If you spend any time at all talking to fishermen, you will hear the term “hot-spot” among about a million others. If your curiosity is about to get the better of you and you think you might ask one of these people to explain the term; you may want to read on first. Fishing hot-spots are fairly simple by definition, but they take on an almost mystical quality when described by a dyed in the wool-fishing enthusiast.

First off, you need to understand a certain basics of fishing:

1. Fish feed in set cycles that may change by location, temperature and water depth. Once you figure out where the fish are biting with the most frequency and urgency, you will have figured out a hot-spot.

2. Certain parts of the fish’s life cycle are bigger feeding periods than others. Again, knowing a bit about fish biology is beneficial here.

3. A hot-spot can change nearly daily. One day you can pull out your limit of a certain fish, the following day you will be lucky if you can pull in one or two throwaway fish from the very same spot.

4. A hot-spot may suddenly grow dormant, especially at the very end or very beginning of a new fish cycle.

Once you know and understand those basic facts, you can move on to the actual spot itself. A fishing spot is likely to be a possible hot-spot if:

1. There is plenty of feeder fish, bugs or other food sources for the fish to feast on.

2. There are plenty of hiding places, however some fish are brazen and will swim along in open waters. Others prefer to keep to hidden places under water, darting out when they spot food and then dart back.

3. The water is at the right temperature for the species.

Finally, this note about hot-spots: Although many a fisherman will talk about knowing of a hot-spot, don’t think that he will reveal exactly where it is. He might talk about the fish he caught there, or how many big ones may have gotten away from him, but he will not say where it is!