fish holes or what I call "preferred lies". 10-15 minutes a spot. Fish on the feed will be there and let you know quick. If no action I head to honey holes and pound it until they show or I quit. It's all about spot management....

DZ

If I am fishing Plugs or Eels I cover a spot then move
If I am fishing a chunk or sea worm I set up for a while the fish show up at different times at different times/tides

stick and move, lots of walking. casting, walking, casting, calling buddies with boats. " what are you doing tomorrow" ? do notice most don't stray far from their ride. nothing wrong with a little excercise for my arthritis

Depends ... If near an inlet ,,I wait them out ,new water is coming to me .. I could move and miss it .. Crashing surf is a fish call I believe .. If the surf is banging they'll eventually investigate .. I'll wait them out again . A point with a cross current,I'll wait them out . I know they'll be by . Looking for fish you could also be running away from them . Vast coastline with no outstanding features or obvious "fish lies" make me wander aimlessly ..

If I go east they go west. If I'm capeside,they are within casting range on the mainland. No matter what I do they are always one step ahead. I think I can pop the Wepeckets from shore tonight.NE 25-30.

High tide and wind adviseries from 11:00 PM on I may try and inlet in Marshvegas.:sleeps:

I actually have it all figured out. Therefore I will typically pick one location, connect the dots and stand in the same place for hours on end waiting for the great pumpkin to arrive.

I usually wait a spot out for a bit and then move.....probably hit 2-3 spots in a night.

sometimes I feel like I tend to wait it out a little too long.

Fishing a boat, I tend to hunt ... work a spot and then move on ... from shore, I also like to move, although depending upon the location will determine whether I move a lot or not, as sometimes I too get caught in the over stay experience ... but often on a particular stretch of rocky shoreline ... a significant move could be a matter of a few feet, so yes I will move within a specific area quite a bit as well ... but often, even when you find "them," it may not be worth hanging in one spot for too long as the fish will move on too - be it from boat or shore.

Depends on where I am. At the canal where its hard to get to the waters edge in some places I usually put in a big effort at a spot working the jigs differently and trying different tales , etc until I exhaust the possibilities and then maybe move on or go home.
At the beach , especially if I am driving the beach , I try for 1/2 hour then move.

Almost any spot changes as the stage of the tide changes and the resultant currents and rips set up so sometimes its worth trying a place a little longer if it goes through many changes with the tide.

So anyway I can't do the poll since no option applies to what I do.

I'm usually focusing on the AM or the PM and only have 2 to 4 hrs to fish. So I will put half my time into one ara and then move to one more before calling it quits. With more time to burn I"ll spend a couple hours in each area and cover more water.

It's all about spot management....
 

Above quote from Mr. DZ.

No truer words spoken. Best "spot management" involves both methods in my view. Take along a Mr. ANTS IN HIS PANTS Numbskull and watch him run all over the rocks, while I hold back and pound or eel away the best spot. Unfortunately so far, my laziness is getting my butt kicked.

if im just farting around, stick and move. Depending on conditions. If im in a spot that im confident in, ill stay 3 hrs. If one of those conditions fails, either wind, or tide or weeds, 1 hr then start the stick and move routine

For me it can change greatly from night to night. I usually plan on hitting certain spots at certain times based on the tides. Generally will give a spot an hour or so with no action before moving on but if I am getting fish or really like the way things are setting up I may just stick with on spot for all or most of night.

It also depends how much I have been out recently, if I haven't been out I'll bounce around a lot more hoping to find feeding fish. If I know a spot has been producing well I'm more likely to wait it out. Was out last night and hit 4 spots and found fish in 2. Tonight I'll spend more time working the spots that produced last night and either skip or make a quick stop at the others.

I fish more from a boat than on shore. I fish the same way doing both, there are certain locations that produce at certain tides. I usually work them at their historically best times and then move on to the next. Sometimes I get curious and fish a spot for a whole tide cycle and sometimes I get surprised. I keep a log, seems to increase the percentage for success but its never a sure thing, too many variables. One thing that makes it easy is that for the most part I like being in certain places even if I am not catching.:spin:

Telephone fishing
 

Results so far of Numby's poll:


Let someone else find them.....use the cell phone 1 1.92%

I sure would like to know who this one was!

My brother, Don, who is banished to the NJ beaches tells me that-- if this poll were taken down in N.J., that this telephone fishing category would probably be the front runner. Says he cannot get a bass on the beach and back in the water in the daytime before looking up and seeing a half dozen fishermen running down from the road. They all pack binoculars.

I would assume this comment was tongue in cheek.

...and that my friends is the most sensible answer. The fish have fins and don't stay in one spot so why should you

As far as the NJ thing goes he's spot on..
It's ruined fishing for the NIB..
Can't wait to come on up and do some real fishing.

I would bet ther's a few thousand hours that have helped to develope this technique.
I used to be a wait em out guy.They got to eat...
This has helped me to learn the optimum times to fish each particular location.After a while it becomes common sense.
I never kept a log either.

Do both and be flexible. I don`t know how many times I waited and they showed and how many times they didn`t. :spin:

Don't forget your clubs this time....

For whacking BB;s bluefish.

40 and 38 in the pic TO sent you.

You mean for whacking my guide if he fails me again...

Stand over here
cast plug in there
usually failsafe

YUP!! what DZ says, with one proviso~~~

at a couple of "first cast" udl's i START with the snakes.
LOVE the preferrred lie technique and dominant COW maxim.

i also will stay longer than 10-15 mins a spot and adhere
to the Striper Coast Highway thoery as an extension of the
Honey Hole Rule. at my biggest producers, i have numbered
positions based on tide stage, moon phase, and size of surf;
which only means that for some places i will stay longer to work the
entire SPOT and optimal TIDE times, based on my active read and my lawgs' history.

then there is my General Rules of Thumb:

Schoolies on top, let the offering drop.
Twenties down low, i've got to go.
Schoolies on eeeels, are YOU for real?
Eeeeels and BIG takes, it's time to rake!!

THANKS again DZ for your wit and WISDOM!!
:kewl: :kewl: :kewl: :kewl: