Bass Acting Weird

[Preytorien]

This is the first fall that I've really been into bass fishing. I've meddled around in it prior, but this is the first fall that I've got a prior winter, spring, and summer under my belt.

 

What's got me puzzled is how the fish are behaving. They're acting almost identical as they do in spawn.

 

I'm currently not a boat owner, so my fishing is shore fishing. Using some nice polarized sunglasses along with being as stealthy as I possibly can be, I've noticed the fish are pretty close to shore, chasing baitfish and such. The strange thing is though, it doesn't matter what I throw, those bass don't act a bit interested in anything. They'll notice it, even turning to get a good look at it, but they won't hit it for nothin'

 

I've tried a wide array of soft plastics - senkos, craws, flukes, minnows, etc, as well as cranks - squarebill shallow runners, suspending jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, frogs.....almost everything.

 

What am I missing? I've fished as slow as I can think - 5 minute retrieves and such, but still nothing seems interested in my bait.

 

Any ideas? Any advice that might get me some of those nice fish?

[Catt]

Fall & Spring!

Fall: bass leave deep water to feed up for winter

Spring: bass leave deep water to feed up for the spawn.

Fall: bass follow bait to the back of creeks

Spring: bass follow bait to the back of creeks

If y'all know Spring breaks/breakline,

or feeding areas, y'all know the fall ones to!

[GeorgiaBassBros]

Ive noticed the same thing, lots of cruisers close to the shore not willing to look at anything you throw. I have found that if you match the hatch they will go after it better.

[BuffaloBass716]

Exactly what happened to me yesterday... I'm a shore fisherman too and there were a few nice sized bass swimming in small schools right at the bank. They would often swim up to my bait and just look at it or occasional have the tail of it in their mouth but would spit it out immediately. I used a 2.5" fluke and I had some hits but nothing would eat it completely. I only caught one with a zoom finesse worm but that was it. I guess they are picky sometimes...

[WRB]

When a school or group of bass push schools of baitfish into the bank, the baitfish have nowhere to go and the bass are focused on that bait. Sometimes a lure will get bit, not often trying to compete with the real thing.

You can try fishing a little deeper and get the attention of bigger bass looking for an easy meal.

Tom

[Lil'Gunner]

I've noticed the same thing. I can't see the fish in my lake, but it's on-off again like crazy. And when it is on, they are right up on the bank.

 

A couple of things I have noticed... I fish from a tube, and a lot of my hook-ups come from tossing a TX rigged senko up onto dry land, and sliding it into the water. Most of those hits come right away, or on the first twitch. I've also noticed that if I mis-cast, especially multiple times, that will pretty much guarantee I won't catch anything there (often, I'm skipping under brush, trying to hit pretty tight openings).

 

Perhaps you can find an angle or two on your water to try sliding in from the dirt.

 

I've also had some success down-sizing on tough days, throwing 3-4 inch versions of the same 6, 7, 10-inch worms I may use otherwise. (btw... I try to fish all kinds of things, but in my favorite lakes, anything but soft plastic seems to be a waste of time..).

[wademaster1]

Maybe they aren't quite in sync with fall yet....they are feeding heavily here in nc, hitting plastics/cranks.....but I don't think a super slow retrieve is necessary right now.....

[Paul Roberts]

When fish are shallow, we can see them. And then we get to see how silly lures look most of the time. If we could see all that goes on down there around our lures, we'd probably hang it up. Don't take those fish, snubbing you, personally.

[KyakR]

When fish are shallow, we can see them. And then we get to see how silly lures look most of the time. If we could see all that goes on down there around our lures, we'd probably hang it up. Don't take those fish, snubbing you, personally.

This is so true, I think! And the more I fish, the more respect I have for the intelligence of these amazing fish. I read many comments in the fall here regarding their disinterest in our stuff when the whole world under the water is moving to prepare for winter.....I see it too. It's harder for me to compete with the real forage, and harder "cause the fish are moving.

 

When a school or group of bass push schools of baitfish into the bank, the baitfish have nowhere to go and the bass are focused on that bait. Sometimes a lure will get bit, not often trying to compete with the real thing.

You can try fishing a little deeper and get the attention of bigger bass looking for an easy meal.

Tom

Followed Tom's advice and got bit   

[einscodek]

When a school or group of bass push schools of baitfish into the bank, the baitfish have nowhere to go and the bass are focused on that bait. Sometimes a lure will get bit, not often trying to compete with the real thing.

You can try fishing a little deeper and get the attention of bigger bass looking for an easy meal.

Tom

Agree with this.. the cruisers I've seen along the weeds in fall are small-medium size bass

The trailoff of topwater and the proliferation of my spinnerbait bites essentially tells me they're after the baitfish and its hard to compete with the real thing

 

The only similarity to spawn is that they SEEM bite-shy but its really that its difficult to pin them down.. you need to catch them at the right place, at the right time, with the right lure.. and that to me is the problem with the Fall..

 

The deeper bigger bass are what I'm after but I havent been able to figure them out this fall as of yet.. when they come into the shallows during the rains they are MINE!

[Hyrule Bass]

i know many of you insist on using artificial only. but thats the perfect time to use the Fish Chris method and toss out a live nose-hooked nightcrawler with a small split shot up the line if that. its nearly impossible for them to resist...

[WRB]

i know many of you insist on using artificial only. but thats the perfect time to use the Fish Chris method and toss out a live nose-hooked nightcrawler with a small split shot up the line if that. its nearly impossible for them to resist...

A school of night crawlers is the time to fly line a worm! Fly line a nose hooked baitfish on light line and you are in business.

Just pulling your line RedEarth.

Very few bass anglers today will use live bait, it's like keeping and eating the occasion bass...taboo.

Tom

[einscodek]

Deepwater fish often make me reconsider artificial lures..

[Hyrule Bass]

A school of night crawlers is the time to fly line a worm! Fly line a nose hooked baitfish on light line and you are in business.

Just pulling your line RedEarth.

Very few bass anglers today will use live bait, it's like keeping and eating the occasion bass...taboo.

Tom

haha, i, myself, have no problems using live bait especially if i cant buy a bite on artificial. i understand if its a tournament, you have to use artificial. but just fun fishing, i wont hesitate to throw live bait. i dont feel any more accomplished catching them one way or the other. if someones preference is to not use live bait, thats fine. but then theyre not using all the methods available to them to catch fish. i just like to catch fish, if theyre snubbing my artificials, i will throw a nightcrawler to start catching them. but then again, ive been snubbed using live bait too, its not full proof, but it gives me another option as well...

[Hattrick7]

Wow same exact thing with me. I'll sometimes see about a dozen smaller bass cruising in schools. Then I'll see a nice 4lber just cruising the bank. Nothing is getting them to bite. I think they see my lure go by and start laughing. 

 

A little frustrating but it gets my mind going on different baits and techniques. I think I'm going to have to huck a jig out as far as I can and see what happens. 

[ww2farmer]

If you can see them, they can see you.................GAME OVER.  Also, cruising and/or sunning fish are just that. They are not actively feeding. You can get a few to bite here and there, but often it's futile. It's fun to look at them, but go fish for fish that you can't see, or that can't see you and your success rate will go up.

[Paul Roberts]

I've spent a lot of time just watching fish. It's just plain fascinating. But it's not always all that helpful, at first, because it's apt to point out just how difficult catching fish actually is. But that's good information. Want to keep a cool head? Fathom what's actually going on down there and you can relax rather than beat your head against an invisible wall.

 

Lures aren't "food". And get this, most prey aren't "food" either. They have to get caught by the predator first. That's not easy to accomplish and more fish starve to death than survive to maturity. While predators like bass are super-athletes, so too are their prey. Plenty of studies have shown this. Did you know bluegills are quicker than bass? To catch one, bass have to be in position and that's what a lot of bass hunting behavior is all about. A lot of those maddening "cruisers" you see are often in process of hunting. But there are a lot of unseen “economic negotiations” at play that have to be met before "hunters” become “biters”.

 

Again, lures are not “food”; they are chunks of plastic, metal, wood, and feathers. And they look pretty stupid most of the time. They approach wrong –wrong angle, wrong speed, wrong distance from cover, quirky posture or articulation, etc. … -they don’t fit. Couple this with fish that have been casted to (bombed) and pricked before and you can start to appreciate the real playing field.

 

What you are looking for are “in's” as I came to call them -opportunities. An obviously distracted bluegill, one busy feeding during a midge hatch, is vulnerable. Distracted bluegills in broken cover, even better. Distracted shad on the edge of the school, in broken cover, corralled against the surface, or a ledge, are potentially vulnerable. Prey fishes pushed by current or sucked into its vacuuming eddies are suddenly predictable and therefore vulnerable. These are your potential opportunities too. But … don’t let your lure spook them, make sure they can find it or conversely make sure its fakeness is properly obscured. Make sure it’s speed is appropriate to one of the various states of arousal/motivation that confine fish. And on and on with every variable that can rear its head between you and that bass. There are an awful lot of them.

 

Daunting? Even depressing? You have to work to balance your own risk reward curve. If it’s too steep, don’t look. Or pray for clouds and a good chop. Providence/chance/luck/faith can cure a lot of what ails us. But your eyes have to be open, and it helps to know what you are looking for.

[Catt]

Excellent Paul

I think your explaination is why when we see bass in the spring/fall actively feeding on bait fish and they refuse to hit lures. Our lures give off to many negative clues that the bass know it aint real, so they ignore it.

I do not buy into the theory that says if I see the bass it sees me so game over. There is a little bayou 30 yards out my front door and I'll walk at various times of the day. The bass see me and act like they could care less never moving unless I get within a certain distance.

[Crestliner2008]

I agree with ww2farmer. If they see you, it's game over. This is why in spring and fall (when I mostly fish shallow), I wear camo and soft soled sneakers when shore fishing. I'll take a few minutes to move into position as quietly and invisibly as possible. Then I'll sit and wait....maybe 10 min. more before making a cast. Doesn't work all the time, but it has produced some nice fish for me over the years. JMO!

[Hyrule Bass]

i dont buy into the if they see you its game over thing either. at times that may be true though. but i fish a shallow clear water pond sometimes. the fish clearly see me, yet they still take my lure in and get caught. they dont scatter when i walk right up to the edge of the bank either

[WRB]

Two weeks ago at Castaic LMB were feeding heavily on Threadfin shad and there was a tournament going on at that time. The tournament anglers had a tough day, the live shad anglers loaded their boats with quality bass. Talking to one of the best pro anglers in this TX, told me this story; we in the back of a cove with bass ripping the shad and couldn't get bit. A boat comes in with live shad and they had doubles hooked up immediately and caught limits in a short time. What made this more frustrating is the bass were around their boat within a few yards.

Sometimes bass get so focused on certain prey fish they will chase the bait up against a boat. Like musky that follow a lure to the boat, bass will also follow a swimbait all the way to the boat and stay there! These bass see you, just so active chasing prey and don't seem to have any fear of you for some reason. The same bass may get spook from a shadow at other times.

Tom

[Catt]

I fish Lacassine Wildlife Refuge & Miami Land Cooperation (Big Burns) in southwest Louisiana. Both are shallow marshes (18"-24") that are extremely clear with tons of various types of vegetion.

The #1 technique is to drift the flats looking for bass, cast to them & catch em.

The bass in the bayou across from my house can be caught standing on the bank & flipping a worm to em.

[WRB]

Shaw Grigsby made a good living "sight fishing" bass, not just bed fishing.

Sometimes they bite, sometimes they are spooked. Our local lakes are extremely clear water, so sight fishing happens nearly year around. What amazes me sometimes is how hard it can be to see these bass on rocky structure, they blend in to the background unless they move.

Tom

[ww2farmer]

Yes, we have all caught bass that can be seen, and have seen you .But more often than not, those bass are very spooky, and are difficult to catch. So much so, that I almost always refuse to fish for them. I have had good days fishing for them, but it's the exception, not the rule...........around here. In other locations, it may be different.

[Paul Roberts]

Excellent Paul

I think your explaination is why when we see bass in the spring/fall actively feeding on bait fish and they refuse to hit lures. Our lures give off to many negative clues that the bass know it aint real, so they ignore it.

I do not buy into the theory that says if I see the bass it sees me so game over. There is a little bayou 30 yards out my front door and I'll walk at various times of the day. The bass see me and act like they could care less never moving unless I get within a certain distance.

Thanks Tommy.

 

Yes, we have all caught bass that can be seen, and have seen you .But more often than not, those bass are very spooky, and are difficult to catch. So much so, that I almost always refuse to fish for them. I have had good days fishing for them, but it's the exception, not the rule...........around here. In other locations, it may be different.

I‘ve experienced both extremes too, when I’ve been able to catch sighted bass and they seem to pay little attention to me, and other times the bass are put off by my presence. Sometimes their reaction is obvious. Other times it’s darn subtle. I’m talking about hunting bass and not the spawn as there's different stuff at work there -based on changing intensity of parental investment through the spawn. In terms of hunting bass there are lots of potential variables involved: fish experience with anglers, fish being hyper-focused or distracted, fish feeling secure or insecure due to lighting and/or cover density or proximity to it, and fish individuality (every piece of research on bass “catchability”, however it’s looked at, turns up fish –entire segments of populations even– that are described as “uncatchable” or “immune to angling”, as well as individuals that are repeatedly catchable). And there’s certainly other stuff that could be included in the list of variables that affect catchability at any one moment. One, brought up by others above, and documented in at least one research paper (with walleyes and gizzard shad) described fishing success against shad population sizes –when shad popns got really high, angling success plummeted. I would venture a guess that this is most apt to happen with schooling prey species in open water zones, although I've seen "selectivity" to prey size in bass ponds a number of times.

 

My quip above, “Pray for clouds and a good chop”, was double entendre: Sometimes it’s emotionally easier not being able to see what’s going on, and, clouds and chop can make fish WAY more approachable. Under high visibility conditions (high brilliant sun and calm surface) bass are so easily spooked that I’ve seen them turn inside out at a sparrow flying overhead. In fact, every fish in the pond is on a knife’s edge. I’ve watched big schools of bluegills and carp convulse in a synchronous spasm, bolting for the depths, when a Cessna passed over 1200 feet up! Interestingly, it has to be right overhead or have the shadow pass over them. It’s like an overreaction, as if they are paranoid. And they are; the reasons are obvious if you spend much time there as the list of fish-eating critters is impressive: bald eagle, osprey, pelican, four heron species, kingfisher, mink, raccoon, not to mention a nearly regular parade of anglers.

 

On those brilliant days, my lure flying overhead puts everything down. If that didn’t do it the splashdown will, sending them bolting for cover. Even a mono or FC line landing on a calm surface under such lighting freaks them out (Tip: Try braid ). I saw this so often that I came to realize that each cast is essentially clearing the retrieve path of catchable fish. Yet, these fish are still hunters! I’ve proven this to myself with some fancy footwork, that is scarcely worth the effort, but fascinating to realize that many of those fish actually will take, if you could just get an appropriate lure to them in the right way without sending them scurrying for cover.

 

And the "appropriate lure" isn't always my favorite finesse worm as I’ve also found that fish in ultra-high visibility conditions can be very, very, picky. They look, but obviously see something they don’t trust; the problem appearing to be the "look" part. It's become apparent to me that how well fish see is proportional to available lighting, and this plays a major role in catchability as well as "spookabllity". Light attenuates rapidly underwater as conditions erode. I’ve been doing some diving and snorkeling of late and seen that the difference across depth, sun vs clouds, sun angle, and surface conditions has an enormous effect on light quantity and quality down below. The range of lighting change is profound with every passing cloud or surface ruffling breeze. While fish are adapted to seeing underwater they still have to deal with the effects of such variation in lighting. In some of my harder fished waters the bass just plain do not … trust. And the problem is exacerbated tenfold under high visibility conditions.

 

Some oft-quoted research has shown LMB having a vision advantage over bluegills in low light, this reversing under bright light. I believe I see this regularly, with groups of bluegills spotting and streaming away well ahead of hunting bass under brilliant lighting. The number of active chases I see, and the overall demeanor (activity level) of the bass seems diminished, muted. It appears to me they are conserving energy.

 

Now... add clouds, chop –reduce visibility– and the fish are entirely different animals. Bluegills are more at risk (and more apt to be feeding and distracted), bass are hunting with vigor, and chases are either visible in places, or evidenced by surges. Under prime conditions, dark overcast, dropping BP, humidity up, temperatures stable, and my lure flying through the air does not spook those bass, they chase it and meet it at splashdown. Some of my ponds have dense milfoil beds and the bass, on overcast days, like to hunt the tops and upper crevices of those beds. Bluegills are up there too taking emerging midges –a common summertime activity pattern on my ponds. I purposely throw high over the beds to let the bass know my lure is coming, and several wakes give chase to each cast. It’s really fun to see. But have the sun break out and the surface flatten and … they’re back to paranoia.

 

But those two conditions I just described -brilliant sun with flat calm, and deep overcast and an impending front- are the extremes. Much of the time we have sun but some chop, or hazy clouds and calm conditions, or roiled water, or… any mixture of factors that affect lighting quantity and quality. I’ve got some things that work especially well under certain conditions and I pull em out as conditions change. Even under bright sun I often have a buzzbait rigged and ready, awaiting the afternoon breezes that simply adds some surface chop. Or, if clouds or chop give way to calm bright periods, I often stash the ruckus presentations and goto a med spinning rig and jigworm –Bam! Back in business. Cloud rolls over or a breeze kicks up and I whip out the buzzbait or spinnerbait again. Good overcast with a calm surface and I’m apt to choose a waker, or ... . There are LOTS of potential permutations of conditions and potential tackle options to meet them. But this doesn't mean anything goes. Those mature fish are not stupid. They may not be "smart" but they carry some "wisdom". That wisdom is what makes us "smart" critters beat our heads against walls. Yeah, it hurts. We're lucky that it's only our egos that get bruised nowadays. Those walls are what we need to get a grasp on. No pain no gain, I suppose.

 

I’d venture to say that much of the time, at least some bass are on the hunt, but in various levels of activity/motivation. Under advantageous conditions they can be very aggressive, under poorer conditions they conserve energy. How this actually pans out depends heavily on prey type and availabilty, cover, structural characteristics, etc.... Those bright days when you have to punch thick vegetation, bass are more apt to be moving little, willing to eat but not willing to expend much energy –move very far– for dubious return (I’ve actually watched this –the bass strike range much diminished, the bass interested but lethargic). At times though, when bass are happy to hunt under bright conditions (notably in spring and fall especially) I think the reason we are relegated to punching cover is bc those are the only fish we can approach without putting down. Ditto for the adage, fish deep during bluebird weather, in many cases it’s bc shallow fish are almost impossible to approach.

 

This is some of how I view catchability. Conditions weigh heavy but while they can be complex there are patterns to behavior, a tempo that can be understood to some degree, but rarely controlled or predicted to any fine degree. We can take some solace though in the fact that the fish don’t have all the answers either. They are responding to providence too. We’re just a step removed, up the food chain a notch and, at very best, a step or two behind. And that's when you fish every day.