One of the tournament angler’s greatest challenges is learning when he or she should leave an area or stick with it and give it time to produce. Serious tournament anglers live by the clock. The name of the game is to accumulate the heaviest possible limit of bass within a specified amount of fishing time, which spans approximately eight hours according to most tournament formats.

Naturally, different anglers approach tournament fishing in different ways than others. These varied approaches may be influenced by a number of factors such as the individual lake, target species, season of the year, water clarity, water level, available cover, personal preference and, last but not least, the mood of the fish.

Probably one of the most popular approaches to tournament fishing is the “run and gun” method, by which the angler attempts to cover as much water as possible during the allotted fishing time. The water up for discussion typically includes a host of “like places” the angler pinpointed while patterning the fish during practice.

At Rayburn, I spent three straight days working the same 75-yard stretch water with a combination of lures including a Carolina-rigged Zoom lizard, Texas-rigged lizard and a Stanley spinnerbait. The fish were holding in 3-7 feet of water around flooded grass and weeds (not hydrilla) on the side of a point in the mouth of a cove located in the midlake area.

At Sinclair, meanwhile, I split the difference between two points that were virtually identical. The points were cluttered with rocks and stumps and had creeks that passed nearby on both sides. Norman’s Deep Little N crankbait and a Carolina-rigged Zoom lizard were my primary weapons in this situation.

By no means is this to say running and gunning is obsolete as a tournament fishing strategy. It is not. What it is to say, however, is that patience can be an incredible virtue if you learn to apply it in the proper situations.

To wit: The bass were in a pre-spawn “staging” mode in both of these tournaments. But heavy rains and the rising, muddy water that followed threw a kink into many pre-planned tournament strategies.

I learned during practice that the fish were concentrated in the previously mentioned areas. But in the process, I also recognized they weren’t very aggressive. This fact alone told me to make a deliberate effort to slow down during the tournament, and my decision to do so was certainly worthwhile.

The point I’m trying to get across here is that covering a lot of water is not the only factor involved in catching bass in a tournament situation, particularly when the fish are sluggish and bites are hard to come by. The internal keys here are finding one or two key areas, realizing those spots as key areas and then having the patience to stick with those areas until the fish bite.

So, how does one realize a key area when he or she comes across one?

The most obvious sign is bass. I located my key areas by catching a couple of fish off each spot during practice, then “shaking off” several more. The fact I was able to get several bites in the same location told me there were several fish holding or “staging” in the area.

There also are secondary signs to look for. Take birds, for instance. Blue herons fish for a living, too. So if you see several of them hanging around a certain area as I did at Sinclair, you can bet there are baitfish and bass nearby. Still another tell-tale sign are baitfish that spook when a lure hits the water.

The location of key areas tends to vary with the season the year and what frame of mind the bass are in. But the ingredients are fairly generic. Most key areas will usually have some sort of bottom cover available such as logs, stumps, grass or brush. Structure can be a primary ingredient as well. Points, humps, pond dams and mainlake ridges are among some of the more preferred forms to look for.

During the post-spawn phase, key areas often can be pinpointed in the same places that held fish during the pre-spawn. The bass are in transition during this period and they’ll stage at these same locations before they drop off into slightly deeper water for the summer. But there are some differences to keep in mind. First off, the bass will be apt to be bunched up in much larger groups than in the pre-spawn, which makes it possible to really whack ‘em if the timing is right. Problem is, many of the fish inhabiting southern lakes will be stressed from the spawn and may not be all that willing to bite.

That’s where patience comes in. If you come across a key area during practice that appears to be holding good numbers of solid bass, by all means stick with the area and make yourself slow down rather than running through it and fancasting on high-24 when tournament times rolls around. You may find it to be a lucrative decision.