School Bass

[WRB]

The Glenn Lau video Bigmouth Forever identified bass, Largemouth bass, as being 2 separate groups; individual bass and school bass. There isn't a clear consensus if bass are school fish, lots of evidence they are individuals that may group together as adults.

We can agree that bass school together when they are fingerlings or fry, the question is how long do they stay as a school?

There isn't a lot of scientific data available to read or reference. Bill Murphy* references Mike Lembeck a DFG California biologist who, in 1974 tracked 200 bass during a 3 year period with implanted transmitters, making over 800 observations. The Lembeck study concluded the bass he studied were individualistic.

The bass in Lembeck's study ranged from 1 1/4 lb to 14 lbs, several 8 to 10 lb bass were in the study.

It was clear in Lembeck's study that bass, at times, hang out in groups. Murphy's analogy is the saloon theory; you have a local saloon you always go to, there's a bunch of people there and ounce in a while the same people are there at the same time. Lembeck was never able to identify groups of bass moving together for extended periods of time.

Lembeck did locate his bass off shore on a deep hump grouped with other bass, never more than 2 of his bass in the transmitter study at one time. Big bass grouped together, but would come and go as individuals. When the bass grouped together in one spot they would be found in large numbers of bass.

Buck Perry, a early pioneer on deep structure fishing formulated a theory that big bass were school fish that moved as a group from deep water to shallow water during periods of activity he called migrations.

Perry didn't have tracking studies or sonar to prove his observations. Perry found large schools of big bass populations that had never been tampered with. Murphy believed fishing, in most lakes, the bass tend to disperse in groups and create individuals.

Like Murphy, I have found large groups of bass over 4 lbs located at one spot and caught several 5 bass limits exceeding 40 lbs. These big bass schooled or grouped together for a reason, feeding together.

The question is did they come together as individuals or do they stay together as a school?

Mike Lembeck and Bill Murphy say they are individuals coming together at the local saloon.

I have watched a large group or school of big bass swimming together and feeding together several times in the clear deep structured lakes. Glenn Lau believes they stay together ??? Something that needs more research.

Today's Elite bass anglers are winning tournaments targeting groups of big bass off shore. The A-rig is proof that bass are out there in lakes across the country.

Tom

* Book: In Pursuit of Giant Bass (pages 30-34).

[MassBass]

From my observation of smallmouth bass around a major island in a expansive clear lake, I would occasionally see schools come in and stage over rock structure. The typical make-up of these schools were mostly "schooly" sized smallmouth, with a some small fish and afew larger fish, the larger fish being around 3lbs. I have no doubt that these fish will wander the lake in a pelagic nature, stopping by an island or structure sometimes. When I would catch a smallmouth in that schooly size I would always be sure to fish that area further. Another type of school I would often see is a pair of big fish. Two big smallmouth together as a pair. I would observe these pairs; these were the 4lbers and bigger. One time I saw a pair of huge fish just bombing thru the shallow rocks looking to quickly ambush a sunfish. Healthy sunfish are agressive and fast, and I believe these predators would pair up so they individually would have a better chance at a sunfish. A lone slow cruiser is looking for crayfish not sunfish.             

[Ozark_Basser]

Definitely interesting.  I wonder if he noticed bass becoming more pelagic as they grow larger, especially once they get around the double digit size.  

[WRB]

Bass (LMB, SMB and spotted bass ) are predators of several pelagic fish like Threadfin shad, Blue back herring, planted rainbow trout, crappie, golden shiners and perch. Bass are also predators of near shore prey like Bluegill, green sunfish, a wide variety of minnows, frogs, terrestrial animals, crayfish and insects.

Whenever there is a large amount of prey concentrated in a area, bass will target them, however they are not pelagic fish.

Whenever you have prey that are school fish, bass tend to group together to herd the prey for feeding opportunities, in lieu of ambushing individual prey. The question is are these the same bass behaving as group of individuals or a school?

Tom

[Catt]

Buck Perry: 60s - 70s

Mike Lemhech: 1974

Glen Lau: 1979

Lot of opinions have changed since the 70s

Texas Parks & Wildlife research shows 3 distinct groups, shoreline related, offshore structure related, & groups (schools) that move between the first two.

[WRB]

Buck Perry: 60s - 70s

Mike Lemhech: 1974

Glen Lau: 1979

Lot of opinions have changed since the 70s

Texas Parks & Wildlife research shows 3 distinct groups, shoreline related, offshore structure related, & groups (schools) that move between the first two.

That sounds accurate and would explain why some individual bass are moving randomly as a 3rd group.

Can you post any links to study reports that detail the 3 groups?

The early 70's was 40 years ago and lots of a activity regarding bass behavior theory occurred at that time period. Texas has been in the forefront since that time period, always interested in good research data.

Tom

[Ozark_Basser]

Bass (LMB, SMB and spotted bass ) are predators of several pelagic fish like Threadfin shad, Blue back herring, planted rainbow trout, crappie and perch. Bass are also predators of near shore prey like Bluegill, green sunfish, a wide variety of minnows, frogs, terrestrial animals, crayfish and insects.

Whenever there is a large amount of prey concentrated in a area, bass will target them, however they are not pelagic fish.

Whenever you have prey that are school fish, bass tend to group together to herd the prey for feeding opportunities, in lieu of ambushing individual prey. The question is are these the same bass behaving as group of individuals or a school?

Tom

True. I read somewhere that bass become more pelagic when they get much larger.  I guess I never put two and two together in recognizing that bass follow the food source.... no matter how big they are.  

 

As for bass behaving as a group or as individuals, I want to side with individuals. You just see far too many adult size bass alone.  However, it could depend on the body of water.  In large bodies of with lots of shad, bass could start out their lives in schools and chase shad in these schools their entire lives.  To say that bass in this situation act as a group, still seems unlikely because bass are such opportunistic feeders.  

 

I feel as if bass will operate in whichever manner suits them best at the time, but as individuals not as a group.  

[RSM789]

In conjunction with those theory's, when I catch bass under docks in fairly shallow water (5 ft. deep & less), I have found they fit in 2 categories. 

 

The first is what I call dock fish, I believe they stake their claim under a certain dock and rarely leave for some period of time (I have no idea if it is hours, days or weeks).  They are much darker in color than the other fish in the lake, their jaws are almost black, all from what I am assuming is staying in the darkened shadows of the dock.  I never catch more than 1 of these fish under a dock, they seem to be solitary. 

 

The second group would fit the category of school fish.  Their appearance is much lighter, more like you would see of an open water or suspending fish.  Typically if I catch 1 of these under a dock, I can catch anywhere from 1 to 8 more.  I believe these fish either are passing by the dock or have recently temporarily moved to it to feed.

 

This all applied to fish under 6 lbs.  For fish larger than that, they have been solitary (during times other than the spawn).

[Catt]

Tom, I'll see if can find them or you can search Texas Parks & Wildlife.

My personal experience agrees with the theory that large bass can group together in that they can be caught off the same piece of structure.

I often refer to Paul Elias's 134 pound 8 ounce record caught mostly off the same piece of structure.

How tight are these groups? Within casting distance!

As for "schools" of large bass I seldom see bass over 3-4 pounds with an occasional 6-7 mixed in the school.

[WRB]

It's rare to find a large school of big bass over 7 lbs unless the lake is stocked regularly with planted rainbow trout. We also see large groups or schools of various size bass when Threadfin shad are in big schools during the early summer and fall. Another period is early pre spawn when big bass group together feeding on whatever is available in quantity.

The loner bass or solitary bass is a more rare occurrence than groups of bass where I fish. When you quietly look under a boat dock that has big bass the bass usually has company of a few other bass of similar size.

Getting more than 1 bass to strike your lure is another issue. Most bass anglers catch a good size bass and tend to move to another area instead of staying and catching several bass. This maybe due to a belief bass are loners....sometimes they are alone.

Tom

[Lund Explorer]

Bass (LMB, SMB and spotted bass ) are predators of several pelagic fish like Threadfin shad, Blue back herring, planted rainbow trout, crappie, golden shiners and perch. Bass are also predators of near shore prey like Bluegill, green sunfish, a wide variety of minnows, frogs, terrestrial animals, crayfish and insects.

Whenever there is a large amount of prey concentrated in a area, bass will target them, however they are not pelagic fish.

Whenever you have prey that are school fish, bass tend to group together to herd the prey for feeding opportunities, in lieu of ambushing individual prey. The question is are these the same bass behaving as group of individuals or a school?

Tom

 

Being an old school student of In-Fisherman, I would suggest that these bass could be called an "aggregation" while not in an active feeding mood, and a "school" when they are. 

[Catt]

I think part of the problem is defining "school"

Do bass live in "schools" like Threadfin Shad, no I don't think they do.

Do individual bass assemble themselves in groups to feed on prey; yes I think they do, this is called "schooling".

Do larger bass live in close proximity to each other; yes I think they do if two thing are present, adequate cover and sufficient prey.

[Catch and Grease]

Getting more than 1 bass to strike your lure is another issue. Most bass anglers catch a good size bass and tend to move to another area instead of staying and catching several bass. This maybe due to a belief bass are loners....sometimes they are alone.

 

This is how a lot of the people I fish with sometimes think, they'll catch a good bass say 4 or so pounds and then think that that bass was the only bass/biggest bass around and move on... The way I see it is that spot/area produced a good quality fish so it definitely has the potential to carry more fish of the same quality.

[MO_LMB]

Yeah, I agree. I always think you should stay where you caught a bass just to see if there are more around. 

[PersicoTrotaVA]

I have been keeping freshwater fish since I was 15, I am now 34.  I have done a lot of research and observation of our aquatic friends.

 

Bass seem to be very individual fish.  When they are smaller, probably mostly in the first 2 years of their lives, they are more of a "schooling" fish.  This is due to the fact that they are smaller and feel more comfortable in numbers and chasing food is easier in a group.  This is really any fish that has a mass spawn.  As fish get older, they tend to start becoming more individualistic.  This is where the survival of the fittest usually comes into play.  I'd say around 3 to 4 years of age, fish start to leave the "school" and start to find their seasonal homes.  There are forces at work, events, like the spawn, which concentrate fish in certain areas but for the most part they spread out, they want their pectoral room.  I like to think of the spawn like a concert, or sports event.  You have a lot of individual people that come together in one area for a period of time and once that event passes they disperse back to their homes.  These events could also be weather fronts, temperature changes, daylight changes, moon phases, air pressure change, just to name a few.

 

Bass are a lot like we are.  We commute to work everyday with people we don't know, but they are feet away from us in their cars.  Eventually we part from the "school" to get to work, run errands, get food or head home.  I like to akin this to the migration of bass from the deep to the shallows and back to the deep again.  They run along their own interstates with rest stops, just like us.  

 

There are those of us that don't mind cold weather, some of us that can't stand it and vice versa.  There are some of us that are cautious and finicky and then there are some of us that are brash and bold and go for it, no matter what.  For the most part though we are kinda the same.  In the summer you will find us at the beach, in the winter time you will find us near a fire or some place trying to stay warm.  Sometimes you will catch us at the restaurant eating, sometimes we are just hanging out at home.  Sometimes we go to concerts and sports events, sometimes we stay home.  Sometimes we are out in the yard, or sometimes we are at the park.  Do you get where I am going with this?

 

This is why I love bass fishing.  There are no set rules other than the spawn.  The fish make up the rules every minute of every hour of every day and neglect to tell us what the updates are.  You may find fish roaming in dark, muddy water and fish could hold tight to cover in gin clear water...you never know until you get out on the water.

 

I can go on and on about this subject.  Fish behavior is one of my favorite topics of research.  I suggest looking up G.U.S.P.(General Universal Seasonal Patterns) and studying the spawn times in one's area, if they are having trouble finding fish.

 

BTW Tom, I love your posts!  I take everything you say to heart because I know I can learn a lot from the experienced angler you are.  Thanks for sharing your knowledge! 

[Choporoz]

Thanks for initiating this discussion, Tom.  That part of Bigmouth Forever is one that stuck with me more than the rest...except for the bass rejecting crankbaits, maybe.  The idea that a given body of water might hold two distinct 'types' of largemouth (loners and schoolers) seems huge and something that really should be kept in mind while fishing....if generally true, anyway.  

[Catt]

Very good answer right there!

[Paul Roberts]

From a recent thread:

Since I'm writing about this right now, I thought I'd clear up the terms, as I needed to get it clear for myself:

 

An "aggregation" is just as Roger put it: "An 'aggregation' is just a temporary collection of fish drawn by food supply or attractive conditions."

 

A "shoal" of fish is a group that is socially associated -aware of each other and interacting in some way, even if loosely. The behavior is called "shoaling".

 

A "school" is a coordinated shoal with all fish swimming together in the same direction. Some species are obligate schoolers and take this to the nth degree. Bass are not one of these.

 

I've seen bass behaving in ways that fit all three categories. However, most often I've known bass to be shoalers that have a tendency to aggregate.

 

The reasons 'why' -the circumstances that influence social behavior- are both physiological and ecological.

[WRB]

In the purist terms bass are not school fish and bass are not bass, they are sunfish. Let's get over the purist vocabulary and accept the fact bass anglers call a group of bass feeding on bait "school bass" or "schoolers" depending where you fish.

Everything being equal, the same ecosystem the discussion is about bass living as individuals and grouping together as noted by Glenn Lau. The concept is food for thought; 2 or 3 groups of bass living together and behaving differently

I am a believer that LMB live in separate groups, a group that are near shore most of the time and a group that lives off shore, except when spawning. The near shore bass have been pounded by anglers and show the wear and tear of ripped lips, hook wounds and live well rash, they are beat up bass. The off shore bass are usually pristine without sighs of being caught several times., big or smaller bass.

Tom

[deep]

The off shore bass are usually pristine without sighs of being caught several times., big or smaller bass.

Tom

 

Tom, do tell us more about smaller bass living offshore. I catch a fair amount of small bass far from the shoreline, and I have wondered why (guess I'm fishing the wrong baits/ locations/ timing/ whatever, but that's not the point). Always thought smaller fish relate to the shallows, but my experiences show otherwise (somewhat).

 

Also, could you elaborate on the forage that the offshore group, and the near-shore fish might be targeting (in a SoCal lake with stocker trouts say)?

 

Thanks for the posts here Tom. We appreciate your sharing the knowledge.

[WRB]

Most of the SoCal lakes have very little vegetation extending more than 30' from the shoreline or any other forms of cover. One reason is the water level fluctuate vertically more than 20' in a normal year and over 50' in drought years. The brush and trees get washed out as the water goes up and down, leaving a few here and there. The water is clear and rocky structure is predominate.

The baitfish are Threadfin shad, silverside minnows, sculpin, crawdads and young of the year bass, bluegill, crappie, red ears, carp and catfish. The Threadfin and silversides are primary, followed by sculpin and crawdads with the rest of the fish between 3"-5". Stocked rainbow trout are no longer stocked in most lakes or only a few times a year at some lakes.

A few lakes also have striped bass populations that change bass locations. LMB can't compete well stripers for baitfish, the stripers are faster than LMB.

Bass in our lakes tend to group up by size; 12"-14", 15"-17" and 18" to 28", if you catch 12"-17" bass, try another spot and come back a few hours later.

The baitfish that are off shore are; Threadfin, silversides, trout and crappie. The near shore bait fish are; Threadfin at night or low light and everything else, except trout and silversides, plus terrestrial critters.

Lures that represent Threadfin, silversides and trout are good off shore choices for deep structure, including jigs if the structure isn't deeper than 40'+.

Learning to use sonar effectively becomes essential for off shore structure fishing, would be lost without it!

Tom

[Catt]

That's a lot of interesting information listed above!

Now let me scramble y'all eggs for ya.

Body of Water

Small bodies of water with dense populations of bass will force individuals into groups (schools).

Larger bodies of water offer greater opportunity for solitude.

River & creeks are altogether a different creature

[einscodek]

Bass are near-apex predators

you can learn alot about the bass from studying other apex predators

 

Are bass individualistic.. it depends but yes

Do bass school.. it depends but yes

They have tendencies as a member of a species but are individuals as well

 

A bass may not have high intellectual capabilities but it lives.. a living being

I have seen behavior from bass and other animals I wish I'd seen more from human beings

[Bassun]

The question is did they come together as individuals or do they stay together as a school?

 

 

While I have no documented studies to prove my theory explicitly, my experience and understanding leaves me to believe they are individuals that will temporarily group up.  I do believe there are general tendancies for location of bass, and those tendancies do differ from one fish to the next.  Tom clearly illustrates this with his notable differences of near shore bass vs off shore deep structure bass.

 

I think often times what is recognized as a "school" is really an aggrigation especially if you are finding them on a specific peice of structure.  Most often I hear mention of shools of bass as being located off shore on deep structure; but rarely do I hear it mentioned relative to shorline structure.  People will mention bass stacking, or grouping etc, but rarely do they use the term "schooling".  I believe we are seeing a mix of happenings here. 

 

1 - We tend to associate real schools of fish with open water.  So when we see shoaling or aggrigated bass away from the shore we begin using the term schooling although they are not schooling at all.

 

2 - I think we notice an aggrigation of bass relative to deep off shore structure more easily than an aggrigation of bass along the shorelines.  I think this happens for multiple reasons.  The amount of preferable deep water structure off shore in many lakes is much smaller than the amount of structure available along the shallows.  Given this, those bass which prefer locations of that nature have less to choose from, and will stack up on whatever available areas there are.  This individual preference is noted as a school since the fish have aggrigated on that given structure.

 

I also think we notice the aggrigated fish more easily because of electronics.  If you are fishing a weedline 20 yards off your bow, in 5' of water you will not get a reading of those fish on your electronics. Since they are not in the cone of your transducer, you cannot see them --- however, if you are vertically jigging an offshore hump in 30' of water, you will have no problems seeing fish on your units.  Mixing the idea that those deep water fish are utilizing a smaller number of structures and the ability to easily identify an aggrigation with electronics in that situation - I believe we tend to consider them schooling.

 

 

Given all this, I believe the bass are coming to structure indivually whether it be shoreline or deep water.  Once they are aggrigated in an area, there is a potential for shoaling; however, I do not feel bass legitimately school in the purest way.  I think shoaling occurs not as a specific technique or standard practice, rather a technique used specific to a situation.  If the fish recognize a better opportunity to feed as a group, they will -- if they recognize a better solution is to feed solo, they will do that instead.

 

Again, just opinions and postulations -- but that's my 2 cents.

[Choporoz]

Bassun,

   I read that as contradicting the direction I've been leaning (largely because of the Lau video): That a certain (large?) body of water might hold two distinct types of LMB: the hermits and the social butterflies....and probably a wide range of fish in-between.  I hate ascribing human personalities to animals, but it is an easy way to characterize them.    You seem to be saying that they come together more because of a point-in-time 'external' environment. 

 

For no good reason, I want to believe that there's two different social mindsets.    Maybe because it might lend to more predictability and thus increase my odds.