Dealing with Pressure
Where things get tricky is when other anglers apply pres-
sure, too. This is more common in a ledge-fishing scenario at
a fishery such as Kentucky Lake, where the location of pro-
ductive ledges is common knowledge and “getting in line” to
fish them is standard operating procedure.
In this scenario, it’s imperative to know how much pres-
sure each ledge spot can take and how long it takes for
schools to re-form. This usually involves patrolling a series
of spots and keeping close tabs on who is on them and for
how long.
Cody Meyer
The trick is to identify lulls in the pressure and to show up
during those lulls. If you get lucky enough to hit a series of
hot spots during the lulls, you have succeeded in finding
good timing and rotation.
Conversely, if you show up at spots when other anglers
are there, it’s considered bad timing and rotation, and can
ruin your day. Thrift is a master at this sort of timing game,
lining himself up to fish the lulls instead of the crowds.
Mother Nature’s Timing
Timing and rotation are not always dictated by fishing
pressure alone. Fishery and weather condition windows also
bring timing into focus. Tides, current generation, sunshine,
May-juNe 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM
Wesley Strader
in about 35 minutes, which wasn’t enough time to let fish set
back up on the key targets. So he killed time by fishing riprap
on a bridge causeway while waiting for his primary area to
get primed again.
The causeway was a perfect waiting area because it also
produced some decent fish for Rose during the week. He
developed perfect timing and rotation between the cause-
way and the staging spot as he bounced back and forth
between them.
Similarly, Thrift located bass near a hole in some eelgrass
on a flat. Once he caught three or four fish from the spot, he
needed to let the area replenish. Thrift fished a series of
nearby marina docks where he could keep a watchful eye on
the flat while scoring a few bonus keepers.
In each situation, the pro could dictate his own timing and
rotation on the spot because he was the only one fishing it.
wind and warming trends all create such windows, and sync-
ing up with the right conditions can be the difference
between success and failure.
On tidal fisheries such as the Potomac River, James River
and California Delta, the natural rise and fall of water is obvi-
ously a big deal. A spot might be neutral all day long and
then suddenly get really hot for about an hour during the
right tide.
It’s the same with current in rivers and some reservoirs. A
particular ledge can be fruitless for most of the day until a
few gates in the dam are thrown open, then it suddenly
becomes a hot spot.
Sunshine can be a trigger for everything from locking fish
on beds to positioning bass in shade. For instance, a row of
good docks might not be productive first thing in the morn-
ing when the entire bank is shaded. Once the sun moves off
the tree line and the shade tightens up under the docks,
however, the fish become a lot easier to target. An angler
might key on this timing and show up just as the dock bite
gets good.
Lake Okeechobee is notorious for this type of conditional
timing. An area that’s cold and turbid one day can produce
winning fish a day or two later once clarity has improved and
the sun has warmed the waters.
Indeed, the best pros in the business have a keen sense
of these types of timing. Andy Morgan, David Dudley and
Wesley Strader are so impressive because they put so much
trust in timing. They can quickly fish through an area that is
fishless at the time, but recognize the right ingredients need-
ed to activate the bite there. After everyone else has written
it off, they come back days or even hours later to catch a big
bag when the right ingredients have come together to fire up
the spot.
This sense of timing results from a combination of intu-
ition and experience. Having fished many lakes across the
country at many different times, these pros have an acute
sense of when “something is getting right” somewhere else,
and when to make that move. When they go to weigh-in with
yet another eye-popping limit while others have struggled,
they say, “Today was really all about timing.”
And to some degree, they’re exactly right.
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