A Couple Questions

[basslover12345]

A couple questions

1. What do you guys do when you can see a bass (not spawning)- kind of hovering towards the bottom, that's interested in your lure buts kind of "Bullet proof"- My lure can slide right under its belly and it just darts away- or when I can see it and it picks my lure up and holds it with its mouth closed- I end up taking or pulling the bait out of its mouth on the hook set, while watching it (I never even felt a tap). The particular bait I'm talking about is a fluke on a dangleberry rig I was fishing with spinning gear. It'll nose down on it after the first pickup when I'm twitching it along the bottom- but it's pretty skittish afterwards. The spot I was fishing was a deep kind of ditch by a drain with a small flow of current with a hard bottom and on sunny days, clear water, where you can see bass in the water in 1-2 feet. There's no grasss in the spot, though there's a lot on the flat around it. There's one little BRIGHT Green elodea/duck weed clump on the edge of the drain by where the current tapers off, and I've thrown spinnerbaits in the spot and they'll dart out of the clump and look at it- but only once it hits the bottom. Ideas?

2. What's the best practice/method for releasing a bass that had another one follow it to the bank after hooking it? Do you release it in the same spot you caught it in (Shallow water I might add)? This happened to me the other day. I was fishing a weighted fluke rig and there;s a little cove/pocket at the back end of the pond I fish that's pretty shallow and narrow with just a mud bottom. I had a gut feeling, made a cast and had two bass dart over to my lure on the opposite shoreline (I could see them). One took it- I let him ease off with my bait for a few seconds, I set the hook, and right before I liftted him in I saw the other bass next to him. Well I ran down to the other end of the pond and let the bass go (1.5 pounder) and wen't back to the first spot and the other bass was tight to the shore- and when I threw to him (this was 10-15 minutes after the first bass)- he seemingly was trying to avoid my fluke... Ideas?

[Kevin22]

For the spooky bass, I would try a small finesse worm wacky rigged with a small hook. Fish it as slow as you can. Also add some scent to it so when he picks it up he sucks it all the way in. 

 

For letting the other go, he probably saw you running around and got spooked. Bass can see what is going on out of the water really well, survival instinct.