Stunning

[Mobasser]

Over the years, I've read and heard about bass hitting a bait first to stun it, then attacking again to eat it.                I've never learned if this is a fact. Many predators of all kinds do this. Frog fishing is an example. I've had many bass swat frogs over thick cover, and totally miss them.         When the frog gets over an opening, they smack it hard. Over open water, the bait is clearly visible, and, an easy target for the bass.                Fishing a frog over large thick areas, I've had cast that got two or three hits from bass that missed the frog, or we're not committed to eating it, and I have no way of knowing if it's the same fish or not? And, we know that bass are curious by nature, and at times will strike at most anything they think is an easy meal.                    Has it been proven that bass will try to stun and injure something first, before they fully commit to eating it?

[Swamp Girl]

I wish I could help, but I don't know. I have had many bass hit a lure more than once and the first hit was light and the second was a wallop. 

[Mike L]

I don’t know how it would be possible to prove it with any sense of accuracy.

 

It sure seems that way and anyone who throws a frog for any amount of time sees it happen. 
What’s more telling is the come back. 
Compare your initial hit without hooking up and then nothing or they keep coming back. 
To me when they come up and throw it 2ft in air it’s either trying to kill or play with it. 
 

 

 

 

Mike

[Pat Brown]

Bass also hit a lure to determine if it is food and learn very very fast to recognize items that are not food and don't need to be hooked and caught to do this.

 

Bass hit a lure out of curiosity a lot and many bass learn to temper their aggressive nature with some hard earned caution.

 

Welcome to fishing pressure (that sometimes WE put on our own fish!)

 

Try a senko when they swat the frog!

 

For what it's worth I HAVE definitely had bass swat it and I keep the bait moving and then they fully commit or engulf it (OR what may be happening is a school is engaged and one fish was more cautious and the next taker was less sheepish)

[TnRiver46]

I fish live shad a lot

 

It certainly happens occasionally, so that makes it a fact. But it most certainly doesn’t happen every single time. Bass don’t follow human rules 

 

walleye and stripers do it somewhat regularly on a night time shad spawn. Old timers will tell you to set the hook when you hear the second splash 

[Swamp Girl]

2 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Try a senko when they swat the frog!

 

I always have a Senko ready for a follow-up cast. 

[gim]

5 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

Try a senko when they swat the frog!

 

That would be my strategy too.  When they miss, follow up with something else.  The chances of getting the same fish to bite is higher on a new presentation.  Its very easy to just toss the same lure back there right away but it takes more mental will power to put that lure down, pick up another one, and cast that instead.

 

I always do this when I get a muskie to follow but they don't strike.  They are far more likely to strike a new presentation than the one they just followed in on.

[fin]

6 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Bass also hit a lure to determine if it is food and learn very very fast to recognize items that are not food and don't need to be hooked and caught to do this.

I think this is mostly it. I fish a highly pressured spot where schools of shad come in and schools of bass ambush them. When there's multiple bass, they'll bite almost anything without hesitation out of greed and fear that someone else is going to get their shad. When there are single bass, they will often bump the lure. I think sometimes they also just run at it to see how the lure/target reacts. It's not often that I see shad floating, but it does happen. The shad will jump up onto the rip rap to get away (where there are water snakes waiting), so I don't know if they are stunned or just injured trying to get away.

 

The frog/topwater slapping thing is different behavior, I believe. That's a mystery to me. We know they can suck a bait under, so why slap it out of the water? What are they trying to do? It seems like defensive behavior, like they could be trying to stun it, but not necessarily to eat.

6 hours ago, Pat Brown said:

Try a senko when they swat the frog!

Yeah, so whatever the fish is doing when it's swatting, it's telling me, "I'm right here, throw something different!"

[Team9nine]

Proven? Maybe anecdotally, but I would think it is the rare exception instead of the norm, possibly a learned behavior unique to a specific fishery. Hard to prove anything out in the field, but in the lab, you get some more defined answers that would suggest a more benign answer than an intentional stun or slap when talking about largemouth bass. For example, in the case of frog fishing:

 

 

Jimmy (Fish Code Studios) has some of the best slow motion videos with scientific analysis behind them. Worth taking a few minutes and browsing the old video list (there's not a ton of them, and all are short). 

[txchaser]

While I can't speak to the frog issue, I do know for sure that crawling a big swimbait on the bottom you can't set the hook on the first thump, gotta just keep reeling. Story is that the bass is knocking it into the bottom to stun it. Maybe true, maybe not, but if I swing on the first thump I usually come back with nothing. 

[Zcoker]

I've seen that with topwater baits. The baits will completely miss the mouth and end up on the side of the face or the belly area, which could mean that they slapped it first to stun it. I've also had hits where they knock the bait completely out of the water yards into the air. That could also mean that they hit it to stun it. All in all, it's certainly a possibility. 

[gim]

Last month, I heard reports on a smallmouth bite that anglers were catching more brown bass using a crayfish imitation if they removed the pinchers.  I could definitely see a smallmouth avoiding the pinchers on crayfish if they were able to.  Would like like your primary food source pinching you in the face?  Of course not.  My point is that they might initially stun the crayfish first to avoid getting pinched, and then go back to eat it.

[Mobasser]

2 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Last month, I heard reports on a smallmouth bite that anglers were catching more brown bass using a crayfish imitation if they removed the pinchers.  I could definitely see a smallmouth avoiding the pinchers on crayfish if they were able to.  Would like like your primary food source pinching you in the face?  Of course not.  My point is that they might initially stun the crayfish first to avoid getting pinched, and then go back to eat it.

I've caught LM on craw baits with only one pincher. It actually outfishes a friend's crawfish bait with two pinchers. Things that are weak or wounded get picked off first. I think the fish see it as an easier meal.

[scaleface]

12 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Last month, I heard reports on a smallmouth bite that anglers were catching more brown bass using a crayfish imitation if they removed the pinchers.  I could definitely see a smallmouth avoiding the pinchers on crayfish if they were able to.  Would like like your primary food source pinching you in the face?  Of course not.  My point is that they might initially stun the crayfish first to avoid getting pinched, and then go back to eat it.

I've heard too that but am a little skeptical . Bass love crawdads and not many crawdads out there without pincers. 

[gim]

8 minutes ago, scaleface said:

not many crawdads out there without pincers. 

 

I agree, which is why one without them might be more appealing.

 

Its only an anecdotal theory.  @Mobasser seems to have actually experienced it at one point.

[Dwight Hottle]

I know for a fact that lake trout will hit a lure by ramming it with their heads. While trolling T-60 flat fish we often snagged trout in the head between the eyes. They were ramming the bait before eating it. After stunning it they turn around & eat it. We also learned to give slack after the first hit because a second hit or actual bite was coming. Dolphins will ram a shark to kill it as will other saltwater fish that try to stun a bait before eating it. So yes it is entirely possible that bass would hit a bait first to stun it. Especially a trolled bait or steadily retrieved bait as opposed to a slowly fished bait like a worm. 

[Spankey]

Very common when I’m fishing soft plastics. Especially craws, tubes, grubs and creatures. 

[Jig Man]

A friend took me winter bass fishing on his local river.  We stripped and used a seine to catch the bait (minnows).  I would get a bite,set the hook and come up with nothing.

 

His advice was when you get a bite wait the bass will take the minnow in its mouth, kill it, spit it out then suck it back in.  That’s when you set the hook.  I don’t know if his theory was correct or not but the practice was spot on.  

[Bigbox99]

I don't know but when I was fishing the Gilly 110 at night I would get two sharp little taps on my line and if I kept reeling nothing happened.  I always assumed it was a tiny fish messing with the bait.  Then I started pausing the bait when I felt the tiny taps to let the bait turn on its side and fall and then seeing if the bait was heavy.  Everytime I did this I got a 6+ lb fish.  I assume they were crushing the bait with their jaws and then scooping it up head 1st to avoid the spines.  Not that this bait had any.

[Bankbeater]

It happens more during the spring and fall around here.  You'll be working a jig or a plastic bait along the bottom and feel one good thump.  If you kill the action and let it sit, within maybe 5 seconds or so, that bass will come back and start swimming off with the bait.  If you continue to work the bait after the thump, then no more bites.