Active vs Not Active ?

[WRB]

Back in 1974 I was asked to do a bass seminar as a result I set down and wrote my Cosmic Clock and Bass Behavior Calendar to demonstrate my beliefs at that time.

Having spent a lot of time watching big bass behave in the wild it was clear to me individual bass behave as individuals, not always group behavior.

I broke down activity levels in 5 categories ranging from very active to very inactive. The basics are active, neutral and inactive. The very active and inactive defines short time periods at those levels.Think of a very inactive bass as in deep sleep and very active as a aggressive.

What I observed when a bass is very inactive you drop a live bait in front of it with no reaction it doesn’t move. A inactive bass may turn and swim away of just back up slowly indicating it knew the live bait was there. A neutral bass increase it’s fin movement and looks at crawdad with some interest, continuing to move the live bait may get the bass to swim towards and sometimes strikes. The active bass reacts to the live with body movement and moves toward the crawdad and strikes it. The very active reacts instantly striking the crawdad before it reaches the bottom.

To put this into perspective all those behaviors occurs from the same bass the same day. 

Timing active periods results in catching more bass. Figuring out the lakes rhythm requires a lot of time on the water.

Tom

[BassNJake]

When pattern fishing its always about active fish.

I've got lots of brush piles waypointed.

They all hold bait and larger fish(sonar)

 

Based on my experience the active brush piles are the ones where I get bit fairly quickly and I can get bit using multiple different baits. (I'll fish a shakey head and my partner a jig)

The inactive ones they dont bite quickly and it takes 30 casts to figure out what they might bite.

 

I became a 100 times better fisherman when I started running brush pile to brush pile looking for the quicker bite. Instead of trying to convince an inactive, neutral, not hungry and/or lazy fish to eat

 

You could substitute ledge, point, hump and drop off for brush pile.

 

 

[Mobasser]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

Back in 1974 I was asked to do a bass seminar as a result I set down and wrote my Cosmic Clock and Bass Behavior Calendar to demonstrate my beliefs at that time.

Having spent a lot of time watching big bass behave in the wild it was clear to me individual bass behave as individuals, not always group behavior.

I broke down activity levels in 5 categories ranging from very active to very inactive. The basics are active, neutral and inactive. The very active and inactive defines short time periods at those levels.Think of a very inactive bass as in deep sleep and very active as a aggressive.

What I observed when a bass is very inactive you drop a live bait in front of it with no reaction it doesn’t move. A inactive bass may turn and swim away of just back up slowly indicating it knew the live bait was there. A neutral bass increase it’s fin movement and looks at crawdad with some interest, continuing to move the live bait may get the bass to swim towards and sometimes strikes. The active bass reacts to the live with body movement and moves toward the crawdad and strikes it. The very active reacts instantly striking the crawdad before it reaches the bottom.

To put this into perspective all those behaviors occurs from the same bass the same day. 

Timing active periods results in catching more bass. Figuring out the lakes rhythm requires a lot of time on the water.

Tom

Tom, I think this is what it's all about. Timing. We can never know the perfect time without some time put in on a certain lake. Even then, you can be off. There's too many factors involved for us. 30 yrs ago, a winning tournament fisherman would say" I caught my fish on a buzzbait in shallow water. Now, it's, I drew reaction strikes from active bass in shallow water. I think every strike is a reaction strike. Even if a fish studies your bait for forty seconds first. When she decides to strike, she reacts. Some of this terminology confuses people. I know it's confused me a few times over the years.

This year, I've been trying for big bass. In this scenario, timing is everything.

[Team9nine]

On 4/19/2022 at 2:04 PM, A-Jay said:

Still have hard water here - I'm letting my mind wander.

More than usual I mean . . . . .

Spawned out of another current thread regarding bass fishing 'off shore'. 

 

'Opportunistic feeders' is a term we hear quite a bit.

What does that even mean, and who decided this ?

How did they figure this out ?

At no point do I ever feel like I 'fooled' a bass into eating.

I present a bait, the decision of whether she eats it or not has very little to do with me. 

In my mind, when it comes to feeding, bass that can't figure out where to be and when, in order to survive, don't. 

 

Sort of goes along with the term 'confused'.

I've heard many an 'expert' say where the conditions have the bass confused - Really ?

Yea, I'm not buying that one either. 

We all know who's confused here and it ain't the bass. 

 

A-Jay

 

'Opportunistic feeder' is just a biological term for generalist predator, which is defined as "an animal (that) feeds on a wide variety of prey and is able to adapt to whatever food becomes available." I would argue that use/meaning outside of that context by anglers is either misleading or inappropriate. Studies back this up; for example, when smallmouth and largemouth inhabit the same body of water, LMB typically show 3X the variety of species consumed in comparison to SMB, which appear to be much more selective or focused on single prey items, especially in goby inhabited environs.

 

Ralph Manns, biologist and longtime bass writer, sides with your argument about not 'fooling' a bass into eating your bait, and has long argued against what we typically call 'reaction strikes.' He states, “When anglers talk about a reaction strike, they’re really describing a feeding reaction. It’s not in their genetic makeup to get aggravated with a lure, unless they’re defending a spawning bed. They may display territorial behavior, but that’s solely when interacting with other fish."

“To strike effectively, bass often must react quickly to nearby prey,” he says. “In that situation, fast-moving or erratic lures may work best. But it’s still a feeding response. If the fish bites, the angler has succeeded in fooling it into mistakenly biting a fake. When weather conditions or prey abundance improve feeding opportunities, active lures score and results often are spectacular.” (from an In-Fisherman writeup)

 

Again, looking at diet studies, bass, especially largemouth, frequently have empty stomachs, usually 45-55% of the time in most of those studies. The other half of the time there is something there, but in various states of decomposition. Split evenly, it would suggest that 3/4 of the time, a bass is either hungry or getting hungry, which might then lead to the various 'levels of activity' others have mentioned, especially when combined with 'opportunity' such as optimal weather patterns, water conditions, or bait/prey abundance (large-scale or random/intermittent).

 

Interestingly, and somewhat in support of this argument, is one study that shows that triggering neauromast cells (components of the lateral line) on the face of a bass can elicit a feeding 'bite' even when food isn't within reach or physically available, but it was within site (partitioned through glass) where the bass could see it. However, they couldn't elicit the same response to bass that were either frightened or well-fed, suggesting again that even this 'reaction strike' to a water pulse is primarily triggered by an anticipation of feeding (intention), or 'hunger' on the part of the fish.  

[MN Fisher]

22 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

'Opportunistic feeder' is just a biological term for generalist predator, which is defined as "an animal (that) feeds on a wide variety of prey and is able to adapt to whatever food becomes available."

Ya... I much prefer 'ambush predator'

 

Bass aren't built for the long chase - they're like tigers in that respect. They'll wait at ambush points and leap out at prey that stray too close to the bass' hiding spot

 

Pike and Muskie, on the other hand, are chase predators...like cheetahs. They will run down prey.

[A-Jay]

24 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

'Opportunistic feeder' is just a biological term for generalist predator, which is defined as "an animal (that) feeds on a wide variety of prey and is able to adapt to whatever food becomes available." I would argue that use/meaning outside of that context by anglers is either misleading or inappropriate. Studies back this up; for example, when smallmouth and largemouth inhabit the same body of water, LMB typically show 3X the variety of species consumed in comparison to SMB, which appear to be much more selective or focused on single prey items, especially in goby inhabited environs.

 

Ralph Manns, biologist and longtime bass writer, sides with your argument about not 'fooling' a bass into eating your bait, and has long argued against what we typically call 'reaction strikes.' He states, “When anglers talk about a reaction strike, they’re really describing a feeding reaction. It’s not in their genetic makeup to get aggravated with a lure, unless they’re defending a spawning bed. They may display territorial behavior, but that’s solely when interacting with other fish."

“To strike effectively, bass often must react quickly to nearby prey,” he says. “In that situation, fast-moving or erratic lures may work best. But it’s still a feeding response. If the fish bites, the angler has succeeded in fooling it into mistakenly biting a fake. When weather conditions or prey abundance improve feeding opportunities, active lures score and results often are spectacular.” (from an In-Fisherman writeup)

 

Again, looking at diet studies, bass, especially largemouth, frequently have empty stomachs, usually 45-55% of the time in most of those studies. The other half of the time there is something there, but in various states of decomposition. Split evenly, it would suggest that 3/4 of the time, a bass is either hungry or getting hungry, which might then lead to the various 'levels of activity' others have mentioned, especially when combined with 'opportunity' such as optimal weather patterns, water conditions, or bait/prey abundance (large-scale or random/intermittent).

 

Interestingly, and somewhat in support of this argument, is one study that shows that triggering neauromast cells (components of the lateral line) on the face of a bass can elicit a feeding 'bite' even when food isn't within reach or physically available, but it was within site (partitioned through glass) where the bass could see it. However, they couldn't elicit the same response to bass that were either frightened or well-fed, suggesting again that even this 'reaction strike' to a water pulse is primarily triggered by an anticipation of feeding (intention), or 'hunger' on the part of the fish.  

Thank you for taking the time to offer such a thorough and informative response.  And while I can get with just about all of that, I have admit that I don't feel incline to need to change anything; with my mind set, perspective or approach.

Hope this doesn't come back to haunt me. 

A-Jay

[RDB]

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

I would argue that use/meaning outside of that context by anglers is either misleading or inappropriate.

Call it what you want…opening, window, option, situation, blah, blah blah…it’s just semantics.  People should try to consider the context and not try to break apart every word.  The point was some neutral (non active) bass may be caught is if an easy opportunity (opening, window, etc.) is present.  That is neither inappropriate nor misleading.

[WRB]

Sometimes situations happen that throws a curve ball at you.

Lake Casitas is a good example regarding timing and LMB feeding habits. The active bite widow at Casitas has always been short about 20 minutes every 3 - 4 hours. Why? Who knows but it’s been that way for decades.

When the rainbow trout plants stopped abruptly do to environmental impact report claimed hatchery raised trout threatened native Steelhead trout survival in California. By court order the trout plants stopped in all SoCal reservoirs with a history of Steelhead migrations.

The giant bass or big bass populations crashed at Casitas as a direct result. The reason the big bass stopped feeding and starved even though the lakes Threadfin shad, crappie, Red ear sunfish young of the year bass and carp were available.

The big and giant bass lived on planted trout selectively ignoring the other prey. Why? No one has the answer. LMB aren’t thought as selective predators. My guess is the Casitas bass used more energy trying to feed on small prey with low protein that could sustain their needs. However it was very difficult to catch those starving bass with lures, they only ate live shad.  

When you think you know these green fish they prove we don’t.

Today Casitas is returned to it’s normal 20 minute active cycles with very few big bass DD bass caught annually.

Tom

[Catt]

39 minutes ago, WRB said:

When you think you know these green fish they prove we don’t.

 

 

[crypt]

I'm inactive until I hear the fridge open.............then it's on.........same as fish....

[geo g]

Throughout the day bass have feeding and non feeding times.  Even in cold water they will feed if the bait presents itself in their personal space.  I will change up my approach with even the same bait until I find something they want at that time.  I will go from ripping baits, to a slow bottom pull, and everything in between.  More often they are hunkered down close to the bottom where they feel safe.  You just need some patience to get bit!

[Zcoker]

Rick Clunn suggested the same thing a very long time ago: throughout a day bass respond in "flurries" and how one handles these flurries, or how one is prepared for these flurries, can determine direct and positive outcomes. I certainly agree with this because I see this more and more, like clockwork, the fish turn on and are literally biting everywhere. Then, as suddenly, the bite stops until another dinner bell goes off few hours later. It's like a voice yelling underwater, saying "time to bite!" lol Being ready for these flurries, being staged, cocked, and ready to go can make a MASSIVE difference. 

[A-Jay]

3 hours ago, geo g said:

Throughout the course of a day or even a week, bass have feeding and non feeding times.  Even in cold water they will feed if the bait presents itself in their personal space.  I will change up my approach with even the same bait until I find something they want at that time.  I will go from ripping baits, to a slow bottom pull, and everything in between.  More often they are hunkered down close to the bottom where they feel safe.  You just need some patience to get bit!

Changed that one for you.

A-Jay

[Catt]

While these a fun subjects to discuss, they're not something I dwell on or even consider when leaving the house. 

 

 

[N Florida Mike]

2 hours ago, Catt said:

While these a fun subjects to discuss, they're not something I dwell on or even consider when leaving the house. 

 

 

Yeah. Those that consider too much end up not going…

[Zcoker]

3 hours ago, Catt said:

While these a fun subjects to discuss, they're not something I dwell on or even consider when leaving the house. 

 

 

 

 

Nothing wrong with "just going fishing" and not considering much of anything. Heck, I've done that plenty of times lol Yet it wasn't' until I started planning subjects like this out thoroughly that I started to get way ahead in the game. Case in point about a week ago, this one particular spot has a golden hour at about 4:30am. No matter what, the bass ignite at that time in this one spot. Miss it and miss the fish. Well, I missed the golden hour one morning but made darn sure I got there the following morning and caught a fish pushing 8lbs plus a bunch of other nice ones. Sure enough, after about 15 minutes, the bite died, just like always. And every time thereafter that I make it on time, there's always some nice ones waiting! 

 

 

[Harold Scoggins]

On 4/19/2022 at 6:04 PM, A-Jay said:

Active vs Not Active 

Hey A-Jay, long time no see! (Had family Covid issues.) We're not active here because of the wind. Every time I think I can launch my Yaks I'm looking at 25-30 mph winds. (Typical Oklahoma spring.)

[A-Jay]

I'm calling the activity level 'low' during my most recent two trips.

Can't speak for the whole lake as I didn't fish it all.

But I certainly tried !

#castmyarmsoff

A-Jay

[BassNJake]

On 4/22/2022 at 5:10 AM, Catt said:

While these a fun subjects to discuss, they're not something I dwell on or even consider when leaving the house. 

 

 

What about fishing offshore for a morning bite?

 

 

[gulfcaptain]

I did really good last year targeting suspended fish with live sonar. Were they active? I don't know but if I got their attention and they choose to eat what I present to them then obviously they were active enough to take advantage of a feeding opportunity. We seem to put a lot of thought into what fish think.  I walk by my fish tank my fish are instantly  "active" although moments before they weren't.  Present a fish with the right feeding opportunity  it will be active.  

[Boomstick]

I was just down in North Carolina last week. All the fish I found in the southern portion of the lake were on beds and would not hit anything. Others who fished a tournament on the same lake told me they had the same experience. As I hit the middle of the lake, I started finding more "active" bass. Regardless of location, most of the bass were on points whether it was bedding fish or "active" fish.

 

I wish I had another day or two on the water, but I'm fairly proud of how well I found the bass this trip.