When I played guitar I was at the point that I could normally find the fret without looking at it all the time. I assume it was all muscle memory. Now that I have switched to bass with it’s longer fretboard the same isn’t working. I play mainly by looking at tabs and most of the time my fingers can find the correct fret, but if I have to cross more than a couple of frets I often get on the wrong fret, and if I look at the fretboard I get lost on the tab.
Just curious if it’s the same as the guitar was for me, it will just take time for the muscle memory to take over or if there is something specific I should be doing to get it correct? Just want to make sure I’m doing it correctly this time not just hoping it happens.
Thanks
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It takes practice, like with everything.
I am looking at frets as well, except for frets / melodies that I know well … but I try to look at people or squirrels passing, when playing in the park … or watch TV (mostly news) or my girlfriend working across the room when I’m home - that helps a lot.
EDIT When playing for a video cover, I look 100% at the fretboard, so I don’t have to look into the camera … and make less mistakes!
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I stare at the fretboard and regret nothing
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It just time. When you practice enough the ol’ muscle memory will creep back in once again. Once you get that back then when you move to different bass scales you just need a short recalibration. Don’t worry.
You can do that with sight reading tab right now, just don’t expect to do it continuously yet. Do it bite size at a time maybe start with 4 measures then 8 and so on. You need to know what’s on the tab first then go from there.
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Also … short scale basses! I love them … and I know from some guitarists that they find playing them easier…
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When I play the covers I’m fighting so hard but I don’t know where to look, 
I can’t look at the camera because it’s lower than my eyeline. I just look every where.
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Tbf though, you don’t have any intentions of playing live or on camera. It’s all good but playing devil’s advocate. 
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As a live player, it’s difficult to fix your eyes on anything in particular, no sheets for sure. I can’t really talk on stage because no one can hear me as we are all on IEMs so the communication comes from eyes and subtle gestures. We can all read lips for a couple of seconds especially on the subject that we know.
At the end of the day, I have to know my material or actively in the middle of improv. Many better players can just read and/ or sightread on the spot. My Kung Fu is not at that level. I can easily read the sheet, but I can’t simultaneously translate to playing them notes on the fingerboard. 
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the tastiest licks
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Correct. I have done my dreams of playing live in the past and do not really want to in the current phase of my musical journey.
And for covers the bass is only part of my focus; mostly they are music production practice for me, and for fun working with my bandmate.
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Muscle memory… rinse and repeat.
What I am doing now is I keep my eyes off the tab… focused on a wall… a curtain or the bass… and in an angled position I keep the tab in quick view, so I can glance quick in case of “memory lapse”. 
It will appear 
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I started learning bass on an acoustic (short scale) and developed the muscle memory on that. When I switched to full long scale I was off as well when moving more than a few frets up near the nut. It took a few days of focused practice with strict no looking to re-learn. I still make an occasional mistake, but am probably 99% back to not having to look at all.
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Newbie here, but getting pretty good at it at least for the money notes. It just takes practice. Here are a couple of exercises I like to do daily
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Find the 4 frets closest to the head stock where you can do 1 finger per fret without moving your anchor, do “the caterpillar” on those 4 frets back and forth. You can do this looking at your hands if you are only trying to build stretch or looking away if you are trying to build stretch and muscle memory. Over time you will be able to move further up the neck as you build stretch.
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Play all of the natural notes on the first 5 frets (plus open E) backwards and forwards, optionally say the names of the notes (bonus points for trying to do it in the same tone as the note) as you are playing them. When first starting out start with one string at a time and make sure you are hitting practicing between different note pairs. For example don’t just to EFGA, do F->A, A->F,F->G,G->F,E->F,E->A,E->G. You don’t want to practice doing the wrong thing but you do want to stop looking at the fret board once you can.
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Play songs. As you practice them you are going to naturally build muscle memory for what you are playing and there is a ton of overlap in the shapes so it should get easier with new songs over time. I am trying to stay connected to the note names but it can be tough for me to think (for example) C,G instead of root,5th when I’m just using the 5th shape.
Editing to add… I just recorded myself for the first time in a while and IDK if it’s because the alternative is to stare at myself playing on screen, but it turns out I still mostly stare at the fret board. Doh!
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This 
It’s marked for a reason.
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Practice, practice, practice. I am having the same issue now. I have several years worth of muscle memory for my 4 strings that is interfering with my 5 string playing. Probably need to put the 4 strings away for a while and accept the fact that I am a beginner on the 5 string. Start working on fingering and string crossing exercises like when I was a beginner. It is just hard to go back to sucking knowing I can play my 4 strings better.
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#1 and #6 are gold
Also my favorites.
Yo bass bro, I have a question maybe you would answer. Where is the best place to get tab charts? Im on songsterr but sometimes it’s not correct.
I search in Google and songster often pops up, but there are a couple others tab sites that commonly pop up as well. Use whichever sounds good to me. YouTube has tons of bass cover with tabs that have been useful, too.
Failing that, you can pretty much always find the chords or root notes listed somewhere and go to town with your own bass line…