Surprising Bass Patterns You've Seen

[livemusic]

This was maybe 30 years ago on Toledo Bend. It was the heat of summer and the typical heat. 100 degree weather. There is no way my buddy and I would've chosen to go to this spot, no way. We must've had somebody tip us off. The very good size bass were at the upper part of a cove, in flooded timber and the water was 3' deep and less! We didn't monitor water temp in those days, but it was hot. The bass were in the shadow of the trees. We'd toss a plastic worm or lizard and we had a great weekend of catching nice bass! I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't do it myself.

 

What has surprised you?

[scaleface]

Early one winter I was catching bass on buzzbaits while it was snowing .  Come to find out , that is not   uncommon but it surprised me .

[Bluebasser86]

Amart says he was on a BIRD pattern at Havasu this past weekend?! What?! I've seen signs of fish eating birds, including bird feet sticking out of a bass' throat, but never heard of an entire pattern centered around bass eating birds. My only question is why, then, was he flipping green pumpkin colored craw baits instead of something like a black neon flipping tube or creature bait (article said they were red winged black birds). 

[lecisnith]

Probably about that time of year where fledgling marsh birds are getting big enough to fall out of the nest. That's why a lot of the colors are black and white, red, or yellow for topwater.

[livemusic]

Amart says he was on a BIRD pattern at Havasu this past weekend?! What?! I've seen signs of fish eating birds, including bird feet sticking out of a bass' throat, but never heard of an entire pattern centered around bass eating birds. My only question is why, then, was he flipping green pumpkin colored craw baits instead of something like a black neon flipping tube or creature bait (article said they were red winged black birds). 

 

Because he was mimicking a baby bird that falls out of a nest, not a full grown blackbird. A baby bird is kind of pumpkin colored.

 

BTW, on a side note, I recently saw an expensive bait that was an exact dupe of a full grown blackbird.

[the reel ess]

Catching fish on a Torpedo with a steady, very fast retrieve in the middle of the day. I've caught a few fish on them, but always twitch-pause. These wanted it burning. I needed to run it just where it wouldn't spin. So I thought the must want anything fast-moving, but they didn't want a buzzbait. Caught so many, I had to bend the blades back every so often. And lost countless fish because it was a fast-moving topwater. I did learn to use a wacky Senko that day to catch some of the misses on the Torpedo.

 

I'd been fishing a particular pond for years and never caught anybass in the very shallow flooded timber headwaters. The last two times there, I killed them in the timber. Fall and early spring.

[livemusic]

Catching fish on a Torpedo with a steady, very fast retrieve in the middle of the day. I've caught a few fish on them, but always twitch-pause. These wanted it burning. I needed to run it just where it wouldn't spin. So I thought the must want anything fast-moving, but they didn't want a buzzbait. Caught so many, I had to bend the blades back every so often. And lost countless fish because it was a fast-moving topwater. I did learn to use a wacky Senko that day to catch some of the misses on the Torpedo.

 

I'd been fishing a particular pond for years and never caught anybass in the very shallow flooded timber headwaters. The last two times there, I killed them in the timber. Fall and early spring.

 

Did you luck up and discover the fast retrieve when you hurriedly retrieved it to get it back in or did you mean to try it that way? That's wild that you caught so many like that! A high-speed reel would come in handy, lol. Interesting pattern.

[Bluebasser86]

Because he was mimicking a baby bird that falls out of a nest, not a full grown blackbird. A baby bird is kind of pumpkin colored.

BTW, on a side note, I recently saw an expensive bait that was an exact dupe of a full grown blackbird.

He said something about finding feathers in his livewell though, sounds like they were eating adult birds, although eating juveniles that fell from the nest makes more sense.

Sounds like the flipping the bird topwater bait.

[ww2farmer]

I was on a bird pattern once myself, saw a bird land on a mat, and was immediately engulfed by a bass. OK, I guess it wasn't really a bird pattern, and more of a " they are active under the mat " pattern. The next two hours was good frogging. No fancy "match the hatch" nonsense bird lures needed, I probably could have caught them dragging a hot dog across the mat.

[the reel ess]

Did you luck up and discover the fast retrieve when you hurriedly retrieved it to get it back in or did you mean to try it that way? That's wild that you caught so many like that! A high-speed reel would come in handy, lol. Interesting pattern.

I think I was getting a bite every now and then and decided to try it on purpose. That's probably the most bass I've caught in a couple hours. I was using a 7:1 reel. They would bite and if they got hooked, I'd fight them to the surface and skate them across the water. There so many stickups there, I couldn't let them get down. And you can't afford to lose a lure they're biting that well.

[Brayberry]

On Kerr Reservoir years ago, the water was like 18 feet above normal pool, and lotsa of shoreline flooding was taking place.  My partner and I both started fishing unsual places and catching bass.  Under flooded picnic tables, kids fisher price houses, kids slides, etc

[MIbassin]

Once I was fishing a crankbait and the back treble got fouled and started spinning like a torpedo on top of the water and it got crushed. I then proceeded to catch 7 more bass by intentionally fouling the hook and running it on top.

[OntarioFishingGuy]

I caught a couple largemouth in a tiny trout stream with a size 18 Adams (small dry fly). I didn't even know there were bass in there.

[Bankbeater]

I have fished a couple of times when the bass will not hit any small bait.  They would only hit 1/2 and 3/4 jigs, big worms, and big cranks.  If you were using a finesse bait you would never get a bite.

[Dogmatic]

Amart says he was on a BIRD pattern at Havasu this past weekend?! What?! I've seen signs of fish eating birds, including bird feet sticking out of a bass' throat, but never heard of an entire pattern centered around bass eating birds. My only question is why, then, was he flipping green pumpkin colored craw baits instead of something like a black neon flipping tube or creature bait (article said they were red winged black birds).

I thought about dabbling in the "bird pattern"

[Logan S]

On Kerr Reservoir years ago, the water was like 18 feet above normal pool, and lotsa of shoreline flooding was taking place.  My partner and I both started fishing unsual places and catching bass.  Under flooded picnic tables, kids fisher price houses, kids slides, etc

I've been on that same pattern on Kerr .  I was fishing flooded campsites...Picnic tables, benches, fire pits and even some road signs.  I caught some good fish off the fire pits, it was near the spawn I was pretty sure they were using them as a pre-made bed.  Nearly every fire pit that was in the water had a fish on it.

 

Kerr is a lot of fun when the water is up like that .