Open your eyes

[WRB]

Watching Glenn's vedio reminded me about being observant.

I have been bass fishing since a young child and learned bass behavior by mostly being observant by watching bass.

You can actually see bass before catching them if you open your eyes and look into the water. When fishing with a partner I am always amazed that the majority of anglers never look for fish. Everyone usually see's the swirl or splash a bass makes but don't see a bass following a bass hooked or the lure or just sitting under cover.

Seeing bass takes practice to learn what to look for. It's easy to see bass in clear water following a lure , not so easy to see a bass in the same clear water that isn't swimming. Off color water requires close attention for water movement, pressure wake or cover movement and flashes underwater indicating a bass just turned away from a lure.

Look closely and you see a dark lateral line on lighter background movements or tail or mouth flashes revealing the bass.

I can't tell you how many times I have pointed out a bass to a fishing partner or found giant bass by looking for them visually.

Tom

[Mike L]

Good point!

The average fisherman is programmed to look for that likely spot where they think a fish should be and no other thought comes into their head. 

Point is actually looking for a fish swimming or bedding is secondary.

Blind casting and junk fishing seems to always be the norm 
 

Mike

[Catt]

@WRB Exactly ?

 

Kinda like that old saying you can't see the forest for the trees.

 

I sight fish year round, even at night, I'm looking for telltale signs.

 

Guys I fish with are amazed when I set hook saying you wasn't even looking at your line & you weren't even paying attention. Oh I was paying attention alright, I saw those reeds move when there's no wind, i saw pads move when there's no wave action.

 

Kinda like deer hunters never seeing the deer until it's in the open.

[Quarry Man]

I learned this by sight fishing for trout before I ever caught bass. First few times I ever caught a bunch of bass was bed fishing. This is what led to me being confident in clear water and with sight fishing. great post!

[Koz]

It’s not always easy to site fish from the bank, but every now and then it pays off.

 

Today I saw a bass swim off to my left just in front of a 4 foot juvenile gator out in front of me. I dropped a wacky rigged Senko out in front of the bass and sure enough it hit. Then the bass took off towards the gator.

 

I reeled it in just clearing the gator then had to run down the shoreline as the gator started to follow. Luckily he stopped just as he hit the bank.

 

It was a bit of an adrenaline rush for a few seconds. Landed a nice 4 pounder, though.

[Bankbeater]

I like to stop the boat and just stand still for a couple of minutes looking down at the water to see what is swimming around down there. People always think that I dropped something in the lake. 

[Bluebasser86]

I sight fished my first frog fish of the year this year as it sat motionless between a bunch of dead lily pad stems. Not how I expected to catch one but I would have never caught it if I hadn't been looking for them. Same day I saw some shad scatter in the middle of the lake and fired a cast at them with a bladed jig and caught one. They never busted on them, just saw the baitfish flying and knew what it meant. I'm always watching and listening for clues.

[bassh8er]

Sight fished my PB 8 lb 1 oz bass in Iowa fishing a Storm Mid-Wart as a top water.  Made a cast, saw the monster coming off the bank and twitched it along the top only to watch her come over and smack it.

 

Still have the lure hanging in my garage.

[TnRiver46]

My waters are typically fast and stained and I can learn a lot more watching the graph. About 1.5 weeks before Easter it was starting to clear off, then more rain out of buckets. Right now it’s moving about 4-5 mph and you can’t see through it. When sight fishing can get fun for me is during a late summer drought when the rivers are calm and clear. I don’t recall ever sight fishing a bass off a bed in the spring 

[scaleface]

Twice yesterday , I saw  the swirl of a bass that turned on a spinnerbait  in a tree and both fish followed  it out then hit . I rarely see bass in stained water and right now the water is stained to muddy .

[jimmyjoe]

   What's funny (odd funny) is that pike are curious fish, and generally unafraid of noise. On sandbars in the river, I sometimes become absolutely sure that there are no bass on that particular sandbar. I'll high-launch a spoon, hoping that it "smacks" the water. If it does, I'll see some swirls that will head toward the smackdown. Those will be pike, and either they intercept me or I intercept them, but we generally meet in the middle and there's a fight.

   I do this when I'm absolutely sure that there are no bass on that sandbar.

   I'm usually absolutely wrong.  Many times, I see smaller swirls heading away from the noise. Those are usually bass that I overlooked. Either I'm not a very thorough fisherman, or I'm not a very good fisherman.

   Or both.        ?   ?       jj

[Scott F]

Years ago, I was on a fly in fishing trip in Manitoba. There was a small pike that we could see living under the dock. He was there all the time. One of our guys would go down in the morning and brush his teeth while standing on the dock. The pike must have gotten tired of this every day. One morning, when my friend bent down to rinse his toothbrush, the pike bit him hard on the hand!

[Big Hands]

When I saw the topic for this thread, I thought of this article I read this morning on 'how to catch bass when they're not biting'.

 

Sometimes you see things and aren't able to do the math as to how it relates to whether or not the fish may be active. I do remember going to the wild animal park near San Diego one day and the operator of the train ride that circles the compound commented that being that since it was the middle of the day, that the animals were generally pretty inactive.

 

He also suggested that if one were to ride the train again near dusk that the animals would probably be much more active. So, we made it a point to get on one of the last trains of the day, and it was an incredibly different experience. Even the hippos were running amuk.

 

I confess to never thinking of doing a few donuts around an area to get the shad moving, and thereby triggering the bass to become active.

[scaleface]

2 hours ago, Scott F said:

Years ago, I was on a fly in fishing trip in Manitoba. There was a small pike that we could see living under the dock. He was there all the time. One of our guys would go down in the morning and brush his teeth while standing on the dock. The pike must have gotten tired of this every day. One morning, when my friend bent down to rinse his toothbrush, the pike bit him hard on the hand!

Pike are ornery because they got all them  teeth but no tooth brush .

[frogflogger]

The lesson is pay attention

[flyfisher]

i agree completely.  The first thing I do when i get to a lilly pad field is sit and watch and listen.  I watch for lilly pads to move in a way that isn't normal and listen for bluegills popping.  

You'd be surprised at how often fish can make themselves known if you let them.  

[Bassin' Brad]

Thanks for the reminder! 

[The Bassman]

Funniest sight fishing incident happened last summer. A duck swimming near the bank got startled and jumped out of the water. A quick flip to the spot nailed me a three pounder that had been playing footsie.

[skekoam]

My son and I finally got out to fish a bit today at a local community private lake.  We probably saw about 10-15 fish all in the 2-5lb range near the bank and guess how many we caught?  0  :(.  We threw spinnerbaits, jigs, senkos, swimbaits and they had no interest at all.   A local guy said the fish have spawned already and aren't really biting anything right now.  

[FishingGeekTX]

In my youth I saw bass all the time.  In tea water in big lake with all the chop, I rarely see anything.

But if I'm out with some guides, they see stuff all the time, its like magic.  Definitely catch more fish if you know what a bass looks or splashes like...a number of fish I only caught because of someone saying "cast right there that's a fish", for sure.

[Sam]

Polarized sunglasses help a lot, too.

[Swamp Girl]

I might see bass. I don't know. I do scan the casting possibilities...constantly. Even when I'm retrieving a lure, I'm surveying, looking for the next spot to cast. And while all the possibilities look good, there are some that make my Spidey Sense tingle, perhaps due to a bass moving the water. 

[Skunkmaster-k]

I like idling my boat through coves at night with my spotlights pointing into the water. One time my son and I saw a largemouth swim under the boat that made my 9#er look small. We went back to that area over and over, but never saw her again. 

[Fishing_Rod]

Greetings All,

@WRB Thank You for sharing your experience and wisdom! I and others are grateful for your efforts to improve understanding with knowledge!

It is a new year and I've got my new annual fishing license. I've even actually managed to catch a few bass too! OK, nothing of size but all have been fun.

I hope to someday fish where the water is clear enough. For now, I'll emphasize the awareness aspect and how helpful that is to taunting bass. It is important to take inventory of what is before you and make the most of it along with the indicators.

When in my small kayak or even when approaching from shore, a modest survey before casting can be very telling to make the most of those initial casts.

Wishing all well for 2025, Cheers!

[papajoe222]

On 4/22/2020 at 6:41 PM, flyfisher said:

i agree completely.  The first thing I do when i get to a lilly pad field is sit and watch and listen.  I watch for lilly pads to move in a way that isn't normal

One of the lakes I fish has lily pads that extend out from shore 10-15yrds almost completely around the lake. In the summer, I'll watch, from just under a cast away,the pads for movement. If they won't respond to a frog or worm pulled over the tops of the pads, I'll give the spot a minute or two and toss a punch rig in there. I've been catching most of my big fish there doing just that. I'll slowly work my way around the lake stopping and watching. I may only catch four or five fish doing this, but when they are 4-5lb bass, I'm not complaining. I rarely see bass after the spawn is over.