Little confused with some Bass Biology

[Guest the_muddy_man]

hey fellas: when I listened to Glenn's interview, he made the point that the most underutilized section of the site, was the bass biology articles. Alright I started reading them , had to give em a break due to school

The last thing I read that caught my eye , was that since Bass are cold blooded they eat more in warmer water, because their metabolisims speed up with body temp. increases.

I went out today, the lake is still very warm, and the fish stillholding on rocks and weedbeds as most of the summer has seen.

A guy I like to talk to at the lake said: Pretty soon they are gonna start gorging them selves on Shad for the winter. This was in response to a question I asked about Why do Rapalas and other plastic minnows work so good in the fall, better than during the summer.

So if the water temps are dropping, why would the fish eat more? I am confused because I have fished with him and he knows what he is talking about

[Glenn]

2 reasons:

1 - The falling water temps tell them winter is coming.  They instinctively know to "fatten up" for the long winter, when there's less forage and feeding opportunities.  You see all kinds of wildlife do this in the fall.  Bass are no different.

2 - Shad die off in the fall, and bass instinctively feed on the dying and injured baitfish.  It's nature's way of weeding out the weak.  It's built-in to their instincts, but also serves to "fatten them up" for the winter.  Kinda cool how that works, eh?

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Thanks Glenn> In the next couple of weeks Rapalas and Plastic Minnow imitations get real hot on my home lake in the fall

[Catt]

Dat why he the Boss  

[Jimzee]

Sorry Muddy,  I don't want to hijack your thread but instead of making a new one and it kind of relates to the question. I was wondering if most of the shad die in the winter or just the weak?   :-?

[Guest avid]

the strongest will survive the worst conditions.

I think another point is that this has been a very hot summer in alot of regions.   a bass is cold blooded to it's body temp will rise and fall with it's evironment.  Water temp in the high 80's in uncomfortable for the  bass. who want to just put their fin up, pop a top and watch the NFL like the rest of us.

[BassChaser57]

It is true to a point that bass will eat more with warmer temps. After the water temps reach the 80's bass will slow down again much like we do on a hot day. That is why bass are generally more active as the water cools some in fall just like we get more active in the fall with moderate temps.

8-)

[Sam]

May I suggest Dr. Keith Jones' book, Knowing Bass, The Scientific Approach to Catching More Fish?

Although parts of the book are contriversable among bass biologists, it is full of fantastic information on largemouth bass that you can put to good use.

The book is published by Lyons Press of Guilford, Connecticut.

It is a great read during the upcoming winter months.

Just get your yellow highlighters ready to roll and have some paper to make notes.  You will learn a lot about the animal and how to hunt it.

You may also enjoy Bigmouth and Bigmouth Forever videos or DVDs by Glen Lau.  His third production, The Feeding Habits of Bass, is extremely informative, too.

You can order the videos by calling 800.661.4286.

Winter is the time to catch up on your reading if you can't fish and to try to understand this gamefish.

[Matt Fly]

Threadfin shad will die wihen water temps reach about 45 degrees, and those that die are normally from the last few hatches of the season.   They are the    youngest and smallest in the school.

Also remember shad will spawn starting in March every 30-45 days and continue to spawn until the fall.    

A few weeks ago, our surface temps were still in the high 80's, its the shorter days, less daylight that signals fall is approaching.

A couple of things to consider when trying to catch open water bass that are feeding on dying shad.

Water in the winter time is very dense, the denseness causes the water in the winter to be or can be the clearest of all year because it doesn't allow things to mix in the water as easily.    

Use tighter wobbled baits because bass are normally feeding from sight due to the ultra clearness of the water.

A spoon just dangled over the side with no action is deadly when water temps are in the forties.     The dense water will make a dying shad slowly sink, I mean real slow, thus, anybait you can get down deep, and present with hardly any action if any at all will work.  

Matt

[Shad_Master]

Maybe the confusion is over the phrase "eat more" during hot water periods - I think the bass "feed" more often, but don't really begin to "eat more" until the water starts cooling.

[gatrboy53]

the key ingredient in a bass behavior is metabolism.bass optomize their needs. as the water temps rise bass needs increase.as they expend more energy they need to eat more.thats why in really hot weather they dont move much or they'll have to eat more.as the water temps start to cool their metabolism decreases which causes them to become more active which causes them to eat more.instictively, in the winter the forage becomes scaress and they know they need to store as much food to carry them through.also,being cold blooded creatures their metabolism slows way down,again causing them to become very inactive,almost hibernative in nature untill water temps start to increase again as the days get longer and forage starts its cycle all over again.

[Matt Fly]

Good questions for Doug H. and Lane.    I know that each LM strain acts differently.....ie,   Florida and Northern metabolism rates vary with temp changes as the season progress to the next.

Also, a bass know when its feeding for winter, thus it knows when to store fat for winter, and knows what nutrients it needs for energy and reproduction,.

Remember a bass will Kill and eat just to eat.    In short, a bass can eat, and eat, and eat, and puke it all up just to eat again.  

The larger females love crawfish in the winter, they are very nutritious, thus the Pig and jig works well for larger bass in the winter.

Matt

[Raul]

I agree but not entirely, the shad die off may be correct for places where there 's shad and shad die off but down here in the really deep south where water temps will seldomly drop to 45° shad die off has little or nothing to do with the bass exhibiting "fall" behavior because there 's no shad to die off or the shad doesn 't die off.  

So why do bass, Northern and Southern strain exhibit such behavior ? not really because the water cools or freezes over, they are gathering all the energy they can because they need it not to "hibernate" and survive the winter like fish in colder climates but because their spawning season starts much earlier than in the colder regions, as early as February starts down here ( in the lakes located at the coast ), in my neck of the woods late March is the spawn in most lakes and in late April - early May in the lakes located high above in the sierras.

[Guest the_muddy_man]

Thanks to all. Hey Matt: I caugth about a dozen decent bass yesterday, about 1/2 of them were puking out minnows, shad and one a partially eaten crawfish while I was taking the hooks outta thier lips

[jaystraw]

Thanks to all. Hey Matt: I caugth about a dozen decent bass yesterday, about 1/2 of them were puking out minnows, shad and one a partially eaten crawfish while I was taking the hooks outta thier lips

I've been seeing fish occasionally puking up minnows lately too when I'm de-hooking them ...interesting...

[Guest avid]

Thanks to all. Hey Matt: I caugth about a dozen decent bass yesterday, about 1/2 of them were puking out minnows, shad and one a partially eaten crawfish while I was taking the hooks outta thier lips

Muddy, nothing personal dude, but maybe you cover thier eyes.  I mean ain't the poor critters been through enough already?  

- this you ain't  

[BassHunter69]

Thanks Glenn> In the next couple of weeks Rapalas and Plastic Minnow imitations get real hot on my home lake in the fall

hey ya muddy!!!!

that one reason is why i like to use the rapala x rap in the fall it mimics a dying baitfish quite well with that jerk,jerk pause. shad and shinner x raps are the ones i usually like.