will bass eat something they are not familiar with?

[Darth-Baiter]

okay okay..I get it.  hahaha

 

thanks.  Hellgammites it is!!

[Basser2021]

7 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Bass will eat anything. I saw somebody who used a 1/2” drill bit to make a plastic mold, Texas rigged it and caught a bass. And if a wacky senko gets bit, anything will. I do think that there are times where using a bait that resembles the local forage in looks and action can increase your odds, but I think bass will eat anything that looks like it could make a meal. 

I would agree with this

[Dirtyeggroll]

I think of a bass like a dog. You shake a toy in front of its face it’s gonna use it’s mouth to grab it. Sometimes it’ll come across the yard sometimes you really gotta get up close and rile them up.

[NorthernBasser]

Hearing "bass will eat anything", and then going out and getting skunked, sure is a nut shot to the 'ol ego. 

[Derek1]

1 hour ago, NorthernBasser said:

Hearing "bass will eat anything", and then going out and getting skunked, sure is a nut shot to the 'ol ego. 

Ain’t that the truth. 

[galyonj]

5 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

I witnessed a stonefly hatch in a cove on Lake Travis, a hundred bass sitting just below the surface, and you couldn't buy a stike. 

 

Sounds a lot like the last time I tried to fish a mayfly hatch.

[bulldog1935]

well no, I wasn't trying to fish the stonefly hatch, I was witnessing a phenomenon - the schooling bass were waiting for something exceptional. 

These are big insects that live underwater for 3 years, hatch without a mouth, breed and die - a huge abundance of fish food and activity in a few hours every 3 years. 

You've never seen anything like it - hundreds of bass milling just below the surface and waiting - it was the spectacle I was trying to describe, not the fishing. 

Fishing is easy - nature is freaking awesome if you can see past the fishing. 

 

[galyonj]

I get what you're saying.

 

I wasn't trying to fish a mayfly hatch so much as I was trying to fish and a mayfly hatch happened to me. lol

 

The sheer amount of mayfly carnage would have been fun to see if, as you mentioned, I had been able to see past the fact that it was in the way of my catching a fish. Bass and fish that bass would normally eat were shouldering each other out of the way to get at them.

 

It was a lot like people-watching at Golden Corral, now that I think about it.

[flyfisher]

I was talking to a guy atr a show once who is a world class river smallie angler and he basically said one thing you have to remember with bass and smallies in particular, if they get curious enough they don't have hands so the only way to check something out is to pick it up in their mouth.  This was in reference to winter fishing and going painfully slow and the impact scent makes in these situations.  I have taken that info to heart though and I do think it makes a difference.

 

So long answer to your question is yeah, they absolutely will.

[Boomstick]

If they can fit it in their mouths, bass will eat it.

 

Proof here:

[NorthernBasser]

Still one of my favorite pictures.

 

[Deleted account]

While it's never a bad idea to throw things that imitate or represent the forage species, bass will eat most any critter it encounters. We used to use killies (I think folks call them mummichogs and other things), goldfish, and fiddler crabs sometimes, and they all worked well, even though most bass never run across them where we fished them. I'm sure they don't run across 5" nightcrawlers often either, and they will eat that when they won't eat most other things.

22 hours ago, Choporoz said:

I couldn't get bit on Fat Ikas for the longest time.   Once live Ikas were introduced to the waters I fish, it was a whole new ball game.

If I see guys chucking spinnerbaits in the water, I'm blaming you...  

[PressuredFishing]

Bass are very opportunistic and left alone will eat anything that moves. 

 

Pressured fisheries and clear water seem to create more wary selective fish, but that's environmental and not behavioral.

[Darth-Baiter]

I just saw the Depps Scat bait in person.  

 

I should delete this thread.  bass apparently will eat even a moving turd.  

[galyonj]

1 hour ago, Darth-Baiter said:

I just saw the Depps Scat bait in person.  

 

I should delete this thread.  bass apparently will eat even a moving turd.  

 

I mean we have empirical evidence that bass with eat both small and large blocks of wood. After that I'm not even sure a conversation about what bass will or won't eat is worth having outside of the fact that it's funny.

[WRB]

If bass will eat anything how do you feel when you can’t catch one on everything you try?

Yes bass eat a lot strange critters at times but not that often.

Using artificial lures that resemble something the bass are keyed in on like crawdad, shad or frogs you up your odds exponentially.

Tom

 

[MN Fisher]

18 minutes ago, WRB said:

Using artificial lures that resemble something the bass are keyed in on like crawdad, shad or frogs you up your odds exponentially.

Which is why most of my lures imitate Bluegill, Pumpkinseed or Perch....those are predominate prey up here.

[Jar11591]

1 hour ago, MN Fisher said:

Which is why most of my lures imitate Bluegill, Pumpkinseed or Perch....those are predominate prey up here.

I catch bass on baits that resemble all sorts of things, and baits that resemble nothing. But I always have a little boost of confidence when I have a yellow perch patterned bait tied on. 

[steve carpenter]

Used to fish hellgrammites on the Lampassas River in Central TX and caught bass and channel catfish using them on a fly rod. Would find them under rocks. The hellgrammite's will bite.

[Fallser]

15 hours ago, galyonj said:

I wasn't trying to fish a mayfly hatch so much as I was trying to fish and a mayfly hatch happened to me. lol

 

The sheer amount of mayfly carnage would have been fun to see if, as you mentioned, I had been able to see past the fact that it was in the way of my catching a fish. Bass and fish that bass would normally eat were shouldering each other out of the way to get at them.

 

It was a lot like people-watching at Golden Corral, now that I think about it.

That's why I always have a fly rod with me in the boat.  The trick is to fish a small minnow or bait fish lure just below the surface or even a small popper on top.  Even though the bass may be focused on the mayflies they will hit lures or flies that imitate their normal prey. 

[RDB]

They will absolutely hit anything you throw in Texas waters…the stranger the better.  If you don’t have any luck after a trip or two, it means there are no fish in that lake and you are better off never going back.  I have done a lot of the work already and would be happy to provide a list of lakes that you should never visit.

[Darth-Baiter]

hahahah...and this looks just like a what exactly?

 

[@reelChris]

On 8/15/2022 at 4:07 PM, Mobasser said:

Bass strike things out of curiosity also. 

 

Last week I watched a school of juvenile bass, about 7" long that were suspended about 1' below the surface.  They were so aggressive, they were coming up and biting my braided line floating on the surface.  

[schplurg]

They seem to bite anything except what I have with me that day.