Pattern Question

[scfox11]

So I am relatively new at finding patterns for bass and what not.  So I was fishing a pond today on my jon boat, I recently put my humminbird 597ci hd di sonar on it so it has good electronics.  I am in SC and was fishing from 12-4pm today.  There is a front approaching and I was fishing through off and on rain.  The pond doesn't have much structure in the lake itself but has submerged trees on the banks, where I catch some bass on weightless worms, and I did today too.  To my main point, so I went over to the only real point in the pond and saw(sonar) a bunch of bass about in 4 ft of 6ft of water.  I got 0 of them and threw lipless crank, c rig worm, t rig worm, rattle trap, spinner bait, buzzbait, small crankbait.  I said screw it and threw on a deep diving crankbait and had a bite in 4 ft of water. I also did try different colors of the same lure or plastic.  What would you suggest for those type of bass, or were they just not eating?  I did notice that all the fish caught on the finesse worms usually chased the bait down.  I was reeling it in fast after passing the strike zone and a fish came up and chased it but was spooked by the boat.  Sorry for the jumbled paragraph, but if you have any input that would be appreciated.

[A-Jay]

 Establishing a pattern is often challenging, but not always.  There are several factors that come into play and each and every fishing situation is different.  Clearly not all the bass in a system are all doing the same thing at the same time but often times, there's a decent percentage of the bass population that are.  Knowing the bass's Traditional Seasonal movements can help narrow it down a bit as well as having a decent idea what the fishes predominate food source might be in that body of water at any given time.

 

For me, the first step is to find fish that are willing to bite.  Sometimes that in itself is enough of a challenge; and it sounds like you ran into that a bit today. 

Then once you've taken a few fish, perhaps you're able to determine what type of structure they are relating to, what kind of cover they are in (if any) and why are they there.  Except for the spawn, it's almost always a prey driven decision. 

 So if you've managed to get a few, based on what they ate, along with where & how you caught them; you might be able to duplicate that success in other area's of that system.  Sometimes you may not have to move very far to find similar conditions; other times a boat ride is in order.

 

Patterns are a funny thing.  Sometimes they last for days & even weeks and other times they change several times in one day.  It will definitely keep you on your toes.  But when you find a good one, especially one that will last a bit and allow you to really zero in on the right kind of fish - it's a beautiful thing.

 

Good Luck

 

A-Jay

[Paul Roberts]

Seeing bass and not catching them, on sonar or visually, is normal. Not all bass are willing biters. The easiest fish are usually those already actively engaged in feeding. The toughest are those negative/asleep. The rest require finagling or triggering (proximity, speed, contact, ambush points, ...). My best days usually revolve around finding a good feeding opportunity the bass are already engaged in.

 

Bass chasing up faster retrieves sometimes indicate that they REQUIRE speed to be triggered.

[WRB]

What other type of larger size fish live in your pond? Carp, catfish look exactly like bass to sonar.

Tom

[scfox11]

Just carp, bass, and bream.  There are not much carp and I usually visually see them feeding on greenage by the bank.  Most of the bass I catch are on weightless worms by the structure on the banks (lines in yellow), but these are the smaller bass.  I know there are big bass in there because it was stocked and somebody caught a 10lber by the dam a couple months ago.  I enjoy catching the fish but am looking for a little more size too, biggest I have caught was dragging a c rig in about 6' of water, it was 2 lbs.  Also, after spawning, I have no idea where the bream went.

[WRB]

The dam is the primary structure area for this small lake.

Have you established a thermocline depth? easy to do with your sonar unit, this lake may have turned over recently. I can't see any aeration system, how old is this lake?

With your ability to be on the water you can anywhere on the lake and with your sonar map the bottom looking for ant tree stumps or rocks that may be out away from the shoreline. The dam area or lower half should be where the larger bass are located. The dam itself being a structure that crawdads can hide in the rocks.

I would suggest setting up finesse slip shot rig, drop shot, Texas worm rig, Jig with craw trailer and a bluegill swimbait.

If you can fish at night, Texas rig worms, jig and a wake type swimbait like a rat would be good and a buzz bait. The water is low visibility so add rattles to the worms and jigs.

Carp look exactly like bass to sonar.

Tom