Bass Acting Weird

[Catt]

Paul you sure you aint following me around

The two marshes mentioned are best fished during over cast days, the more cloud cover the better the fishing. On windless blue bird days I refuse to fish em because the bite will only be 1 hour before actual sun rise until 30-45 minutes after sun rise. And then again for maybe an hour after sun set until total darkness.

[gallowaypt]

Excellent write up Paul!

[WRB]

While I agree with the gin clear water and spooky bass behavior in general terms, bass have away of not behaving like we think they should. Lake mead is a very deep gin clear bass fishery with few shallow areas to fish, the banks are steep because it's a canyon classification resevervior. Mead has little cover, almost no weeds, sparse salt cedar bushes in a few spots depending on water level. The first mystery lake Bassmasters classic was held at Mead and won by John Murry fishing the bare banks with a spinnerbait, 5 1/2' pool cue rod with 20 mono. Knowone who knew amend would have tried a spinnerbait with heavy line, but that is what Murry always used, always fished shallow water.

Dee Thomas, the father of flipping, learned to bass fish the CA delta where the water isn't clear and has extremely heavy cover everywhere. Dee was winning a lot tournaments in NorCal, we knew he couldn't flip our gin clear SoCal lakes and catch anything. Dee came and kicked arsh, catching heavy limits in isolated spots with sparse cover in our gin clear lakes. Dee's quote "shallow bass are biting bass" has worked for flippers and pitchers all around the country. Doesn't work for me to fish tight to cover in clear water, I do better making long casts and fishing in low light conditions.

Tom

[BostonMahhk]

I've had the same problem. This is my first season fishing at all. I started in July on my buddy's pelican. He handed me a 6ft spinning rod and a popper and I caught one fish after the other. I then switched to a spook jr and continued catching fish until about late August when it seemed like one day someone hit the off switch and the bass just stopped. I've read and read and read about seasonal patterns and the moon and gravity and temperatures and I've gained a ton of knowledge in a small amount of time which I don't mind because I'm OBSESSED with fishing now but In the end I decided all I could do was learn new techniques. I've picked up the pig and jig and can't put it down and I'm slowly teaching myself how to drop shot, Carolina rig, and crankbaits thanks to Gene Jensens videos and bassresource.com. My PB was 5lb 8oz just last week and came on the jig and the same day I caught my 2nd PB (4lb14oz). So until I did my research I was puzzled as to what was going on. In the end the bass do what the bass have always done. It sucked not catching as many fish but the ones I have caught have me more satisfaction than the 10-15 a day I was catching in the summer and This is what seperates the men from the boys in fishing, I feel. If your still setting your alarm for 430am and pushing off at 5 when it's still dark and 35 degrees even though there's a good chance you might not catch a fish, then you know you found something you love to do. If this change presents itself as a challenge to you and not something that discourages you from going out EVERYDAY then not only have you found something you love to do, you found something your supposed to be doing. I've learned that the bass aren't acting weird, their challenging you to become a better fisherman

[Paul Roberts]

Paul you sure you aint following me around

The two marshes mentioned are best fished during over cast days, the more cloud cover the better the fishing. On windless blue bird days I refuse to fish em because the bite will only be 1 hour before actual sun rise until 30-45 minutes after sun rise. And then again for maybe an hour after sun set until total darkness.

Ha! So true. We're not following each other as much as we've been chasing the same critter for a while.

 

I hear you on deciding when and where to spend one’s precious time. I have many entries in my journals referring to “beating a dead horse”.

 

The neat thing about my Colorado plains fishing was that the weather could be very consistent for long stretches –the pattern being brilliant blue and calm in the AM giving way to building thunderheads in the mountains just west by afternoon. These would either stay put but generate nice surface ruffling breezes or winds, or bring those big black storms rolling down on my ponds. These ponds and little reservoirs were many and varied in make-up –a great “laboratory” overall. With that weather pattern, I got to fish bluebird conditions and dark skies almost every day. The results were … obvious. Same fish, different conditions. And yes, I got my butt kicked plenty.

 

I do, however, carry a masochistic streak –that is, my risk/reward curve can be pretty steep sometimes -especially when I've been fishing a lot. A few catches under tough conditions can be more satisfying than a limit under “easier” or known circumstances. At least there’s the chance I’ll learn something new or figure something out.

 

While I agree with the gin clear water and spooky bass behavior in general terms, bass have away of not behaving like we think they should. Lake mead is a very deep gin clear bass fishery with few shallow areas to fish, the banks are steep because it's a canyon classification resevervior. Mead has little cover, almost no weeds, sparse salt cedar bushes in a few spots depending on water level. The first mystery lake Bassmasters classic was held at Mead and won by John Murry fishing the bare banks with a spinnerbait, 5 1/2' pool cue rod with 20 mono. Knowone who knew amend would have tried a spinnerbait with heavy line, but that is what Murry always used, always fished shallow water.

Dee Thomas, the father of flipping, learned to bass fish the CA delta where the water isn't clear and has extremely heavy cover everywhere. Dee was winning a lot tournaments in NorCal, we knew he couldn't flip our gin clear SoCal lakes and catch anything. Dee came and kicked arsh, catching heavy limits in isolated spots with sparse cover in our gin clear lakes. Dee's quote "shallow bass are biting bass" has worked for flippers and pitchers all around the country. Doesn't work for me to fish tight to cover in clear water, I do better making long casts and fishing in low light conditions.

Tom

You are very right, the environments bass they thrive in, and bass responses, can vary enormously. But, good anglers will figure stuff out. Not all the time though. Every tournament result shows us that. I can't talk particulars about Mead bc I wasn't there. But here’s what Hank Parker had to say about it:

 

“When Bobby Murray won the first Bassmaster Classic in clear water on Lake Mead, he found that if he cranked a spinnerbait from behind the fish and brought it in front of their faces suddenly, he got more strikes than he did by casting where they could see it coming.”  http://www.hankparker.com/magazine-articles/baits-trigger-reaction-bites

 

Also, realize too that this was 1971. I bet those Mead fish probably never saw a SB before. I wonder if SB's are still GoTo's there now? Not that someone couldn’t make use of them in times and places. KVD makes better use of SBs than most and they are GoTos for him under bright conditions, he essentially avoiding the "good look" issue by fishing fast and using proximity to cover and the surface film to obscure that bait. BTW: My "fancy footwork" mentioned above involved a white tandem SB, bulged. The trick was to throw long and off to one side then run the bank (I was on shore) to change the retrieve path to pass over the fish. If too much line was on the water, slicing it, it spooked them. I had to hold high and have only the blades disturbing the surface -then it got nailed, under brilliant blue and flat calm surface, and by fish that have seen SBs. At those moments it wasn’t a “SB” –it was “food!” But making it appear so was not just a chuck-n-wind affair.

 

Another Mead pattern is "One-Ton Tubing" accredited to Gary Yamamoto in which he fishes a tube over a 1oz jighead. As you can imagine, it's a fast technique that doesn't give those fish much of a look.

[Catt]

Lacassine is so fickled my nick name for is it is lack-of-sense because one has to have a lack of sense to fish it.

If it wasn't for 5 DD bass I've caught there I probably wouldn't fish it. Three of those DDs I was within 20 yds of them & watch as they swam up to the worm.

These are Florida strain & the marsh is closed from Oct 15th-Mar 15th.

[Paul Roberts]

Talk about an interesting risk/reward curve there!

[Catt]

Talk about an interesting risk/reward curve there!

Classic love/hate relationship

I've fished this marsh on & off since I was 7, I'm now 62! I've been skunked on this marsh more than any place I've ever fished.

[WRB]

Memory gets a little fuzzy, Bobby Murry, not John.

The anglers could pre select 10 lbs of tackle and did not know where they would be fishing, Murry packed what he knew well....spinnerbaits! Most of the spinnerbaits back then were single spins, Stan Sloan was the first I remember who used tandem willows. Today if you tried a spinnerbait at Mead, you would be the only angler fishing it!

I have spent about 45 years fishing giant FLMB in gin clear water with sparse cover, over 60 years bass fishing. Best 5 bass limit is 62lbs, several 50 lb limits, lots of days blanked on the on the same lakes, we call it fishing for a good reason.

Tom

[Catt]

About the time I think I have them figured out the bass prove I don't!

[WhiteMike1018]

Good noticing thiss tuff but ever lake is different. Different bodies of water hold different fish with different behaviors. water depth, structure, cover and climate all affect a fish's location on any given lake.

 

Also dont assume fish are feeding just because they see your baits.

[Paul Roberts]

Good noticing thiss tuff but ever lake is different. Different bodies of water hold different fish with different behaviors. water depth, structure, cover and climate all affect a fish's location on any given lake.

 

Also dont assume fish are feeding just because they see your baits.

Well ... bass are very adaptable, that's for sure, but there are a lot of things, basic physiology and behaviors especially, and responses to similar conditions and ecological parameters that can be recognized across waters. We certainly don't have to throw away all we've learned from one lake when we head to another. Good bass anglers can find the fingerprint of "bass" in any lake, yet from that basic starting point I agree that there's apt to be a lot of fishing required. When anglers say "a bass is a bass" they are not saying all waters are the same, even that each individual bass is the same, just that that species has limitations that can be fathomed and recognized across waters.

[Catt]

The bass here in Louisiana where I live and the bass in Colorado when Paul lives and the bass in the state where you live WhiteMike are controlled by the same environmental and biological needs.

Understand these needs and you are well on your way to becoming a better angler.

[preyvspredator]

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.

In my experience here in Canada, fish has different personalities similar to humans. Some fish can see you from far, some can not, some fish are hyper, some don't bother, some are old and lazy, some are younger, some has good memory, some has short memories ...... and so on and so on, very much similar to human but lives under the water.