Help Catching "cruisers"

[StinkyBass]

I've been fishing my home lake and watching the water temp like a hawk. this week we had 5 days of 80-90 degree weather. needless to say, THEY'RE HERE! Finally i'm seeing bass! but they are just cruising. they are moving in a slow relaxed manner parallel to the shore line in 2-4 ft of water. not chasing anything, not reacting to my tx rigged craw noisily clicking against the bullet weigh (they cant stand that in this lake!). 

 

So Im new to fishing before the spawn and am not familiar with how to entice a cruiser. i know from stories, articles and experience they are difficult to catch but dang! no visible beds yet. still waiting to get that tell tale "tap, tap"

 

Any suggestions? Thanks!

[BassinB]

cruisers are VERY hard to catch.  Usually if you can see them they can see you and because they are not guarding a nest they are not inclined to bite after seeing you. The only way I've found to get one to bite is with reaction baits like a spinner bait, crankbait, chatterbait etc.  After seeing one back up and give it a few minutes, then approach from a distance and fan cast the area you saw the fish.

[WRB]

I think I have answered this same ? Several times.

Ignor them and fish as if you can't see them. Pre spawn transition cruisers are usually not interested in feeding.

Go fish the deeper breaks or cover a lot of shallow flat areas with Scrounger jig or chatter bait jigs.

Sometimes a 1/8 oz dart jig with a 5" curl tail worm will get bit by a cruiser...sometimes!

Tom

[eyedabassman]

I agree with WRB,don't waste your time on these bass.They have one thing on there mind and that is to start looking where to start to make a bed when the water temps are wright. I would target the points near where you see the cruisers,or the 1st or 2nd brake lines and try to find the females.The females are schooled up waiting for the water to warm so they can move up shallow.They are in a feeding mood and full of eggs.If you want a pig then start looking in deeper water, they are very close!

[Felix77]

It's been said already ... they are tough to catch but if you want to try I always throw on a weightless frenchfry type bait.  The small profile and very slow fall right in front of them has caught some for me in my local pond.  Cast out and try to land it just in front of them.

 

Good luck.

[gotarheelz14]

I will agree with the above statements and I will add a couple of things..."cruisers" are not hard to catch, but "cruisers you see, see you." These "cruisers you see" are darn near impossible to catch. Once they see you, they are on a heightened state of alert and will notice every single one of your presentation flaws, making them very hard to catch. 

 

If fish are up shallow at this time of the year, they are displaying typical pre spawn/spawn bass behavior; they are throwing caution to the wind, either looking for someone to mate with, or gobbling up before they mate. 

Remember, bass are opportunistic feeders and thus, even "cruisers you see" making beds or looking to mate can  be caught. They are definitely harder to catch, however. Unless I spot a BIG BIG fish that I absolutely want to weigh in, I try to stay away from them. I would suggest you do the same. Stay away from "cruisers you can see."

 

Luckily for us, however, there is a very simple solution to this problem. If fish are shallow because they have finally awakened and are just feeding aggressively, they can be very easy to catch. 

I live in NC, so I am fairly close and the bass in my ponds and lakes are displaying the same exact behavior you just described. I thought the same thing to myself yesterday, "oh my god I'm finally seeing bass!"

 

I tried for about 30 minutes pitching at a "cruiser I could see." I lost two drop shots and 30 minutes of my life. So what did I do? I forgot about the "cruisers I could see." I figured that if I had seen some within just minutes of pulling up to the lake, there were bound to be plenty of other "cruisers I had yet to see." So I began making very long casts, as close to the littoral edge as I could get, and began retrieving my rattle trap at a moderate-slow speed.

 

Within three casts, I had caught three 3lbers!!! And that's when I realized the key to this whole "cruiser" thing.

 

The "cruisers you see" see you, and are immediately put alert. If they could speak, they could certainly give you a PHD level thesis on every single presentation flaw you have made. They would also tell you they're not dumb and are very weary of seeing a creature extremely close to them throwing a million things at them. They would probably ask you what you have against them and why you have vexatiously hit them 5 times upside the head with a hard piece of plastic. 

The "cruisers" out there, the ones you haven't seen, are feeling frisky. They have thrown caution to the wind, and are very, very, hungry. They would rather not talk to you. Actually, they probably can't talk to you because they have a mouth full of crankbait/spinnerbait/soft plastic. 

Make long, parallel or diagonal casts to the very edge of the water and cover a lot of water. Use a rattle trap, square bill, spinnerbait, or a bait that covers a lot of water. Try to stay away from fish's sight and hold on---your drag is peeling!

---Carlos

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

I've been fishing my home lake and watching the water temp like a hawk. this week we had 5 days of 80-90 degree weather. needless to say, THEY'RE HERE! Finally i'm seeing bass! but they are just cruising. they are moving in a slow relaxed manner parallel to the shore line in 2-4 ft of water. not chasing anything, not reacting to my tx rigged craw noisily clicking against the bullet weigh (they cant stand that in this lake!). 

 

So Im new to fishing before the spawn and am not familiar with how to entice a cruiser. i know from stories, articles and experience they are difficult to catch but dang! no visible beds yet. still waiting to get that tell tale "tap, tap"

 

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

nightcrawler on #4 hook no weight, hook the fat end in about 1 inch let rest hang. I literally catch hundreds of cruisers this way working my way around a little lake.

[Teal]

Move on. Dont waste time if they done bite the first couple casts. Ive learned the hard way, those fish will gt in your head and in your pride. You will waste more time and lures just to catch nothing.

The first deep break is normally a winner for me.

My mental state on the water is more important than my pride... move on, and catch a fish that will bite. You can try and may even catch one, but ive gotten to the point where ill cast twice to them and move.

[deep]

 Ive learned the hard way, those fish will gt in your head and in your pride. You will waste more time and lures just to catch nothing.

 

Words of wisdom, Don't know how many hours I have wasted on cruisers and bed fish that weren't going to bite instead of fishing for fish that were or would be feeding.

[Fishes in trees]

I have had minimal success catching "cruisers".   The few I have caught happened when I threw a wacky rigged senko right in front of them and it happened to intersect where they were swimming.   Most of the time they just swam right on by but a few times they have inhaled it.

[Hyrule Bass]

nightcrawler on #4 hook no weight, hook the fat end in about 1 inch let rest hang. I literally catch hundreds of cruisers this way working my way around a little lake.

^^^this, what i call the fish chris nightcrawler method

 

a live nightcrawler is an easy scrumptious snack for a bass, they will stop, inspect it, see its real and then eat it. take note of the cruisers route, they are often swimming the same route over and over, dont cast right to them, but cast at a spot in their route that theyre not in...

 

of course many of you refuse to toss a live crawler out there for whatever reason. i understand if youre fishing a tourney that you cant. but just fun fishing, everyone should keep a live bait rig ready and a box of nightcrawlers