Are There Times When Fish Just Don't Bite?

[A-Jay]

5 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Bass eat twice a day.  Before I get to the lake, and after I leave.  What I can't figure out is how do they know when I am there?

I call them.

Sorry.

A-Jay

[AlabamaSpothunter]

13 minutes ago, king fisher said:

Bass eat twice a day.  Before I get to the lake, and after I leave.  What I can't figure out is how do they know when I am there?

?

 

Yet the Monkey is always hungry......why do we have to live in such a universe?

[WRB]

Yes, there are times when bass are inactive and these bass can’t be caught. During any 24 hour period bass are active feeding about 20% of that time period, the same bass is also inactive about 20% of the time. The balance 60% that bass is transitions between being very active, active then neutral followed by becoming inactive. You can easily catch very active feeding bass, active bass are catchable on a wide variety and of lures and bait. Neutral bass require the lure to be close to them, not willing to case it. Inactive bass are in a resting/ sleep mod, not interested in eating.

Each activity level is in constant changing cycles during the 24 hour period and every lake developed it’s own rhythm of activity.

It’s up to each angler to figure out how to locate and catch those active bass...it’s called fishing.

Tom

[geo g]

Yes not all bass are active and willing to chase baits all day long.  But not all bass are inactive at the same time.  During less active times, location becomes more and more important.  A neutral mood may produce a strike if the bait is put in close proximity to it's location during this time.  Pitching and flipping often produce these bites in their comfort zone.    Bass will not stop eating for long, so search out actively eating bass willing to chase a bait, or go find where they are resting and produce a bite by dropping a bait in their comfort zone, and make it easy for them.  

[Tom Orr]

In any tournament on any lake, someone somewhere is catching something. 

[WRB]

To clarify bass behavior they act as individuals, not a school fish, each bass has it’s own rhythm. However....bass often group up to take advantage of prey fish, that group is on it’s own rhythm triggered by a feeding opportunity.

Yes someone somewhere landed on active bass, it could be you if you spend the time on the water to determine when and where to fish or just get lucky.

Tom

 

[TriStateBassin106]

Yes, and it's always in the colder weather for me, I tried my pond today and didn't catch anything for 3 hours, but then again it's the middle of February here in NJ the water temps I took read 43 degrees in the most shallow part of the lake. So imagine how cold it is out in deeper water? Those fish are glued to the bottom lol. 

[WRB]

I imagine it’s warmer.

Tom

[Catt]

Wonder what bass got interviewed to get these percentages?

 

Just because a bass isn't in the process of actually chewing its food how do we know it's active or inactive?

 

If they're suspended or sitting on the bottom how can one tell if they're active or not?

 

Guess all this is above my pay grade.

[txchaser]

I got a great lesson in inactive fish this weekend, was on a friends livescope all day long. Mostly ignoring a-rigs and jerkbaits. Like I'm staring right at you, and you aren't behaving like a catfish or a gar. BITE IT DANGIT! I just never really understood how many of these fish are around. 49-50 degree water so that didn't help... but yeah. Went to school. 

 

The neutral ones sometimes you could coax into a follow. 

 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

4 minutes ago, txchaser said:

I got a great lesson in inactive fish this weekend, was on a friends livescope all day long. Mostly ignoring a-rigs and jerkbaits. Like I'm staring right at you, and you aren't behaving like a catfish or a gar. BITE IT DANGIT! I just never really understood how many of these fish are around. 49-50 degree water so that didn't help... but yeah. Went to school. 

 

The neutral ones sometimes you could coax into a follow. 

 

That's the main reason I want it, I want to be able to throw a bait on fish I currently easily find on downscan/clearvu, but outside of something like dropping a Damaki rig on them, I'm not getting a picture of their feeding posture.    

 

That said if bait is very close by, and especially if you see the fish suspended among bait, those fish are usually catchable I've finally discovered even in very deep water.

 

I want to know how to lure the inactive or nuetral fish lingering in 25-30ft of water.  

[txchaser]

7 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

 

I want to know how to lure the inactive or nuetral fish lingering in 25-30ft of water.  

lmk when you find out. only think I can think of that I didn't try was ticking them off with a deep crank, fast stop and go, tactical bassin style. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

3 minutes ago, txchaser said:

lmk when you find out. only think I can think of that I didn't try was ticking them off with a deep crank, fast stop and go, tactical bassin style. 

Lol, that darn tactical crank is one of the few baits I've bought because of Matt and Tim that hasn't delivered in a major way.    I've perhaps fished that bait more than any other one this winter without catching a single fish or getting a bite.    

 

I think ole' Jones and the Ivie crew using mainly the odd Swim jig config. or occasional A-rig is a big key to catching them it seems.    He talked about it in a recent interview IIrc.   

[txchaser]

9 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

 

I think ole' Jones and the Ivie crew using mainly the odd Swim jig config. or occasional A-rig is a big key to catching them it seems.    He talked about it in a recent interview IIrc. 

That swim jig is really hard to see on FFS. Like I need another level of casting skill and FFS finagling skill to do it. Probably could have pushed on it harder though.

[Swamp Girl]

On 2/20/2023 at 12:43 PM, Gera said:

Yes there is, every time I'm out. 

 

Please notify me when you aren't fishing, okay? I  figure the times you aren't fishing are when they are biting. Thanks so much!

[TOXIC]

12 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

That's the main reason I want it, I want to be able to throw a bait on fish I currently easily find on downscan/clearvu, but outside of something like dropping a Damaki rig on them, I'm not getting a picture of their feeding posture.    

 

That said if bait is very close by, and especially if you see the fish suspended among bait, those fish are usually catchable I've finally discovered even in very deep water.

 

I want to know how to lure the inactive or nuetral fish lingering in 25-30ft of water.  

Sneak peak.  I caught a striper out of this school.  You can see my line in both graphs. 

[gim]

Since the OP didn't specifically refer to bass fishing, I am going to reply with my experiences of when catching nothing happens quite often.

 

1) muskie fishing.  Most outings do not yield a fish.  On occasion they produce a follow or two, and every once in a while you catch one.  Multiple fish in one outing is rare.  Even if @T-Billy got on them like stink on a monkey last fall.

 

2) ice fishing.  Most ice anglers are not willing to move regularly to stay on active fish because its a lot of energy and effort.  So they just plant in one spot over dead water and wait for a very lethargic fish in cold water to show up and bite.

 

Specifically referring to bass, tournament results are a great example.  Its very rare that no one catches any bass.  @Team9nine example is one of those rare failures.

[KSanford33]

12 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Since the OP didn't specifically refer to bass fishing, I am going to reply with my experiences of when catching nothing happens quite often.

 

1) muskie fishing.  Most outings do not yield a fish.  On occasion they produce a follow or two, and every once in a while you catch one.  Multiple fish in one outing is rare.  Even if @T-Billy got on them like stink on a monkey last fall.

 

2) ice fishing.  Most ice anglers are not willing to move regularly to stay on active fish because its a lot of energy and effort.  So they just plant in one spot over dead water and wait for a very lethargic fish in cold water to show up and bite.

 

Specifically referring to bass, tournament results are a great example.  Its very rare that no one catches any bass.  @Team9nine example is one of those rare failures.

It's funny you referenced other species. I fished in my first bass tournament last year and couldn't get on a bass bite to save my life. However, I was catching a bunch of perch, so despite the fact that I was tied for DFL along with everyone else who didn't catch a bass, I still had a great time on the water.

[Darth-Baiter]

I think a bass will always eat/bite something.  nothing I own sometimes..but they will bite something.  

 

 

[RDB]

While I’m in agreement with the concept of active/inactive bass, I personally don’t buy in to the popular belief that “inactive bass” are uncatchable.  Bass bite for a variety of reasons and hunger is only one.  Bed fishing is an easy example to visualize because we can often see the response.  The vast majority of those bass are not active or neutral, yet we still catch them.  Sometimes it may take slapping the bass across the face with the lure to trigger a response.  Granted, a bedded fish is somewhat of a “captive audience” which affords us the time to work the bass, but IMO that doesn’t change the fact that we can elicit a response driven by something other than hunger.  The same non hunger reaction is also likely true for some neutral/inactive bass caught when banging your lure off of a bush, ripping it out of vegetation, banging it off a dock post, etc.  I also believe where they are spending their inactive periods may influence their catchability.  It may be more difficult to elicit a non-hunger response from an inactive bass suspended in open water v. one with their belly in the dirt, in the center of a brush pile, etc.  I don’t believe all (or even a moderate percentage) of inactive bass are catchable at any given time but IMO, the overall uncatchability of inactive bass is shorthand for I had a bad day on the water, so it had to be something other than my approach.

 

I’m with @Catt on this one…there are always fish willing to bite somewhere whether it be hunger, anger, curiosity, opportunity, etc.  I would also suggest that a much larger percentage of our catches than we give credit to are represented by bass that were in a more neutral or non active mood.  We see it everyday when we fish behind other boats or even as co-anglers in the same boat.  I believe advancements is forward facing sonar are proving that many bass that might have previously been considered “uncatchable” are in fact potentially catchable under the right conditions and presentations.  Just my opinions.

[stratos4me]

It's always possible to get a bite. The issue is probability.

[WRB]

When I put together The Cosmic Clock and Bass Calendar in 1974 the data and observations are my own based on my experience at that time. Many of the terms have been adopted todays bass fishing jargon. Most are simply common sense.

My background isn’t fish biology it’s aerospace engineering based on critical thinking to solve problems, it’s how I am wired.

Bass fishing is a passion not a vocation.

I grew up fishing and working on bait landings allowing me to observe bass behavior. 
When I say inactive bass will not strike a lure or live bait it’s based on hundreds of hours trying to get inactive bass I could see clearly being non reactive no matter what I tried. Same bass a few hours later would attack nearly anything dropped in it’s area because that bass was know active.

I made the same behavior over 2 decades in several lakes and very clear quarry lakes. Lakes in San Diego and several local lakes plus lakes across the country. 

Tom