Can your empty your Honey Hole??

Alright, I have fished the river for a very short period of time compared to most so I have a question.
I have found a “honey-hole” that seems to pick up nice fish for the last month or so. It is in the middle of the main channel. How often can a person hit it before you burn it out? I know this is very inexact but how often do you go to your “go to” spot?
I have heard it said “don’t leave fish to find fish”
Any thoughts?
Guides, how often will you hit your fav spot if the client is struggling?

ps. My guess is that this spot will fade with the onset of summer.
Thanks in advance for the input.

in my opinion it is harder to fish out a honey hole on the river as opposed to a lake simply because there are more fish and they are moving more, but you can put a dent in it i guess. More than likely every time you fish the honey hole you do good right away and then it slows, i think that is because the fish that were active hit right away, i say go to it until they move as long as you catch and release. Make hay while the sun shines, if you fish tournaments there are a whole different set of rules for honey holes.

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if you fish tournaments there are a whole different set of rules for honey holes.

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What do you mean, bigdog?

A slight addition to this question. How long will fish hold to an area? Is there a great deal of movement?
Are todays fish caught tomorrow’s as well or have a new batch come on in?
I realize this my sound really dumb or be entirely too large of a subject? BUT I just wonder

reel guy, what i mean is that most tournament fisherman wont “burn” the honey hole shortly before a tournament. even if you do release the fish a person is better off leaving the hole sit until the tourney day, or at the least, just check it catch a couple and put it into the mental bank

With complete disregard to seasonal movements and forage shifts, I will say that a “Honey Hole” will always be a honey hone during the seasonal conditions you found them in. For instance a break on a wingdam typically hold smallies and these smallies will always be there unless the forage leaves or the conditions become unfavorable. You can fish out an area and fast if you are looking for a meal. When a school of smallies goes, well you all know it goes. A guy with a minnow and bobber can put a hurt on the school in a hurry. Take this and compound it with the increased difficulty in the schools ability to school bait fish and you are looking at a potential loss of this pod of smallies. I am not saying they will starve but I am saying that there is a good chance the dynamics of your spot will change and possibly markedly. Next if you are a tourney fisherman as I, the more you go to your spot the odds increase someone will see your whereabouts and check this area. The next thing you know you little spot became a community hole and pressure often has a negative effect on these fish.

When you are looking at seasonal movement and forage shifting you are tossing a bunch of factors into the equation so be mindful of this and react accordingly.

A little shorter answer is that if this area has bait and favorable conditions for bass then it will always be used. Time if the year will make it better than other but all in all they will be there.

Jc

If my understanding of the range of northern river smallmouth bass is correct,(approx 1 1/2 square miles except for spawn), I would “Guess” that it would be quite easy to put a huge dent in the smallmouth population on one square mile of the river if you were constantly taking them out. I have some doubt that largemouth are affected anywhere near the same since their numbers see many times larger. On pool 8&9 at least I have nearly 100 spots that I rotate in guiding and even though we don’t keep them unless they appear to be mortally woulded we still try to cut and run after two-three fish. There are a few largemouth holes that seem to be bottomless that I may stop on more frequently but when I do, I notice that it takes over a week for the average size to come back up. Like Jeremy said this area is almost always bass digs and full of pin minnows. The bass below came from pool 6 and I have no doubt that no less than 100 and probably many more bass boats fish this area every month. I have fished near this area and watched,(last weekend), 6 or seven boats work through it in and hour. I rarely pull into a smallie spot after another bass fisherman has just worked it and catch much more than dinks.