Bedding Bass

[Gatorbassman]

I wasn't trying to sound that way. I was just shocked by what I was reading. I didn't want some of the newer fishermen to get confused.

Let me give a little history about my fishing and then maybe I can shed a little light on this issue.

I am 30 years old and I am lucky enough to have a job that allows me to fish 3 to 5 days a week and about 50 weeks out of the year. I have been guiding small lakes for trophy bass seven years now so you won't see me pulling a 20ft bass boat with my truck. I guide in a 14ft jon boat. I am currently working on a book about bass fishing small ponds and lakes less than 1000 acres.

Now according to a good friend of mine who is a fisheries biologist and an expert on bass behavior, bass are "territorial" only during the spawning period. If they were territorial the rest of the time we would be using lures that look more like something that is threatening to a bass and less like something it wants to eat. After the spawning period a bass has the need to school up in groups of 3 to as many as 50 fish or more. They will school in deeper water with other fish that are close to there size and move up when they need to feed. This is called their feeding migration. When they reach their desired feeding depth or area they will scatter to feed. The shallower they feed the more they tend to scatter. Giving the impression that they are alone. So a school of 20 bass could be feeding in an area as small as your kitchen table or as large as an acre. The way that bassmaster is describing bedding sounds like an ambush point. This is place that a bass chooses to ambush his prey. Allot of times it is a small open area next to whatever thick cover or shade it is hiding in. Many times, especially in grass and around laydowns, this open area is an old bed that was made during the spawn. This may give the impression that the bass is on the bed. Once again I am sorry if I came accross a little harsh on bassmaster.

[lateral_lines]

Is it just me or does alandis311 look alot like a chain pickeral.

[BassMaster]

ok, well i'll tell you a little about myself too (since i haven't yet). i'm 19 years old, been fishing for basically 19 years. always learning new things, but one thing that i'm still trying to figure out is this topic. now i understand that bass bed during spawning season... but the largestbass i caught was 8 1/2 pounds in the middle of July in about 2 feet of water. there are also many other big bass in that pond (the one i go fishing at a lot) that will do the exact same thing. now whenever a small fish, i.e. bream or crappie, get close to the bass, the bass will chase them off, not trying to eat it or anything. but the way i caught that 8 1/2 pound bass was actually by a crappie. i caught a crappie about 6 inches long and threw it in front of the bass. the bass CHASED it around for about 5 minutes and finally got ticked to the point that it went after the crappie and ate it, thus allowing me to catch it. that kinda confused me a little bit about the word "bedding" b/c the bass wasn't trying to ambush anything, it was sitting there on a small cleared out area on the lake floor... that's what i thought bass did during spawning season to protect it's nest... then i came to the conclusion that bass "bed" all during the spring, summer and early fall. i would just like to know still what it's really called then when they sit like that after spawn.

[Skeeter6598]

bassmaster, what is the deepest area of the pond you're referring to, and does it have much structure in those deeper waters. Those big girls may be up that shallow because they have to adapt to their enviorment. They may not have the necessary habitat that will allow them to be where most bass normally are.

As for the one you caught chasing a crappie, here's my theory. What is the main forage in that pond. That bass was probably keying on smaller baitfish and crappie compete with bass and eat the same things. That could be the reason she was running him off. She may not have been keying on eating a 6inch crappie.

[BassMaster]

it's about 15 feet at the deepest in this pond.  and there were plenty of better spots to hang around rather than in open water 3 feet off the shore.  there is fallen timber all on the northern side of the pond, about 15 feet deep at the dam with trees overhanging the water.  and in the summer time, since this pond is right off a golf course, there is grass all over the pond to about 15 feet off the shore line.  i caught the bass on the east side of the pond where the grass isn't quite as thick, but there is still grass.