Watching Fish

[Dillo]

The other day I was fishing a pond with pretty clear water(5-6 ft vis) with my polarized sunglasses on a sunny day around noon. Needless to say, I could see everything my lure and the fish around it did. I was using a small 1 inch white worm weightless because i was targeting bluegill. I never knew there were even bass in the pond, but they were shallow and I could see them that day. With each cast, at least five bass, mostly little dinks but a few larger bass, would follow it and occasionally bite. Most, however, never bit or hooked up. So I was wondering how many fish are curious but not biting on those days or those spots where there are "just no fish". Now I'll try to be more patient with my presentation and how long i fish spots.

[Team9nine]

So I was wondering how many fish are curious but not biting on those days or those spots where there are "just no fish".

 

Short answer is most of them Here in Indiana, the DNR has done population studies on many of our popular reservoirs, and it's not unusual to find an average of 20-30 8" or larger bass per surface acre of water. Thought of another way, when they do electrofishing, the typical catch rate range is 50-200 bass per hour (CPUE). So the simple answer is there are almost always a lot more bass swimming around where you are fishing compared to what you are actually catching.

 

-T9  

[SHaugh]

I can verify that.  I've done quite a bit of diving.  Being a fisherman and a diver is a nice combination... but it can almost put you off fishing..

 

I used to have my brother on a floating dock above jigging a worm or minnow  in front of schools of crappie, bluegills and large mouth bass.  Congregating in the shade under the dock in about 15 feet of water.

 

The vast majority of them would simply not react to the bait at all.  Sometimes it would literally bounce off their faces and they simply would move slightly out of the way.

 

The only time it became interesting to many of them was when a smaller fish tried to grab it... then the larger fish would impose themselves and go for it...

 

It was very interesting to watch.... but as I say potentially quite discouraging....  It's a shame I did all that in the days before easy video... I bet those films would have been interesting to watch in more detail...