No bass, crappie/gill population?

[Koop]

If you all wander upon a spot and your catching say crappy or gills, is it unlikely there are bass there? I went to a spot and caught about 3 crappie and a gill on my 5" senko wacky rigged and one on a spinner bait. Not a single bass though, most of the crappie and gills were about 5-8". I thought to myself, that there must not be bass here, or the crappie and gill population wouldn't be so high, they would have bullied them away or eaten them. Not sure how entirely accurate it is, but was something I was questioning while fishing that area.

[-ebby-]

A lot of time i find bass in the same spots as the gills

[aarogb]

    Heck yeah bass will be there.  They love to eat Bluegills and Crappie.

[Koop]

I thought that as well DM, but I couldn't locate any real ambush points besides 1 weedline that I worked pretty hard a break wall and a small peir that all were worked as well.

I know where the bait fish are the bass will be, is the usual way things work. But does it still remain that way with little structure, few ambush points?

I guess what I was trying to decipher is how long I should have stayed there, the fish were active and there were a ton of bait fish but I didn't catch or see a single bass.

[Busy]

What is the body of water like?

I tend to think that bass like to keep to structure more than crappie and/or bluegill, but they shouldn't be too far off.

[Koop]

Was a small bay off Lake Monona, with a break wall around the edge holding about 4fow at the edges, a gradual decline out to about 10fow.  A weedline along a small ledge and a single small pier.  

[farmpond1]

Bass are not averse to sharing water with bluegill & crappie-especially if they can eat them.  But you can't always depend on it-especially if other prey such as shad or crawdad are more abundant elsewhere.

[Busy]

I'd say to follow that decline until you find a hump or ledge in it.

It's real easy to spook fish in 4' of water.

[Red Bear]

heres how i would find out. use a small hook and night crawler to catch a tiny blue gill. hook the blue gill through the back part of his lips and toss in the water near the bank. if a bass doesnt come looking for the struggling/jerking blue gill to eat it, then there probably not any in there. when i do this, if there are other blue gill around the one i have hooked the bass just seems to know which one to go after, it knows something is just not right with that blue gill. atleast this seems to work well in ponds for me anyways.

[Koop]

heres how i would find out. use a small hook and night crawler to catch a tiny blue gill. hook the blue gill through the back part of his lips and toss in the water near the bank. if a bass doesnt come looking for the struggling/jerking blue gill to eat it, then there probably not any in there. when i do this, if there are other blue gill around the one i have hooked the bass just seems to know which one to go after, it knows something is just not right with that blue gill. atleast this seems to work well in ponds for me anyways.

Well I didn't do that exactly but I did match the forage... I threw a blue gill swim bait for awhile with no success.

[WRB]

The bass are more than likely well fed and not responding to your lures. Try setting down in a place that you can see into the water, remain quite for about 1/2 hour and watch the water for bass.

You can also try fishing at night, the bluegill and crappie will be hiding in the weeds and the bass will be cruising looking for prey.

WRB

[12eal1ty]

I actually live and fish in madison a lot.  If you tell me exactly where it is I could at least you know if I've caught bass there myself.

[tnbassfisher]

I seem to catch about the same amount of bluegill as I do Bass while wading the river.