Bass that are jumping. Please help.

[Dixon]

Just to clarify not talking about early morning when topwater is hot.  Me and my buddy where fishing a tournament today and everytime you turned around in this cove bass where jumping and making noise.   3 to 6 pounders.   

How do you catch fish that our jumping like that? Dont think topwater is the key. It was 11 to 1pm.  Please any tips would be great. We threw the tacklebox today.

[WRB]

How sure are you the jumping fish were bass? Carp often jump and make a load slapping noise, largemouth bass don't often free jump completely out of the water.

WRB

[b.Lee]

The only time I see that kind of behavior in coves is when bass are chasing shad into coves and you can see the shad boil at the top.  If you see this, throw a white spinnerbait where you see the boils and the slow roll it back.  I have caught many fish in this fashion. But the bite will be hot for like 10 minutes and then completely die.

[Jake.]

I bet that they were carp.

[Dixon]

I dont think they where crap.  If they where bass you could see them for a second to see about how big they where. 

[Red Bear]

swim bait or spinnerbait is what i would of tried

[pitchNbass]

I've very rarely seen bass jump completely out of the water, but I have seen it. Definitely not consistently, which makes me too wonder if they were bass. If they are breaking water, chasing shad and other baitfish, throw a jerkbait, cranks and swimbaits should get strikes. Bass breaking water mid-day must be some crazy weather conditions...

[Hammer 4]

I have seen bass jump completely out of the water to nail dragonflies.. ;D

[grimboy]

Me to.

[pinesangleroff178th]

In one of my local area lakes I have seen bass clearly leaping out of the water. After catching a couple of them I noticed why these particular bass in this lake may have been taking that faithful leap which was to remove parasites because two out of the four I landed had them nasty looking things on them.

[Sam]

Dixon,

In Virginia we encounter carp jumping and making big splashes on local tidal rivers.

Although entertaining, we know they are not the game fish we are seeking. But it is fun if you see one clear the water and land with that big splash.

I have had a bass jump out of the water to land on my Zoom plastic worm sitting on a lilly pad on the Nottoway River but that's the best I have ever seen a bass jump out of the water unhooked.

Chances are that the fish you are seeing are some other species other than large or smallmouth bass.

Try to get a better look and let us know what you think they are. 

[BASS33470]

They may be mullet. At lake Okeechobee we have them everywhere and they kind of resemble a bass when you glance at them.

[D4u2s0t]

I pretty regularly see bass jumping along the surface in my lake.(after the water warms up) When they are jumping, it's usually because they have the baitfish pooled along the surface. Bass will look for the easy meal, many times i'll throw a wacky worm right in the middle of the commotion, and because the worm is moving slower than the baitfish, it gets picked up.

[florida strain]

try a wake bait, or small shallow runing crankbait.

[hoss87]

hi there new to the site. thought id give some input on this topic. a few years back i was fishing a tournament and we were actually on a pattern that resembled what you were explaining. and what we did was throw spooks and flukes. we won that tournament to. you can either toss the fluke out and work it back in and you will catch fish. but i liked tossing the fluke out and letting it sit for a minute or two. the bigger fish are the lazy ones that will sit under the ball of shad and wait for the food to come to them. hope this helps and good luck next time out.

[YNCBASSMAN]

try a weightless worm or senko, throw it where they jumped and just let it sink and sit.  it works for me most of the time.  i let it sit for about 30 seconds, then twitch it a couple times and reel it back.

[BassThumb]

You might just have to sit still for 10-15 minutes and keep your eyes peeled.  Rather than chase after the splashes, I've done this and saw that the fish were gold, not green.   :-/

[Grey Wolf]

The last time I went out I saw 3 carp jump completely out of the water.

[Wild Bill [NY]]

I have seen bass jump completely out of the water to nail dragonflies.. ;D

I was just going to post the same thing...

[Chris]

If the bass are schooled up busting bait I generally throw a pop R, spit'n image or a soft jerkbait. If they reject it I throw a suspending jerkbait or floating trap and fish a little deeper.

[microman]

money minnow just below the surface, or a ratltrap

[wannabeangler]

My favorite lake is a small 300-acre with a LOT of grass and shallow flats (2.5ft or less). At certain times of the day (usually sunset) the bass go absolutely nuts. Smaller bass (2 pounds or less) will completely clear the surface and larger bass (4# +) will usually clear about 3/4 of the way and crash on their sides.

These are my favorite fish to target ... unless they're hitting bugs. I'm still slightly puzzled when it's a bug feeding day.

Anyway, in this part of the lake the primary forage is frogs. Unless a bass jumps twice (back-to-back), I don't bother with it for at least 10 minutes. If they pop two or more times in a row, then chances are higher that they missed their target and are usually primed and ready if I can get on them quick (within 15 seconds of the pops). If I can make it in time, I'll throw a weightless fluke just passed the ripples, work it forward and let is slowly sink. Couple of twitches and if there's no bite, then I quickly switch to a frog, shoot it passed the target zone, slowly work it on top of where the breach was and let it sit for a long while (up to a few minutes if it feels right). Couple of small twitches and then one harder tug and that usually does the trick.

Here's a picture of one these jumping bass. She was clearing almost completely out of the water about every 10-15 minutes during sunset. I waited until about 10 minutes after a jump and threw the fluke passed her and let it sink right where the last jump was. Tail end of sunset but most of that evening was targeting these jumping bass. =)

[brushhoggin]

hi there new to the site. thought id give some input on this topic. a few years back i was fishing a tournament and we were actually on a pattern that resembled what you were explaining. and what we did was throw spooks and flukes. we won that tournament to. you can either toss the fluke out and work it back in and you will catch fish. but i liked tossing the fluke out and letting it sit for a minute or two. the bigger fish are the lazy ones that will sit under the ball of shad and wait for the food to come to them. hope this helps and good luck next time out.

took the words outta my mouth. flukes all day this way. throw em near the boil and let em sink to the big lazy bass waitin for injured prey fall into their laps.

[The Bassinator]

If they were bustin dragonflies try a mayfly imitation on a flyrod or a streamer if it was shad

[RoLo]

In the fall, it's very common for schoolies to bust shad on top,

and hooking-up during a fall jump can be tough and sometimes downright exasperating.

However, "large" bass breaking in "spring" is a whole other ballgame.

In my own experience anyway, a big bass breaking in spring is an aggressively feeding bass,

and the closest thing I know to a sure catch. If I don't get an immediate response

I'll have to assume that it was not a bass (carp, alligator, tilapia, etc).

Bass have a relatively short lifespan (5 years is an old bass), as a result, the older and bigger

the bass, the smaller the school. Large schools of six-pound do exist, but are chiefly anecdotal.

Roger