Bass feeding habits

[Largemouth21]

I personally don’t believe all the hype about all these different lures. From a scientific standpoint bass are opportunistic feeders, if a bass is hungry it will eat what is available. I do believe sometimes more flash is better or sometimes fish are keying in on a different size. But if a fish isn’t interested in eating you can’t make it eat. And if you are catching bedding fish by reaction strike, they would eat anything that goes on their beds so the lure wouldn’t make a difference... Share your ideas...

Edited May 31, 2018 by Largemouth21
Made my statement more clear and deleted unnecessary information

[MassYak85]

What do you mean by "the hype of lures" or "all these different lures"? Are you suggesting we all go out using one jig every time? I will agree, location and finding fish is the most important aspect of fishing. But there's a reason certain lures work better at certain times.

[Choporoz]

1 hour ago, Largemouth21 said:

.From a scientific standpoint 

Your data?

[Largemouth21]

43 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

What do you mean by "the hype of lures" or "all these different lures"? Are you suggesting we all go out using one jig every time? I will agree, location and finding fish is the most important aspect of fishing. But there's a reason certain lures work better at certain times.

I agree with you, but there’s new lures being hyped every year and I wanted to hear everyone’s opinion. By no means would a single lure work, but should I buy all 50 colors in all 5 sizes? No of course not! That’s not to say certain colors aren’t effective for different places, because they are. But if a bass can see an easy meal close by, and it is actively feeding/hungry it *generally* would eat anything it sees.

38 minutes ago, Choporoz said:

Your data?

The definition of an opportunistic feeder is “an organism that sustains itself from a variety of different food sources”. That fits the description of a bass quite well. If you miss a frog blow up, you can toss a worm, creature bait, jig, just about anything  and get that same fish. The bass is taking advantage of the many different food sources it has available. Bass don’t have brains complex enough for decision making. If it sees something moving it will eat it. I think bass fishermen (myself included) take too much pride in how they can “select” a certain lure when there would be quite a few that would work. This is not always the case so don’t attack me, there are for sure exceptions to this rule. I knew this thread would be controversial but I would like to hear what people have to say...

Edited May 30, 2018 by Largemouth21

[scaleface]

Of course , a person doesnt need every lure but sometimes bass are finicky . 

[Glaucus]

There aren't many times where you need anything but a worm, a spinnerbait/chatterbait/swimbait, and a topwater of whatever variety. It really is simple. Finding the fish, finding the big fish, and fishing to the conditions is the hard part, not the lure.

[Fish the Mitt]

1 hour ago, Largemouth21 said:

I personally don’t believe all the hype about all these different lures.

From a scientific standpoint bass are opportunistic feeders, if a bass is hungry it will eat what is available

While this may be true, the objective of lures is to create a more opportune meal for feeding bass, or an aggressive reaction strike for bass not actively feeding. Ie: All of these lures, that you're apparently against, have a time and place to be used. A time where one is better than another. A place where one is better than another.

I don't have herring lakes where I live, should I fish and pattern to a herring bite because the guys in Kentucky are doing it? Or should I maybe opt for something more similiar to the baitfish actually in my lakes? Perhaps a crawdad? Leech? Imitation panfish?

1 hour ago, Largemouth21 said:

Personally I don’t agree with bed fishing because these are the same guys who preach conservation and yet they take the bass of their beds and put them in livewells which puts unnecessary stress on them and lets other fish eat their eggs. 

Well, the Michigan, Indiana, New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Florida DNR (or respective agencies) and their state regulatory agencies, disagree with you. As I'm sure many other states do as well. If you see it as an ethical issue, than fine. Advocate away. But you bashing me for advocating for conservation, while being a bed fishing angler, is quite narrow minded. 

 

 

7 minutes ago, Largemouth21 said:

By no means would a single lure work, but should I buy all 50 colors in all 5 sizes? No of course not!

No one at Berkley, Rapala, Strike King, etc.. are sitting there asking themselves what colors does Largemouth21 want and need? They're more concerned with covering the spectrum for the 60,000,000 US Anglers (generating $115,000,000,000 toward our economy). 

 

If you don't like it, don't buy it. But that 2.5 in Clear Sexy Shad you don't think you need, I do. Or at least the bass like it where I live! 

 

 

My advice, don't get caught up in the hype if it's not for you. It wasn't created for you. Do your thing and fish to your perceived strengths. 

[A-Jay]

1 hour ago, Largemouth21 said:

I personally don’t believe all the hype about all these different lures. From a scientific standpoint bass are opportunistic feeders, if a bass is hungry it will eat what is available. I do believe sometimes more flash is better or sometimes fish are keying in on a different size. But if a fish isn’t interested in eating you can’t make it eat. And if you are catching bedding fish by reaction strike, they would eat anything that goes on their beds so the lure wouldn’t make a difference... {side note}Personally I don’t agree with bed fishing because these are the same guys who preach conservation and yet they take the bass of their beds and put them in livewells which puts unnecessary stress on them and lets other fish eat their eggs. Sorry for the rant but just give your opinion about the hype of lures.

Interesting perspective ~

Perhaps all you need is a "Rapala floater perch color, one rapala floater silver color, some yum dingers, some brush hogs, a rapala skitter pop, a hula popper, a rapala ultra light pop, ribbon tail worms, 4/0 hooks, 3/0 hooks, worm weights, a Booyah Frog, some tubes, some Plano tackle trays."

Oh and maybe a crankbait or two . . .

Good Luck

A-Jay

[NHBull]

There is a lot of bait that is best used to catch fisherman, but your blanket statement is a bit simplistic and fly’s in the face of the belief in patterns.......

 

......as for bed fishermen, there are a few notable marine biologists that believe it has little to no impact on bass populations

 

[WRB]

All anyone needs to catch bass is a lively large size Canadian nightcrawler, size 1 hook and 8 lb mono fishing line to put it in front of the active bass. You don't need a rod or reel to catch bass and a boat is optional.

Tom

[Largemouth21]

1 hour ago, NHBull said:

There is a lot of bait that is best used to catch fisherman, but your blanket statement is a bit simplistic and fly’s in the face of the belief in patterns.......

 

......as for bed fishermen, there are a few notable marine biologists that believe it has little to no impact on bass populations

 

1 hour ago, A-Jay said:

Interesting perspective ~

Perhaps all you need is a "Rapala floater perch color, one rapala floater silver color, some yum dingers, some brush hogs, a rapala skitter pop, a hula popper, a rapala ultra light pop, ribbon tail worms, 4/0 hooks, 3/0 hooks, worm weights, a Booyah Frog, some tubes, some Plano tackle trays."

Oh and maybe a crankbait or two . . .

Good Luck

A-Jay

1 hour ago, Fish the Mitt said:

While this may be true, the objective of lures is to create a more opportune meal for feeding bass, or an aggressive reaction strike for bass not actively feeding. Ie: All of these lures, that you're apparently against, have a time and place to be used. A time where one is better than another. A place where one is better than another.

I don't have herring lakes where I live, should I fish and pattern to a herring bite because the guys in Kentucky are doing it? Or should I maybe opt for something more similiar to the baitfish actually in my lakes? Perhaps a crawdad? Leech? Imitation panfish?

Well, the Michigan, Indiana, New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Florida DNR (or respective agencies) and their state regulatory agencies, disagree with you. As I'm sure many other states do as well. If you see it as an ethical issue, than fine. Advocate away. But you bashing me for advocating for conservation, while being a bed fishing angler, is quite narrow minded. 

 

 

No one at Berkley, Rapala, Strike King, etc.. are sitting there asking themselves what colors does Largemouth21 want and need? They're more concerned with covering the spectrum for the 60,000,000 US Anglers (generating $115,000,000,000 toward our economy). 

 

If you don't like it, don't buy it. But that 2.5 in Clear Sexy Shad you don't think you need, I do. Or at least the bass like it where I live! 

 

 

My advice, don't get caught up in the hype if it's not for you. It wasn't created for you. Do your thing and fish to your perceived strengths. 

All valid points, thank you all for being respectful despite my unpopular thesis . After some more research around I understand better how bass feeding behavior works. I also think a good reason to have many colors is especially if you do a lot of tournament fishing where new lakes with new forage are discovered. But for me where I fish only a few lakes, it is easy to decide on a few colors that are productive. I have learned good things from this thread, thank you for sharing your opinions. Also the type of bed fishing I was referencing, isnt where the fish are instantly put back, it’s where people put them in live wells and then go a few miles away and dump them back, it will take a lot of time and energy to get back as well as un needed stress. I do catch largemouth on beds, and there is nothing wrong with it as long is the fish are put back as quickly as possible.

[jbmaine]

This is just my opinion and my experience, so based on that, these are my thoughts.

I have seen times when bass will take just about anything you put in front of it, and times when they will ignore 99% of the things you cast to them, yet go crazy to bite one bait. I have no Idea why. We fish in clear water so I can honestly say I have seen this happen. I once spent almost an hour site fishing to a bass cruising a shallow cove. I thru everything at it. It would look at it and swim away. Finally it took a bubble gum colored Senko. This was after I tossed four other Senkos of different colors at it. I have no idea why. I also once saw a fish inhale a cigarette butt. Go figure.

[WRB]

To stereotype a predator as a opportunist in their feeding habits over looks the fact they can be selective feeders depending on the eccosystem they live in. Abundance of preferred prey and ease of capture often trumps opportunity. 

Where I bass fish (lake Casitas) Threadfin Shad, crawdads and planted rainbow trout were the source of choice and bass often passed opportunity to feed on bluegill, crappie and sunfish.

Easy to swallow baitfish that offered high protein with minimum effort was the preferred prey. Hatchery raised rainbow trout were between 6" to 12" long, ideal food source that was unaware of predators and a easy meal for adult size bass. When the trout plants stopped this artifical food source dissapeared over night. The big bass population crashed within a year. The adult bass starved to death becuase they were so focused on the easy trout meals they couldn't adapt to being opportunist feeders. It's taken 10 years for the big bass fishery to recover, a new generation of bass that grew up feeding on what was available in lieu of hunting trout that no longer exist.

Tom

[Largemouth21]

31 minutes ago, WRB said:

To stereotype a predator as a opportunist in their feeding habits over looks the fact they can be selective feeders depending on the eccosystem they live in. Abundance of preferred prey and ease of capture often trumps opportunity. 

Where I bass fish (lake Casitas) Threadfin Shad, crawdads and planted rainbow trout were the source of choice and bass often passed opportunity to feed on bluegill, crappie and sunfish.

Easy to swallow baitfish that offered high protein with minimum effort was the preferred prey. Hatchery raised rainbow trout were between 6" to 12" long, ideal food source that was unaware of predators and a easy meal for adult size bass. When the trout plants stopped this artifical food source dissapeared over night. The big bass population crashed within a year. The adult bass starved to death becuase they were so focused on the easy trout meals they couldn't adapt to being opportunist feeders. It's taken 10 years for the big bass fishery to recover, a new generation of bass that grew up feeding on what was available in lieu of hunting trout that no longer exist.

Tom

That’s actually really interesting, thank you for taking the time to share

[Bluebasser86]

Some days it doesn't take anything special and they'll literally bite whatever you feel like fishing. Then I've had days fishing where what color flake a plastic has makes the difference between a few bites and a great day. Doesn't mean you have to carry a lot of tackle, because putting the bait in the right place is usually more important than the bait itself, but man when it matters it really matters. 

[Catt]

Chicken McNugget ?

 

 

 

[Largemouth21]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

Chicken McNugget ?

 

 

 

No way!! That’s a biggin! I’m geussing at least 10 pounds