School Bass

[Bassun]

I completely agree there are populations of fish which are more social vs more solitary, especially relavent to the younger year classes of fish for all of the obvious reasons.  I suspect there may be some fish which do tend to stay in groups more than others accross all year classes, but yeah I feel the bigger impact is the environment. 

 

Most likely is a combination of both I'm sure.  If you have fish predispositioned to gather, and a good gathering place - then I would expect to see more fish aggrigated there.  We know bass relate to structure, so it only stands to reason fish of the same ilk would gather in the same locations.  I just feel without a "reason" for them to gather, they are less likely to.

[Paul Roberts]

I found the brief observation about school bass being different was huge. 

 

But, the video left me wanting.  Any suggested videos or reading on 'school bass'?   Are they wired differently?  Temporary?  or nearly always?    Aside from their swimming partners, are there a lot of other behavioral differences?  Do most waters have bass behaving both ways most of the time?   In a short period....hours or days....do loners move around more than schooled bass?  Or do they stake out the most comfortable spot and stay put? 

 

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.

I’m going to suggest that there are not “two social mindsets” among bass, but instead that we see a range of behaviors depending on what environments require. Bass are highly adaptable and may use available prey in almost any sector of a given water body. They can (or at least some can) figure out how to hunt effectively from dense cover to open water. We anglers often focus on the bass, but their prey species ecology and behavior can tell us a great deal about what bass are doing, as Tom introduced to the conversation above.

 

There are a number of factors that affect bass group sizes and how they arrange themselves, in particular: mortality/survivorship, body size, and prey type and abundance. Some prey –in particular open water true schooling species– are more difficult, even impossible, for single bass to catch. There are social factors too that appear early in life stages and “individualism”, as put above, is one. Bass fry start out in large groups (and these aren’t true schools either) and continue to hunt cooperatively in shoals and aggregates because it works. But when it doesn't, they will abandon it. Extra large bass tend to be loners in most waters bc there are so few of them. Lots of food in a small area tends to produce bass with smaller home ranges while waters with sparse and patchier resources produce more "roamers". Bass do what it takes. There are few fish out there more capable of exploiting varied environments than bass. That’s why we love em.

 

Bass do sometimes exhibit "schooling" behavior –defined as tightly coordinated and moving in synchrony in the same direction. I believe that this is, in most waters, rare and/or transient. And, because of the individualistic part, I’ve chosen to call it "schooling-type" behavior. Selective pressures that created true schoolers are not present for bass and aren't exhibited in their morphology or behavior. The places where bass are most apt to use schooling-type behavior is when hunting open water prey fishes, and possibly during migration movements in certain circumstances.

 

The scenes in Glen Lau’s “Bigmouth” appear to show some schooling-type behavior. But exactly what is going on there is not apparent. It looks to me as though those bass could just be, and likely are, a good-sized shoal (obviously there’s plenty of food there to support larger groups, including several open water schooling species) doing what shoals do. In fact, at one point you see some members of the group spot something in the vegetation below and break up momentarily to inspect. Then they move on like active cruise-hunting shoals do. In some clips where they are looking more school-like they may be being pushed by the diver. It’s also possible that they may be influenced by current as the film was shot in Rainbow Springs in the Crystal River in Florida. Schooling efficiently covers distance over open water (think drafting), and current could force shoals of bass into assuming a tighter “school-like” arrangement in certain places.

 

The narrator states that telemetry studies have shown two types of bass –schoolers and loners / social and asocial– but that’s a very simplistic take and there have been a whole lot more studies done since. Again, I’m going to suggest that there are not “two social mindsets” among bass, but instead that we see a range of behaviors depending on what environments require, possibly within those two extremes. Indeed pelagic and littoral habitats are extremes and most fish species can’t handle both, but apparently bass (as a species) can. Wish it were true that we could say that there are only two types of bass, but freshwater systems are enormously complex, especially as you start jumping around between water bodies. Each water body has its own (often changing) story going on and each is illustrative. But there are core tendencies that define a species. Bass just happen to be a highly adaptable one.

[Catt]

Totally agree Paul, totally

[EvanT123]

Maybe I missed it in this very informative thread. Has a study or an observation been done on personal space and bass?

It doesn't seem that bass are pack animals like wolfs or lions. Where there is a hierarchy and dependence on survival.

If a food source is scarce would it not make more sense for a bass to purse its own best interest (survival) and when a food source is plentiful congregate to that opportunity?

Catt mentioned rivers and creeks are a different thing all together and I'm basing my question off my experiences fishing river discharges and watching the sonar on the river and seeing long stretches devoid of any fish activity.

[Paul Roberts]

Maybe I missed it in this very informative thread. Has a study or an observation been done on personal space and bass?

It doesn't seem that bass are pack animals like wolfs or lions. Where there is a hierarchy and dependence on survival.

If a food source is scarce would it not make more sense for a bass to purse its own best interest (survival) and when a food source is plentiful congregate to that opportunity?

Catt mentioned rivers and creeks are a different thing all together and I'm basing my question off my experiences fishing river discharges and watching the sonar on the river and seeing long stretches devoid of any fish activity.

Personal space? Yes. Bass are not (normally) “territorial” exactly –except during the spawn at the nest site. But they are agonistic and competitive which can be confused for territoriality and can extend into territorial-like behavior in confined circumstances (aquariums are a good example, as are places in natural waters where people feed bass on a regular basis). It's more like they carry their territories around with them rather than have specific locations they defend. But they do have "home ranges" -areas that encompass their needs- and again the size of them tends to vary with resource availability (food especially).

 

Shoals of young bass are often called “wolf-packs”. They are agonistic, competitive, and cannibalistic. Most young bass never reach maturity.

 

Possibly, but it would depend a lot on the prey species. Prey are not pushovers; each offer their own challenges. Bass (individuals and shoals) will aggregate at locations where prey is abundant and vulnerable. But if food is scarce bass have to, and will, travel more to find it. If there is abundant food, they tend to have decreased home range sizes. One neat study put up two automatic fish feeders in a natural lake: one that dropped minnows periodically, and one that didn't. Telemetered bass were released at both sites. The bass at the feeder offering regular food had remarkably small home ranges. The bass at the control feeder (no food) had large home ranges. Just what type of food there is, where it's located (say, pelagic or littoral), and how much is available determines how bass will hunt and with whom.

 

All environments have appropriate habitat areas within for a given species. Lots of water can be devoid of mature bass for many reasons -most often bc it doesn't provide enough food. In rivers though, current is probably the primary constraint. Also, and you may know this, sonar is not terribly good at picking up fish tight to bottom. And current can put fish tight to bottom.

 

Because of your mentions of personal space and hierarchies I suppose you are asking if territoriality is at play in rivers? Do I have that right? What I have come to understand with bass is no. Instead they are better described as agonistic and competitive. I suppose if specific lies/holds (called foraging sites) are small enough that there would be competition for them. This is the case for trout. Possibly bass could compete for holds, especially smallmouths.

 

Hope this helps.

[WRB]

I have witnessed large schools of adult size bass working together to heard prey on several occasions that resulted in phenomenal catches. I wouldn't limit wolf packs to juvenile bass.

Also watched large schools of bass traveling across wide deep expanses of water,both largemouth and Smallmouth.

Standing on a high bluff above the water at lake Havasu a massive school of largemouth bass, several hundred, swam across the lake from the opposite shoe to where I was standing, it look like a cloud shadow.

When the giant school of bass neared the shore they split up, some swimming up the lake, some down the lake and into coves. Mass migration?

Lake trout fishing on lCrow lake in Ontario Canada, we were jigging for lakers about 5 miles off shore when a big school of Smallmouths passed under our boat swimming toward the opposite shore, another mass migration?

Spend enough time on the water and you will discover bass behavior isn't always predicable.

I watched a strange behavior at Little lake near Fossil Falls north of Mojave.little lake is about 1 mile long maybe 1/8 mile wide water filled volcanic fissure that is over 1,500 feet deep in the fisher crack that runs about 1/4 mile long in the center of this lake, the rest is shallow about 3' to 10'. The largemouth bass in Little spend most of their time in the deep fissure along the walls, then move out toward the shore to herd baitfish back into pockets along the shore, feed and return to the deep fissure crack that supplies the lakes spring water. Adaptive behavior that suits the ecosystem.

Schools of big bass feeding on planted rainbow trout is another example of adaptive behavior.

Tom

[Paul Roberts]

I have witnessed large schools of adult size bass working together to heard prey on several occasions that resulted in phenomenal catches. I wouldn't limit wolf packs to juvenile bass.

Also watched large schools of bass traveling across wide deep expanses of water,both largemouth and Smallmouth.

Standing on a high bluff above the water at lake Havasu a massive school of largemouth bass, several hundred, swam across the lake from the opposite shoe to where I was standing, it look like a cloud shadow.

When the giant school of bass neared the shore they split up, some swimming up the lake, some down the lake and into coves. Mass migration?

Lake trout fishing on lCrow lake in Ontario Canada, we were jigging for lakers about 5 miles off shore when a big school of Smallmouths passed under our boat swimming toward the opposite shore, another mass migration?

Spend enough time on the water and you will discover bass behavior isn't always predicable.

I watched a strange behavior at Little lake near Fossil Falls north of Mojave.little lake is about 1 mile long maybe 1/8 mile wide water filled volcanic fissure that is over 1,500 feet deep in the fisher crack that runs about 1/4 mile long in the center of this lake, the rest is shallow about 3' to 10'. The largemouth bass in Little spend most of their time in the deep fissure along the walls, then move out toward the shore to herd baitfish back into pockets along the shore, feed and return to the deep fissure crack that supplies the lakes spring water. Adaptive behavior that suits the ecosystem.

Schools of big bass feeding on planted rainbow trout is another example of adaptive behavior.

Tom

Wow. I've not fished waters that large with such productivity. Just about every water seems to offer some new wrinkle. With bass especially, adaptability is the word.

 

Mass migration? Something had to bring them together in the first place. My guesses would be large amounts of (probably pelagic) prey, or a habitat bottleneck, like what happens in winter in many waters where adequate habitat shrinks and bass end up packed together.

 

Smallies in meso and oligo lakes in the north are known to hunt pelagic prey like alewives, emerald shiners, and ciscoes. They do so in big shoals bc there is simply enough food out there to support big numbers. Smallies are also generally more efficient at pursuit type hunting than largemouths. When traveling distances over open water, which these fish do, I could understand them forming "school-type" behavior bc it's efficient (again, think drafting -like F1 race cars or flocks of geese).

 

Your description of Little Lake doesn't sound out of the ordinary behavior-wise, although the lake is certainly unique. The behavior sounds like so many lakes in which bass suspend offshore and feed inshore, pressing baitfish up against shorelines (or weedlines, bluffs, etc). Probably there just isn’t much bass food out there in that 1500ft deep (and cold) fissure, and not a lot of security for bass in shallow. I fished a gravel quarry years ago that was like that. Gin clear with broad 3ft deep flats with little cover (rubble and sparse weeds) and a few deep dark potholes that provided the only security. Darn those bass could be spooky, bolting for the potholes when a cast was made on a sunny day. I remember it well bc of a particularly large bass of probably 6lbs that spied me first and headed out to the lip of the largest pothole, and just sat and stared at me. Until I cast to it, and it melted away. Never did catch that fish.

 

Speaking of bass on trout, have you seen the video on Mike Long's site of huge bass intercepting the hatchery truck? Pretty cool.

 

Cool stuff, Tom. Appreciate you sharing so much of your experience. You have a lot of cool stories and observations. You should write a memoir –seriously.

[Catt]

Tom & Paul, would it not be cool if someone could take info in the threads on this site & write a book!

And no I aint the one, to d**n old

[Paul Roberts]

Tom & Paul, would it not be cool if someone could take info in the threads on this site & write a book!

And no I aint the one, to d**n old

 

Well Tommy, I'm working diligently on a book on bass behavior. I've been collecting info for years now from all sources -scientific and angling observations- and am finally getting down to organizing it all and putting it together as a book. No small task. With pressure from my wife, I may actually get er done in the next year. Wish me luck -that I don't keel over at my desk in the meantime. If my posts sometimes sound robotic and full of jargon, it's bc I've been mono-dimensional for too long. In some ways, I want this off my plate... because I want to write one on small water bassing too. And there are others lined up behind that.

[A-Jay]

Well Tommy, I'm working diligently on a book on bass behavior. I've been collecting info for years now from all sources -scientific and angling observations- and am finally getting down to organizing it all and putting it together as a book. No small task. With pressure from my wife, I may actually get er done in the next year. Wish me luck -that I don't keel over at my desk in the meantime. If my posts sometimes sound robotic and full of jargon, it's bc I've been mono-dimensional for too long. In some ways, I want this off my plate... because I want to write one on small water bassing too. And there are others lined up behind that.

 

I would be most grateful if you would place me on the list to receive the initial run of Both of these Publications.

 

Best of Luck

 

A-Jay

[A-Jay]

Just had to bring this one back ~ 

 

“Genius is the gold in the mine; talent is the miner who works and brings it out.”

A-Jay

 

[CrankFate]

I will just add what I observed. Usually there are at least 2 or 3 bass in an area, not necessarily schooled up, but close enough to constantly acknowledge each other with their eyes. Bass very often stay in pairs side by side. When bass are cruising, they usually cruise in groups of 2 to about 8 fish, in a pod. These are very hard to catch. I wouldn’t call these “schools” but they are clearly pods cruising in group formation. They will sometimes also suspend in formation. Those bass are least likely to eat and d**n near impossible to catch. I wonder if those suspended pods are hanging out digesting a big meal?

[Paul Roberts]

Yeah, interesting topic, in a number of ways: Lau, Lembeck, "schooling", aggregation, individuality (personality), adaptability, ... There sure is a lot buried in this site. BR certainly does live up to its name. I always saw it as an archive of sorts, posting with that in mind. Plenty to find if one is willing to treat it as a database.

 

Oh yeah, the book (make that, THE BOOK )... I've gone to scripting, which may be an indirect route, but, helpful towards pulling concepts, and graphics, together.