Know when to throw or Go!

A question I get asked a lot during sportshows and seminars, "when should I leave a spot to go to another spot"...how do I know when to throw or go!
There are many versions to this answer, especially if your fishing for Walleye, which can turn on in a flick of the switch without warning.

Lets stick to Bass for now.

When I`m fishing for Bass in areas I know hold better than average sized fish, I know its going to take more effort than simply casting out and going for the net...big fish take big effort and that means sometimes camping out on a proven location (not a single small spot), but a location such as a shoal, rock pile, weed or submerged timber flat or a long point extending out into deeper water from an island or shoreline.

Big bass move and move often if food does not come to them.
Sometimes they travel in packs, schools or by themselves, such is the case with bigger than average largemouth bass who travel shorelines during all times of the day looking for their favorite hiding spot to ambush the next meal.

When you decide to run and gun, or do a milk run of proven locations or spots on the spots, then your rolling the dice. If a fish is in that particular location its "bingo"...fish on!
But, if its not, then its a game of arrive, cast, cast, cast...move on.
This technique takes years of practice to learn proven big bass locations that others do not know about or have not found yet...the hotspots!
When I`m choose this gameplan, I`m on the throttle to every nook and cranny location I know on a particular lake or river system and don`t stop until I catch the fish I`m looking for...big bass!
I`ll return to the same spots I hit two hours previous, just in case that hawg moved in while I was driving to another location....its a lot of hit and miss, let me tell you, but when its on, its on big time!

When I`m fishing for smallmouth in either deep locations or on wide open flats with spinnerbaits, crankbaits, topwaters, drop shot, stick worms or tube jigs, I usually stick it out and dissect the locations like a vaccum and find the bigger brown bass after usually going thru a bunch of chunkers and peanut sized smallies.

For me, its all about my inner-gut feeling that tells me when to throw or go!
And to this day, I don`t fight that feeling....I do what my instincts tell me to do and as you have seen in the photos, website, tournaments and tv show, its worked out pretty good for me.