Bass Watching Bedding Bluegills?

[PABASS]

Curious to what type of pond you have with no minnows? Private concrete pond? Here in Iowa all ponds have minnows of some type, be it stocked fatheads, shiners, dace, or other small bottom dwelling minnows... mostly because when stocked by the DNR they introduce fathead minnows to the pond as a first food source to the fish. They will breed and be in the pond/lakes forever. 

 

I have never seen any body of water that did not have minnows, from creeks small enough to step over to huge lakes. Been that way throughout time, even natural small ponds that have never been touched by humans have some type of small minnow species living in them... that is how nature works. 

 

It may not be shad and minnows that the bass are after, but they are NOT after the spawning bluegill. Too much work for them to chase down a ticked off bluegill defending its bed. Bass will always take the easiest food source, they are opportunistic hunters. It could be small bluegills, shad, minnows, crawdads, big water beetles, aquatic lizards/salamanders, and many other animals that come to feast on the eggs. Those are all easy meals when they are feeding vs chasing down a spawned bluegill that will be fighting back. I could see a small wore out female bluegill being eaten as she is moving off the bed after spawning, but even then there will be plenty of fired up males around to chase the bass off. 

I don't think I have ever fished a pond with shad or minnows, I have never been out to Iowa so I cant say but here in PA we have many small ponds and the DNR does not have anything to do with these small ponds, they are typically residential owned and or golf course ponds.  One thing that may differ here in the east is that most property was owned well before the government/local state had its hands in land ownership, around here most lakes where created on farm land and farmer owned land taken was over by the state.  As a child I used to swim in these ponds and know them quite well..  And to add to that allot of lakes I fish do not have shad, only a few come to mind, minnows yes, but no shad..

[Fish Chris]

bass and gills coexist. If the gills ate all the bass eggs then they would eventually kill off the bass. If the bass just went around eating all the gills they would eventually kill off all the gills. Its kind of like the lions and antelope. They can be fairly close to each other without the lions even trying to catch one. The antelope know this and they don't run away but they always keep an eye on the lions. Then something triggers the lions and its time to hunt and the antelope know the mood has changed and they get much more spooky. Bass and gills live close to each other most of the time and just like the antelope the gills head for cover when they sense the bass are getting hungry. Its a perfect balance.

Also I don't believe bass like to eat larger gills. I think when that happens its a reaction or they couldn't pass up an opportunity. If the bass are close and watching larger spawning gills, they probably know its dangerous to eat them. Now if the gills were smaller then the bass were probably just hanging out until feeding time.

 

Great post Matt. Spot on, as usual. Of course, a 15+ lb Bass, can eat a pretty good sized Gill ...granted, it would probably prefer a hatchery trout over a Gill, about 100 X's to 1

 

Peace,

Fish