Current and Florida strain bass.

[Matt Fly]

In lots of parts of Texas, we are seeing gates open on lots of lakes and resorvoirs.  Major flooding!!!!!

There are species of bass that always turn on when certain lakes generate.     It is my observation on F-1's that they don't care for current very much.

Is that because they (F-1's) aren't used to the current in Texas.     I know all lakes have some type of current, just not like this on the norm.

What do you think the bass are doing with all this current that they aren't used to?

Matt

[senile1]

I don't get to fish for Florida bass in my part of the country, but I think they would probably find a current break of any kind like a point, midlake hump, brush, etc. and hide behind it.  

It seems like I remember from an In-Fisherman book I read a long time ago, that most bass originally came from rivers anyway and were placed in lakes and reservoirs later, except of course for natural lakes.  

The Florida strain handles the St Johns River in Florida just fine.  Maybe its not that much of a problem for them.    

[RoLo]

Water current is what truly separates the largemouth bass from the smallmouth bass, which require more dissolved oxygen.

I fished the Delaware River in New Jersey for many years, and there's hardly a riffle or pool without smallmouth bass,

but largemouth bass are conspicuously rare. Though I've never targeted largemouth bass in the Delaware,

we've caught them by accident. Without exception, largemouth we have caught by accident came from one of two

backwater lagoons, far removed from the main current.

Oddly enough, largemouth in manmade waters in Florida are turned on by water release currents, notably the Stick Marsh.

You can rest assured though, that the bass is behind or alongside a "current break" like a stump, hump, coquina chunk

or anything that creates a low-pressure back-eddy.

Roger

[Matt Fly]

Bass seem to have lock jaw with the gates opened on Fork, some are catching them, but numbers are down.

Matt

[George Welcome]

Largemouth love current if it draws food. No food, no bass. Today in current on a 1/2 day trip we caught over 60 bass. The bait setup for current is a C-rig. Look for fish in the heart of the current. Use enough weight to hold on the bottom but not so much it won't get swept along by the current.

[Matt Fly]

George, Rolo, and anyone else.

Fork is a resorvoir made up of 100's of creeks,    Not really much current as some other lakes generate from time to time, no river into said lake.

Gates being open is a rareity, how should this effect our bass that arent accustomed to this much current.

Matt

[George Welcome]

Current as a problem is a human problem. Bass's medium is water as a bird's medium is air. As a bird doesn't know what wind is, bass don't know what current is. It is all water to them. To them current only means an increase in food source in a given spot. They don't know current as some detriment to their enviornment.

The attraction to current has nothing to do with current but rather to the increase in food supply present. This is true for all the water inhabitants. Current loosens and sweeps diatoms and such into the mouths of shad. The shad move in because of food abundance. The bass move in because of the abundant shad.

Bear in mind that current can come from a relatively clean source devoid of primary foods. If this is the case then the shad will not move in, hence the bass won't move in. Also keep in mind that the water inflow must possess all the ingredients to sustain healthy life, and in particular dissolved oxygen.

Matt: I believe your gates are open to absorb flooding conditions into the control of the lake. This flooding is rainwater runoff, and rainwater is devoid of dissolved oxygen. Hence the food chain cannot sustain itself in this envriornment.