Pro fisherman Dearal Rodgers said that while fishing the right depths with the right lures is essential, sometimes fishermen just have to wait the fish out until they get into a biting mode.
“Sometimes the timing is perfect, and I’ll pull onto a hump or drop and within a few minutes get locked into biting fish,” he said. “When this occurs, I can catch a limit in just a few minutes. More often than not, it’s a matter of timing to hit the bite just right.
‘I’ll usually graph the area, and if I see fish on the graph that I believe are bass and forage suspended over or near the bottom, then I know I’m in a good area. But the fish do not always bite immediately. The more I fish, and fishing tournaments around the country has reinforced what I’ve learned at Lake Wateree: that timing is crucial to success when fishing open-water areas.
“The fish do not bite all day-long, but when they do, the fishing can be awesome,” Rodgers said. “There are two ways to work this pattern. Often, I’ll find two or three areas that look great on the graph but the timing is not right for fish to bite. I rotate my efforts and fish these areas repeatedly until I hit it right.
“However, if I’m in a tournament and in a spot that someone else might fish if I leave, I’ll often just stick with that area and keep fishing it for an extended period of time (using different lures). I’ve found that patience is usually rewarded, and when the fish turn on, the bite is great, and I can catch several hefty bass very quickly from the same place I’d been fishing. It’s not unusual to get into several quality fish on these deeper areas that can produce a heavy catch in just a few casts.
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