What would you do??

[bigbill]

Ok the bite is on. Your catching bass after bass. Your bait is a amusement ride and every bass wants there turn. It's a feeding frenzy and you swear a bare hook would catch bass.

All of a sudden the bite shuts down. You catch nothing, no sign of life in the water. Where did the fish go? What changed?

WHAT DO YOU CHANGE TO? How many Options do we have?

Let's hear your thoughts? Have a plan in place?

[soflabasser]

A different lure makes the bass bite again in situations like you described. 

[RichD913]

Same lure, completely different presentation for about 5 minutes, then same lure different color, if that fails, go to whatever is the total opposite. Don't know if it's right but that's what I'd do. 

[Bluebasser86]

The options are only limited by your imagination. 

[papajoe222]

Ask yourself what changed? While you were 'caught' up with catching something changed. Unless you lucked into a feeding school of bass, they're likely still in the area. I'd switch to a more subtle presentation that targets a different part of the water column. 

Still no action?  Odds are they changed location. Check out the area you were catching from with your electronics and try to determine why they were there.  You likely won't find that group, but if you look for similar areas, you may find others. 

[Bankbeater]

Around here when that happens it is usually due to the weather.  The first thing I do is try to see if the bass are still around, or if they have moved off somewhere else.

[Catt]

21 hours ago, bigbill said:

Where did the fish go?

What changed?

WHAT DO YOU CHANGE TO?

How many Options do we have?

This is the opinion of one dumb Cajun

There is a period of time in which bass actively feed, the length of time between each feeding period is determined by the bass's metabolism.

Now one must keep in mind the fact that bass are predators & will strike lures presented in close proximity even though they aint hungry.

What would I change?

Locations!

This is the reason you need several locations to explore through out the day. Some days ya gonna have to hit all of em...some days all ya need is one!

[WIGuide]

Good advice so far! For me it'd depend on what I'm catching them on. If it was a moving presentation, I might try switching colors and using the same thing. If that didn't work, I'd move to something slower like a jig or depending on depth of water and all, something like a carolina rig or wacky rigged sinking worm. It's possible the school moved on, got conditioned to the lure you were throwing, or they just slowed down on their feeding. It's hard to say, but from what I remember from your past posts, you fish from the bank in the same spots, so if I had to guess, I'd bet they got conditioned to what you were throwing. Try switching it up next time that happens before you move on next time. 

[scaleface]

That happened to me last October . I  had bass located located and was catching them on almost every cast then it was like somebody turned off a switch . I tried a few different things then called it a day . That has happened to me before in the fall and I attribute it to the sun going down and the bass who were feeding heavily trying to fatten up for winter  just shutting it down for the night .

[A-Jay]

When on a good bite and a school is fired up, it's common practice to retain the first few fish in a live well.  As long as they are of legal size and the legal creel limit is not exceeded, there is nothing wrong with holding on to them to be released later.

Just so that they can't go down & tell the other guys "it's a Trick"

I couldn't do it in the Old Town, But I do it now.  Can't say for sure if it really helps or not. 

But it does if I think it does.

A-Jay

 

[Columbia Craw]

I'm with Catt.  Bass feed in periods and different factors trigger those " sprees."   Don't spend much time lure shopping to make them bite.  Work other locations. Smallmouth are notorious for moving up on a flat edge or shelf from deep water and gorging and then just disappear, vanish, scadattle and so on. It's nice when the bite is on though.

[crypt]

location,location,location............go where the food is. we are just like fish we go where the food is. only thing is there food moves around a lot. we go to the fridge.

[Sam]

You lucked out and found a feeding school.

Once they were finished eating they went off to rest and got lockjaw.

As stated above, move to another location and be thankful you were in the right place at the right time.

By they way, one of the pros, I think it was Jimmy Houston, told a story about his nonboater in a tournament.

Seems the guy was not interested in fishing at all until 2 PM. That's what he told Jimmy and he just sat in the boat, napping and eating.

When 1:30 PM arrived he told Jimmy where he wanted to go as it was his turn to pick the afternoon location.

Jimmy pulled up to the spot and the guy got up from the seat, selected one if his rods, and exactly at 2 PM he started casting as far as he could. And you know what happened? He hit a bass feeding frenzy and he caught his limit on his first five casts.

When the bite stopped he sat down and said he was finished fishing for the day.

Seems the bass in that lake at that location ate at 2 PM every day at time of the season and the nonboater knew about it.

Go figure.

 

[S. Sass]

49 minutes ago, Sam said:

You lucked out and found a feeding school.

Once they were finished eating they went off to rest and got lockjaw.

As stated above, move to another location and be thankful you were in the right place at the right time.

By they way, one of the pros, I think it was Jimmy Houston, told a story about his nonboater in a tournament.

Seems the guy was not interested in fishing at all until 2 PM. That's what he told Jimmy and he just sat in the boat, napping and eating.

When 1:30 PM arrived he told Jimmy where he wanted to go as it was his turn to pick the afternoon location.

Jimmy pulled up to the spot and the guy got up from the seat, selected one if his rods, and exactly at 2 PM he started casting as far as he could. And you know what happened? He hit a bass feeding frenzy and he caught his limit on his first five casts.

When the bite stopped he sat down and said he was finished fishing for the day.

Seems the bass in that lake at that location ate at 2 PM every day at time of the season and the nonboater knew about it.

Go figure.

 

ROFL should have bought a lottery ticket. That sounds like a whole lot of a fishing tale if I ever heard one. A non boater knowing exactly where, exactly when, and exactly what to throw on that exact day. Just saying maybe Jimmy was pulling someones leg.       

[blckshirt98]

I'd try fishing in a different spot and come back to that spot later, and if it's still slow just call it a day and be happy for experiencing the flurry of bites the first time around.

[CavScoutA21]

All summer I was catching fish in one are of an 18 acre man made reservoir then all of a sudden 3 weeks ago I wasn't catching any more in my "spot" on the bank.  I tried every lure I had but nothing.   It seemed like every waking hour, and some while I was sleeping, I was trying to figure out what happened.  

Then all of a sudden I noticed one very small detail about something different at my spot.  All summer the wind was blowing in my face but changed direction to where it was blowing onto my back about the time the bite died so I decided to fish the other side of the reservoir so the wind was in my face.  Needless to say for the past couple of weeks I have been catching fish again but nowhere near the pace I was.  I'm not sure if the fish are that sensitive to wind but if it was the wind that moved the fish then I learned you need to be aware of even the most subtle changes that could affect fish behavior.  

[Ratherbfishing]

USUALLY the fish haven't moved but their mood has changed.  The first thing I do is try is to downsize.  And if I've been fishing fast, I'll slow down or if I've been fishing slow, speed up.  But usually I'll slow down.

[WRB]

If you have no idea why the bass were biting in the first place there is little you can do.

If you know why the bass are biting, then you move to new similar location with active bass and repeat your success.

There is always a reason bass are feeding and it's up to you to determine why.

Tom