Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

By Allison Miles

Have you ever plunked down on a favorite spot and stayed too long? Spent valuable fishing time telling yourself as you eat your sandwich, ‘just give it a few more minutes…it’s totally gonna turn on’ only to find out that you’ve just wasted half of the tide on a dead-zone. So when do you finally make the call to pull up anchor and test other waters?

One of the best questions you should remember to ask yourself and your crew is “What time is it?” when you drop that anchor. After you’ve been fishing a few seasons in the same area, you’ll get that sense soon after you arrive at “your” spot whether it’s gonna happen or not. If you don’t see results and you’ve finished a 2 course meal, it’s time for your next drop spot.

Just recently we set out in search for big flounder. We made a plan and stuck to it even though we passed a fleet of 15 boats that looked like they were on a nice school of stripers.

Historically, our first stop has produced some very nice fish. We set up and dropped our baited lines. We managed to pick away at a few fish but not what we were looking for and very quickly knew in our hearts that this wasn’t the spot today. Whether it was the excitement of finally getting back on the water and chasing fish, or just pure stubbornness, we fell prey to sticking it out too long just hoping it would change.

Now depending on the type of fishing you’re doing, you could be catching fish right way. Or in the case of drifting a spot or setting up a chum slick, it could take 15-30 minutes or more to test the waters and get fish biting.

My Angler-2-Angler tip this month: just like “life”, your fishing time is precious. Don’t waste too much of it in one spot if you’re not catching. Falling prey to the hope it will turn on at any second, only to find out that you’ve lost an entire tide with no “netted” prey, well….is just sad. Now get ‘movin’.

Captain Seagull’s chart put to great use with targets for the day.

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