What Are The Bass Eating???

[BakerJosh]

Hi

I am relatively new to fishing. I am experienced as a bank fisherman however do not have access to a boat. 

I always hear that one of the best things to do is pick a bait/lure that best imitates what the bass are eating. I understand how to do this wether it be shad, craws, bluegill, etc. However I don't know how to find out what the bass are eating.

Do bass eating patterns vary by lake? region? time of year? 

Thanks for reading.

[Mainebass1984]

Yes it varies from lake to lake, season to season and most certainly which region you live in.

[Mainebass1984]

Get in touch with some local guys they should be able to help you out.

[Trailer]

As far as what they are eating at the moment you can feel their belly to see if it is hard or soft for shad or crawfish. I think it will depend more on what forage is in your lake and what that forage's life cycle is throughout the year. Match the hatch.

[Raul]

Hi

I am relatively new to fishing. I am experienced as a bank fisherman however do not have access to a boat. 

I always hear that one of the best things to do is pick a bait/lure that best imitates what the bass are eating. I understand how to do this wether it be shad, craws, bluegill, etc. However I don't know how to find out what the bass are eating.

Do bass eating patterns vary by lake? region? time of year? 

Thanks for reading.

 

The subject of "imitation" has been largely discussed here, you don´t have to "imitate" anything, your lures "imitate" whatever the fish thinks, we really don´t know what a bass thinks when it sees a lure, so it´s all speculation, what you really need to know is that lures catch fish and it has more to do with who is behind the rod handle than what/how the bait looks like or you make it look like.

 

In my neck of the woods bass have never seen trout, salamanders, shad, perch, walleye, pike and so and lures that "imitate" them catch fish as well as those who "imitate" what bass may eat in the waters around my neck of the woods.

[Megastink]

I had the same problem when I first started fishing. "Are there shad in here? Crawfish?"

 

Within the last couple of years, I realized that where I live (Southeast PA) shad and herring are VERY RARE to come by. In the Spring, trout are stocked and that can be a forage spieces for a small window..... but the MOST COMMON DENOMINATOR in all bodies of water is BLUEGILL. Fishing for shallow largies? Bluegill. Deep Smallmouth? Yellow Perch. In the Chesapeake, White Perch are everywhere, so chrome is a great color.

 

Look in the water for panfish. When you see something, match it!

 

Good luck!

[WRB]

Bass are opertunist and eat what is available. There are 2 basic categories of common prey bass rely on for food, aquatic and terrestrial animals. During the warmer months the prey sources are nearly unlimited so a wide variety of lures will work. During the spawn bass don't eat, they protect nest sites. Cooler or cold water the prey sources are limited, fewer lures work well.

The key to catching bass is locating active feeding fish that will strike your lure of choice.

Learn what the prey sources are where you fish, takes some investigation on your part. Learn where the bass are located, takes time on the water and some trail and error.

There are lots of information regarding bass behavior and seasonal periods, good luck.

Tom

[Jonnehboi]

The bast way to find out is to look at their mouths if their mouths and gullets are exceedingly red they are eating craws because of the cold I would fish a black and blue flake craw imitating lure

[ww2farmer]

A bass eats what it can catch and fit in it's mouth. Don't over think it. How many 5" long, fat, cigar shaped sticks of wood have you ever seen dancing seductivly on the surface in nature............probably, like me, ZERO..............yet a bass will try to eat a Zara spook............when you think about it, they are actually pretty stupid, and easy to fool, we make it harder than it needs to be.

[RoLo]

A bass eats what it can catch and fit in it's mouth. Don't over think it. How many 5" long, fat, cigar shaped sticks of wood have you ever seen dancing seductivly on the surface in nature............probably, like me, ZERO..............yet a bass will try to eat a Zara spook............when you think about it, they are actually pretty stupid, and easy to fool, we make it harder than it needs to be.

 

Precisely   

[hookset on 3]

I had the same problem when I first started fishing. "Are there shad in here? Crawfish?"

 

Within the last couple of years, I realized that where I live (Southeast PA) shad and herring are VERY RARE to come by. In the Spring, trout are stocked and that can be a forage spieces for a small window..... but the MOST COMMON DENOMINATOR in all bodies of water is BLUEGILL. Fishing for shallow largies? Bluegill. Deep Smallmouth? Yellow Perch. In the Chesapeake, White Perch are everywhere, so chrome is a great color.

 

Look in the water for panfish. When you see something, match it!

 

Good luck!

Mega, excellent post! Here in Southern New England, on the ponds and small lakes that I fish, it's the same thing.

One thing I would like to point out to the folks that are fairly new to Bass Fishing, is this: If you see some small bluegill swimming around, but can't get a close look at them, look for photos of them on the internet.

A baby bluegill looks quite a bit different, than a full grown adult, particularly their coloration or lack of pigment. So more translucent baits look more natural. This applies to clear or slightly stained water.

[crankmaster33]

During the beginning of fall they eat on shad and usually you can see shad in the basses mouth so that means try to fish something that stands out and also make shure your know what color your water is that will mostly depend on your bait of choice I usually have 3 colors at least in all my bait I usually keep a white bait, green pumpkins, and a really bright color

[SENKOSAM]

When an angler puts a lure into a prey categories, such as prey fish, worm or crawfish, it doesn't mean a bass does or is able to considering its limited brain's abilities. There may be something about a lure that feels right to a bass, but humans will never know for certain. On the other hand, novelty lure action, color and profile may have more to do with why bass strike than what it thinks a lure is. A bass that has never seen a spinnerbait or shad is capable of striking both but for different reasons - a spinnerbait is annoying; a shad is a real fish in every way a bass senses it is. A bass's senses take into account everything about an object that swims or crawl, real and fake and IMO will never confuse the two.

 

Lure designs are an artful abstraction of life forms, the details of which are more appreciated by humans than the fish they are designed to catch. In any case, if an angler believes imitating prey helps get more strikes. even if the lure is doesn't come close to imitating anything, than who's to say it's not true. The only difference would be that if an angler feels he must limit himself to lure types, colors, actions, sizes and maybe presentations to imitate what fish may be feeding on, he may miss out on other lures that do better.

[jeremyryanwebb]

Read Mike Iaconelli's book called "Fishing on the Edge."  He explains how he feels a fishes belly and also looks down into its mouth to see if anything it has eaten has not been digested yet. Then he matches his bait accordingly.  Great book, it opened my eyes to alot of new techniques!

[joetomlee]

I usually check out the DEC's website concerning a lake to get more perspective as to what is going on. They include things such as fish population, contaminants, forage species, etc. Worth taking a look! Just go to Google and type "your lake name" followed by "DEC" and it should come right up.

[WRB]

You can ignor what the bass prefer to eat when you are on the water and might catch a few or be aware what is going on where you fish and consistantly catch more and bigger bass.

Tom

[joetomlee]

I agree whole-heartedly with WRB. Perhaps we are turning a simple science into something more than it is. But, isn't the additional knowledge providing us with marginally better results? I'd rather go out fishing with an idea of what I am doing than blindly fishing and wishing.

[SENKOSAM]

 

You can ignor what the bass prefer to eat when you are on the water and might catch a few or be aware what is going on where you fish and consistantly catch more and bigger bass.

 

What bass prefer to eat prey-wise may have nothing to do with what they'll strike lure-wise. I'm not sure if that is what you meant. Sure, some believe that a fish thinks a spinnerbait represents a fish to a bass and a jig represents a crawfish, but is it really important what they think a lure represents as long as they strike it!? If all one uses are jigs, believing that crawfish are the preferred prey of the day and not use crankbaits, frogs and lures that look like nothing they eat (Chatterbait, creature baits), than what's the point of limiting one's choices?

 

I have a feeling that most anglers cycle through many of their lures to see what is working, where and with which presentations after they've caught nothing after a few hours. I'm talking about a large variety of lures based on depth, bottom types, weed type, structure, time of day, etc. In fact, most outings I've caught bass on a least three designs - worm, jigs and crankbaits and more on other outings. Colors used are only from a limited palette of colors I have confidence depending on the design. If a partner is catching them on a different color, I may switch to see if it matters.

[WRB]

Nothing is the basses ecosystem happens in isolation. Example the bass are feeding on threadfin shad. What that can indicate is some of the bass population is feeding on threadfin shad and other bass may prefer eating crawdads or both. I have caught some very big bass using jigs when the bass are feeding on shad. The reason may not be obvious to everyone, bass don't feed on school fish neatly, they injure and kill shad that end up on the lake bottom. Crawdads are scavengers and eat dead fish and jigs that imitate crawdads often work good in locations where bass are feeding on shad.

You can fish by trail and error going through your tackle until you may or may not find a lure the bass react to. Thinking bass don't know or recognize prey because they don't have any intelligence or the brain the size of a pea is a big mistake. Bass that can't determine prey from sticks never make beyond a fingerling. Adult size bass have learned life lessens and know instinctively what prey is, it's alive and moves and looks like prey to the bass.

There are always exceptions and bass strike a wide variety of lures and that is what makes these fish so interesting to catch. Knowing what prey bass prefer where you fish is a big advantage.

Tom

[ww2farmer]

I agree whole-heartedly with WRB. Perhaps we are turning a simple science into something more than it is. But, isn't the additional knowledge providing us with marginally better results? I'd rather go out fishing with an idea of what I am doing than blindly fishing and wishing.

Who said anything about blindly fishing. Being aware of the forage base in each body of water is important, but it's only part of the bigger picture. For example, say you fish a shallow weedy, lake, with a soft bottom, full of bluegills. Chances are, those bluegills make up the vast majority of the bass's diet in said lake. Does that mean you have to use a painstakingly acurate, true to life bluegill replica lure to catch those fish...........NO....in fact they best baits on that body of water might not look anything like a bluegill TO US. What's more important is to present your offerings in the right place at the right time.

[SENKOSAM]

 

Does that mean you have to use a painstakingly accurate, true to life bluegill replica lure to catch those fish....?

 

Good point. Another angler on another site said this,

 

I like my lures to look as realistic as possible. I just have more confidence feeling like it looks like something real.

 

How realistic?  Many anglers that mimic local prey would say only a minimal number of lure characteristics are enough to convince a bass, such as only one or two colors or shapes. A white spinnerbait has features that are shad-like, so it's said, and that seems to fulfill the appearance and action requirements to imitate shad. In fact any lure that has a blade or that flashes would be adequate to match a silver sided prey fish, but also lure designs such as pearl flukes and suspending jerk baits. The list goes on...

 

What I'm getting at is that since the variety of lures that generally imitate shad is so great, which action and appearance of which lure would be preferred over all others in order to realistically imitate a prey species the best? If bass have intelligence as Tom suggests and can tell the difference between lures that don't imitate, wouldn't bass prefer one design over another in the same colors and thus a minimal number of lure characteristics fulfill matching needs?

 

Bagley produced realistic paint jobs on their balsa crankbaits over thirty years ago and anglers didn't find them any better than solid colors. The only way a fish could appreciate the plug's fine details is if and when the lure stopped dead, though most of the time the lure is a wobbling blur and always moving.

 

So generally speaking, let me get this right, a lure that has only a few realistic qualities (based on individual preference) that an angler believes is enough to fool a fish into biting a certain prey, is all that's needed to match what it is feeding on at that moment or in general.

 

Seems a bit vague and a bit too general a theory.

[RoLo]

You can ignor what the bass prefer to eat when you are on the water and might catch a few or be aware what is going on where you fish and consistantly catch more and bigger bass.

Tom

 

I respectfully disagree.

Humans have the luxury of selecting their next meal, but a bass's next meal depends on opportunity, not choice.

If you disembowel every bass you catch and examine its stomach contents, you would learn a great deal about forage 'Availability',

but learn little or nothing about forage 'Preference'.

 

Given a choice, bass would rather swallow a soft-finned fish than swallow a spiny-rayed fish.

In spite of their preference for soft-finned shad & shiners, bass are opportunist predators that eagerly seize bluegills

whenever they dominate the forage base. Preference and availability are also confused with smallmouth bass.

Although the smallies in your livewell may be are coughing up round gobies, it would be foolhardy to think

that smallies prefer round gobies over emerald shiners.  

 

In collaboration with the DNR, the In-Fisherman staff examined the stomach contents of northern pike.

In the final analysis, 'yellow perch' comprised the highest percentage, followed by suckers, chubs & lastly by shiners.

Ironically, an angling study on the same waterbody found that the success rate with live bait was in an order

that was virtually opposite to stomach contents. Shiners were clearly the most successful live bait,

while yellow perch brought up the rear.  

 

 

"What Are The Bass Eating?"

I don't know their scientific names, but I can describe a few:

  §  Those loud elongated creatures that buzz nonstop across the water surface (they're in every lake)

  §  Those multi-legged chartreuse things that look a lot like zoom brush hogs

  §  Bass are also wild about those flashy yellow & white creatures that look like spinnerbaits (our lakes are filthy with them)

 

Roger

[WRB]

Consider this;.the Florida strain LMB in Florida appearently eat buzz baits, spinnerbaits and brush hogs regularly. The FLMB when transplanted in San Deigo's deep rocky structured lakes will rarely look at those same lures. I belonged to the Pisces bass fishing club back when FLMB were first introduced into lakes ( mid 1960's) and the members believed that it was nearly impossible to catch FLMB on lures, live bait (crawdads) was the top producer. The lakes that have populations of northern LMB the buzzers, spinnerbaits and softbplastic creatures worked great.

To this day if you don't carefully match what the FLMB strains are eating with your lure choice you will catch very few bass. For this reason handoured natural looking soft plastics and swimbaits were developed in Califorina to increase catch rates of the FLMB strains that are now prevalent.

You are all welcome to bring your preferred lures and give them a try.

Tom

[SENKOSAM]

Roger- my hat's off to you!!! You brought up a very important point supported by a great example of preference vs availability I hadn't even thought of!

 

The reverse is also true, as the angler study suggested, that fish caught on what anglers thought was a preferred forage based on stomach contents, was not so when using live fish of the same species set as bait.

 

The question still remains, not what are the base eating?, but more important -  what are the bass striking?

 

If live bait were used vs lures in the same areas, which would outperform? According to conventional theory of natural/ realistic/ best lures mimic forage, there shouldn't be any question which would do better under normal fishing conditions.

 

 

 

I don't know their scientific names, but I can describe a few:

  §  Those loud elongated creatures that buzz nonstop across the water surface (they're in every lake)

  §  Those multi-legged chartreuse things that look a lot like zoom brush hogs

  §  Bass are also wild about those flashy yellow & white creatures that look like spinnerbaits (our lakes are just filthy with them)

 

Priceless!

[Basshammer]

I don't know what they have been eating up your way, but they sure like shad where i am cause they are eating my shad rap pretty well.