What does that bite tell you?

[DoobieNaq]

I'd like to think that every bite helps tell me something about the fishing in that given situation.

 

Yesterday I was stumped. I was flipping/pitching/punching shallow cover on the banks of the canal (cut grass combined with hyacinth mats here in South Louisiana), and nearly every fish that bit would take the bait and run towards the boat in a hurry (before hookset). I'm assuming they were running to deeper water because there is very little, if any, cover in the canal (other than the bank area that I was fishing), but I did not get any bites out from the bank. The bites were only coming from baits dropped tight to cover or in the mats.

 

I'm not sure if those bites could have helped better my day with a lesson, but I definitely did not catch on. I missed a handful of bites and only landed 2. If it helps, it looked like the fish had spawned out and I did see a good bit of fry on the water in some clearer water canals (no bites in those). All bites came in stained water.

 

What should this have told me if anything?

[AlabamaSpothunter]

Fry ball guarders moving your bait away from the Fry is my guess.      

 

Fish a buzzbait around all those Fry balls and watch how many blow it up without eating it.        

 

I almost never see a Fry ball without a buck around the perimeter of it and usually a few feet deeper than the Fry.  

[Team9nine]

Could also be competition. If there are several bass around, the first one to get the bait often hightails it out of the area to try and get away from others. This could often be to open/deeper water away from the others holding on the same bank/cover. If so, it would tell me there is more than one bass in that area and I probably either need to work it slower and more thoroughly, or make a point of returning to the area and fishing it again after everything settled back down.

[LrgmouthShad]

Bass will run to deeper water for safety. They may have just wanted a less vulnerable place to enjoy their meal. In deeper water they are less exposed to any predators lining the shore or from above. I have observed bass hanging out under trees with dead branches and no leaves that overhang the water. This provides no cover under the surface nor shade from above. Why are they there? Perceived protection from airborne predators is my assumption.

[DoobieNaq]

Thanks for the responses.

 

I hadn't thought about competition, and I'm not sure that it was the case for me yesterday because I had so few bites (I would throw different follow up baits and nothing). However, I can definitely see it having been fry guarders taking the lure away from the fry or running to the deep after having found a snack. Whatever it was, it was giving me fits because I have never experienced so many fish coming straight at me after biting, but of course, it's not long that I've been punching/flipping. 

[Zcoker]

If I’m flipping, pitching, or punching they ain’t runnin anywhere! Your situation probably  should’ve told ya to tighten up on them when they bite.

[FishTax]

Yesterday I think we caught about 10 fish that had another one follow it to the boat trying to steal the bait out of it mouth. I'd seen it before but never so consistently. There were beds all around, some active some not. I wasn't sure what to make of that, but tried not to overthink it and just keep catching them until it turned off! 

Now looking back, I wonder if it was as simple as them feeding, or it was related to the spawn somehow? These were decent sized spotted bass 1.5-2.5 range for most of them who had the followers. 

[Pat Brown]

@FishTax The males usually grab the bait first around beds and often times wolf packs of females that have laid their eggs are hovering nearby and will become aggressive and commit to a bait that is in a males mouth in my experience.

[FishTax]

@Pat Brown that lines up because I'm pretty sure we were mostly catching males, and the ones chasing always looked bigger than the one hooked. I guess we should have backed up a bit to try to catch the ladies, but we were having fun with those male spots, they get fiesty when you pierce their lip!