How well do you know the spot? If you know it well I think you can make that determination VERY quickly. Anything after your first few casts, if they were well placed casts, is just hoping something swims into the area, which can certainly happen and I've seen incredible fishing occur many times as a school of fish enters previously dead water.
If I don't know the spot, and I can't make an educated guess, I might sit there the most of the tide. But that would be rare, I'd make a phone call for the intel if it was a spot I've never fished.
I like to fish plugs, and some spots due to casting distance require them but eels are always a good litmus test for a spot. If you can throw an eel out and not get any attention for 10 to 15 minutes, as far as I'm concerned no one is home and you're once again just hoping for a fish to arrive where you are.
I almost started a thread like this myself as there are a LOT of variables, but that's part of what makes fishing for stripers such a challenge.
More and more I like to bring it to the fish instead of waiting for them.  |