One of the lakes I fish most often, is an 8 acre quarry lake. This lake has shelves, deeper rocks, rock walls, and humps in the deeper water, when the quarry was dug many years ago. There are no shad here. The predominant forage has always been bluegill, small crappie, and crawfish. We've always done well here with dark colored plastic worms, 3" and 4" grubs, and smaller jig/ trailer combos. A local Mo conservation agent told me this fall that he thought the forage base had changed here. In his words, depending on conditions, there may be more bluegill, less craws etc, depending on many factors. Our catch rates prove him to be correct. We caught quite a few more fish on craw baits, in standard crawfish colors last year. Not as many fish on our standard worms, grubs, or jigs, which we always thought were imitations of the bluegill population here. Does this make sense, and sound correct? Has anyone noticed a change in the forage base on your lake, and have you had to adjust how you fish, to catch bass consistently? I've never thought that we always need to match the hatch perfectly to catch the bass. Bass may hit any number of baits on any given day, but it always pays to learn what the fish are eating, and fish accordingly. Any thoughts or opinions on a forage base changing?
