bass eyesight

[-t0pwater.fish#n-]

if you can see a bass, can it see you?

if so, will it still take your bait or are they like trout and swim away?

[WhiteMike1018]

Yes.

If you can see a bass depending on water clarity it can see you, if facing in the right direction. 100% sure.

Taking the bait depends on a number of things, but your a lot better off concealing yourself and than trying to catch it. Thats also 100% true.

GL -WM

[Ryan S.]

like whitemike1018 said if you can see it it can usually see you, but by the time you see it it has probably felt your vibrations and already knows your their

[John J.]

Absolutely! Try to wear clothing that blends in with your surroundings (mainly the sky) if it is a overcast day wear white, or whichever to blend, if it is a clear day wear blue or other colors to blend in.

Sometimes they hit a lure (depending on how real it looks) such as a worm or crawdad (plastic). Be selective on your equipment, I would use a light line (less visible) and natural color lures. Chances are the bass may hit. Try different things to entice them to strike.

good luck!  8-)

[Ozarkie]

Fish can see you at longer distances than you can see them. The fish eye is designed that way.

I fish rivers and creeks a lot I have found that wearing camo certainly helps. Not the dark camos but camos that blend with the skyline or grays that look like rocks. Yes some people llol at me on the creek or river but I catch bigger fish so  who is really loling.

IN stained or colored water it may not be so important.

[cpvenom]

Just the other day my friend cast his lure to see a bass dart from right under his dock and follow the lure through the air. Once it hit the water, the bass was on it and hooked. This proves that they have excellent vision.

[Ozarkie]

Sunday we were fishing for trout on White River. My wife caught a chub, when she threw it back a large trout hit the chub the instant it hit the water.

We were less than 10 feet from the trout, we never saw the trout until it took the chub, so either the fish had followed the chub to the boat and was just hanging near the rocks. Anyway the trout took the chub and we never saw the trout until then.

Yep the trout saw  the chub flying thru the air.

I have caught bass the instant the lure hit the water along with pike some in  not so clear water.

[FIN-S-R]

Here is some food for thought, and a little perspective tweeker. Last night I took my son to the top secret double pond behind the in-laws....Its loaded w/ giants and they are dumb as..well..fish, but anyway, As we were walking down to the pond we came up to "the crawdad hole" its a little mud puddle and completly full of crawfish. We noticed from some distance quite a comotion going on in the hole from crawfish retreating to their hidin' spots. There is no way they could see us, we could only see a very small part of the hole, and like I said were some distance away....i figure they felt vibrations from our tramping through the pasture. We stopped and sat still for a bit at the hole, and life returned to normal with the little backward swimmers until my son whispered to me. Immediately the critters retreated to their sanctuaries again. I realize crawfish arent bas, but this should allow a little insight to the ability of critters to detect intruders into their environment well beyond anything we can wrap our brains around. Now if a bass can sneak up and chomp down on a crawdad, whos the more sensory well eqipped? I know there are other factors at play in a situation like that, but considering the total package, the bass has the edge on the crawdad, and it seems more than likely on us bi-peds too.

[Bankbeater]

I am wondering if heavy fishing pressure makes a difference.  Will a bass that sees people fishing from the shore on a regular basis spook less than a bass that only sees people in boats occasionally?

[-t0pwater.fish#n-]

thanks for all the feedback guys

[FatBoy]

I am wondering if heavy fishing pressure makes a difference.  Will a bass that sees people fishing from the shore on a regular basis spook less than a bass that only sees people in boats occasionally?

I've wondered about this one.  I don't KNOW the answer, but I have an idea.  Bass that stop being spooked because they get used to people don't last very long.  

[cpvenom]

I think it also depends on what the people are doing on the bank. If they are jogers the bass may learn that they pose no threat. If everytime a person is nearby, bad things happen, the bass are probably much more skittish.

[longhair]

I have also wondered that about sound.  We know it travels in water and bass can pick it up from a distance, but there are so many noises out there how can they tell what's what.  An example would be docks.  A few waves on a lake and they will creak and bang around.  Yet they are a great spot to catch some big bass.  Then they say to be quiet in your boat so that so don't spook them........

[Avalonjohn44]

I don't know what to think.  All I know is that some of my biggest bass have come a few feet off the bank where I am standing. A few of those have been nesting fish, but my PB came on a buzzbait directly in front of me, only a couple of feet from shore, I was about to stop reeling and pull the bait in for another cast.

[Bass Smacker]

I think it all depends on there mood. I know that they can see us. I have hooked many a bass just a few feet away looking at me. Other times they look at me and as soon as my bait hits the water they just slowly swim away as if to mock me  >    

[Banor]

It can go either way.  During the spawn all bets are off.  Smallies will attack anything that goes near their bed even if it's connected to your pole and you are sitting over top of them.

In the fall I've had a bass just sitting about 3 feet from my boat staring at me.  I dropped a senko wacky rigged over the side and he attacked it.  That was the quickest boat flip I've ever had.

It just depends on the fish's mood.

B

[Shad_Master]

One question that has always occurred to me is the professional fisherman telling me to wear clothing that will cut down on the bass' ability to see me while he is fishing from a boat wrapped in every color under the rainbow -- what's up with that?

[grimlin]

One question that has always occurred to me is the professional fisherman telling me to wear clothing that will cut down on the bass' ability to see me while he is fishing from a boat wrapped in every color under the rainbow -- what's up with that?

;D I never thought about that till you said it.

[roadwarrior]

Well, a couple of months ago some of us spent a few days at Lake Fork. There was EXTREMELY heavy fishing pressure, lots of colorful outfits and some VERY clear water (depending on exactly where you were on the lake). As a group, we caught fair numbers and a couple of nice bass. Our favorite Administrator and his wife caught two GREAT bass in shallow water that had been fished constantly by a few HUNDRED boats. Maybe all this talk about bass eyesight, colors and noise comes into play on ocassion, but that certainly wasn't my observation in Texas.

[hank]

i was fishing in shallow cover

and the bass seen me and it

swam away  :'(

[IdahoLunkerHunter]

Bass have extremely good eye sight and rely primarily on water vibration and then look toward their sight, that's what I think atleast. If you can see a fish, it sees you. That doesn't mean that you have screwed yourself because most bass, will still hit your bait if it doesn't feel overpressured by your presence. I still feel that trying to blend in to your environment and having the least amount of presence plays a huge part in catching any fish. I catch a majority of my fish blind and feel for the strike.

[joe bag o donuts]

Unless they are on a bed most of my bass have been cught 'blind'.

You can see a bass react when he sees you. Normally they will begin moving thier fins quicker and then if you come ven closer they'll swim away.

If they have seen me I usually back up and try to throw to them form very far away. Or I'll try to get my lure to them without waving the rod around so as to not spook them.

[ValleyBoy]

Bass have excellent eyesight. I do nothing but bank fishing and I have seen them swim away when ai am still 10 feet from the edge. If you can see them, they can see you.

[RoLo]

There's no doubt that bass have keen eyesight and possess highly developed vibration sensors (can be said of most fish).

It's also true that if you see a bass, the chances are better than even that the bass also see's you.

Though Mother Nature did a fine job on black bass, she did short-change them in one area.

The memory bank of large and smallmouth bass is extremely short-lived.

I've made serious mistakes over known holding spots. That is, I've slid in too close and accidentally seen my quarry (that's bad).

Occasionally, one of us has dropped a heavy object (like a pair of scissors) on an aluminum deck.

Rather than waste time by pretending that all is well, I'll close-up shop on that spot, fish the next holding site on the intinerary,

and then return about a half-hour later. A 30-minute wait is typically sufficient for bass amnesia to kick in, where all is well again.

Roger