Open Water Question

[SamTheHam]

Hello everyone,

I'm fairly new to bass fishing and can use some advice. I've been out three afternoons this week to sunset and towards sunset I see a lot of movement on the top of the water.it looks like fish are feeding. What should I try casting out? I live in south florida.

Thanks in advance.

[Mccallister25]

Try some topwater lures. Poppers would probably get you bit, maybe a spook. Also it wouldnt hurt to try and run through it if its a school of baitfish. Try some wakebaits, or spinnerbaits.

[papajoe222]

Surface activity isn't always indicative of feeding bass.  It could be shad, crappie, or a number of other occurances.  This can lead to frustration on the angler's part when attempting to catch bass that may not be there.  One scenario you can be sure is the result of feeding bass is when you see the baitfish jumping out of the water. You don't need to see bass busting the surface as what they are doing is corraling the bait to the surface. The bait has one of two options to escape. One is through the school of bass and the other is up which really isn't an option, but the baitfish don't know that.

There are two trains of thought when it comes to catching bass in this situation. One is to mimic the baitfish with a top water or by running a crank or spinnerbait high through them.  The other is to get below both the baitfish and the schooling bass down to the bigger fish that wait below for injured or dying baitfish to fall down to them.  The difficult part is getting down past the schoolies as most of what you toss won't get by them.  My two favorite presentations when I'm targeting those bigger fish below are a jigging spoon or lipless crank jigged below, but not on the bottom. The other is a heavy light colored jig with a large natural colored trailer. I'll cast past the activity, count both of these presentations down to 10 or 12 and begin stroking. Casting past rather than to the activity insures that I'll be jigging through the entire productive area and not just part of it.

By all means do not pass up the opportunity to catch some of those schoolies, especially with a topwater like a Torpedo or similar type tail spinner. Top water is the most exciting presentation and a schooling topwater bite is the best kind.

[Mike L]

Agree...

Approach the school very stealthy and throw a top water past the busting school and work it through them.

If the school itself moves across the water, then throw in front and let them come to you.

Now, just because they're busting the surface doesn't necessarily mean you'll get bit, so what I do is work a walking bait hard, or if a poping bait use one that displaces a lot of water.

You want them to zero in on yours, not the dozens of choices they have.

Mike

[SirSnookalot]

IMO the number one thing to look at is what does the water allow you to use.  Open water does not always allow the use of lures with exposed hooks, there may be some floating vegetation.  That being the case approaching sunset I'd be using a weedless fluke or frog.  If the water allowed the use of exposed hooks I like a spook or a top water popper.

[BassinLou]

Sirsnook provided some good info, I would add, to throw an ez swimmer on top of the water,or buzzing a u-vibe zoom worm.