Every month I try to tell you things that I do and how you can catch more fish. This month I’m going to try to explain some helpful things about bass that I have learned over the years of being on the water; my hope is that you can take this bit of information and put it to work with everything you have learned in the past to catch more fish. If you are new to the sport or you are just getting started, my suggestion for you is to read and learn as much as you can about bass. Then go fishing with some buddies to watch their strong points and combine that with what you have read to make it work for you on the water.
Now I will talk about some things you may have read about or heard in some of the fishing shows both on TV or in the sport shows we all enjoy going to each year. Some of the information I talk about you may not have heard and some you may have heard but just bare with me because I just might talk about something that may make you scratch your head and say I never thought about that and that it could help me catch more fish. Well I’m here to tell you that the more we learn about these little green creatures that swim in our lakes the better fisherman we will be. Now let’s get started.
First I’m going to tell you something that you probably heard someone say before and that is:
The ability to catch bass consistently lies in us understanding their living requirements and then thinking like a bass. I believe that 90% of bass in any body of water will be found in 10% of its area. I know that sounds like a pretty strong statement, but it’s true. Bass will concentrate in particular locations because of their survival needs. When we understand their needs, we then will catch more bass.
The black bass is very much a superb predator. It is equipped by nature to survive in a fiercely competitive environment, the under water world.
Now let’s talk about the nervous system of a bass.
First is his control system or brain. A bass has a small brain with no thought center. His actions are determined by what it sees and hears. He is a reflex animal, responding to stimuli by instinct and not thought. His strongest instinct is towards survival and away from any danger. His memory only last about fifteen minutes.
Next is sight, a bass has excellent sight. He has a horizontal, below-the-waters surface vision of 300 degrees, with the blind 60 degree area behind his tail. A bass is restricted to a 90 degree cone above the water due to the waters surface having sort of a mirror image to it distorting vision by surface refraction. It’s most short â sighted vision is the forward field, but this is when he sees the clearest images. The forward field is also where a bass has his most detailed sight and this is right where he needs it most for being able to take his prey, avoid his enemies and being able to avoid obstacles. His longer sighted lateral vision is more useful in detecting movements than in seeing clear images.
A bass has both rods and cones in his eyes, and can distinguish between primary colors and various shades. The clarity of the water, the amount of sunlight, the angle of the sun and the depth of the water affect colors. To us we look at colors and see them one way but to a bass it’s not the same. For example, in slightly muddy water, a bright yellow on the surface can appear orange at say five feet and at ten feet the same color will show up to a bass as red. When we offer a lure of one color the bass probably won’t see it as the same color as we see it that’s why we have so many different colors and shades of lures in our tackle box.
As with all fish, a bass is unable to regulate the amount of light that goes into his eyes so he will go deeper or hide in the shades or off colored water to help him see better and be more comfortable with the sunlight as it is filtered in the different locations.
Next is sound, did you know a bass can here? Well he can but you’re saying how, he has no ears. No he doesn’t have ears such as we do, such as an external ear flap or middle ear, but its inner ear is well-developed and can operate much like a human ear.
The upper part of the ear is concerned with balance in response to (a) movement involving angular acceleration that the bass may make away from a straight course and to (b) movement that involves gravity â up or down movement. The lower part of his ear is the seat of hearing.The ear will also maintain and regulate the tone of the body muscle and readies it for instant action.
The swim bladder of the bass plays a large role in its ability to sense sound. This gas filled bag within the bass acts as a resonator, a sort of long-range, early warning listening device that picks up and increases sound wave strength. By a bass having a swim bladder it helps him to achieve neutral buoyancy at which he has no weight in water. Water is approximately eight hundred times denser than air and is so buoyant that it almost neutralizes the pull of gravity. Most of his energy is used when swimming forward and to move backwards he only needs his pectoral fins, offsetting the propulsive force of water being pumped out of his gill chamber and this will help keep him stationary as well. This is how a bass can suspend itself over any depth of water.
Next is the lateral line as shown in the picture below. The lateral line is a narrow streak or black line on each side of a bass. The lateral line is a displacement sensitive sense organ housed in a mucus-filled canal that extends under the skin from his gill to his tail. The lateral line will send continuous transmissions of nerve impulses down the sensory fibers and connects them with the central nervous system. When the fluid in the lateral line canals is troubled by disturbances near the fish, the pattern of nerve impulses is changed. Have you ever slapped your lure against the water to remove moss or weeds well this sends out that danger sign which will spook bass. The frequency of the fluids in the canal will either increase or decrease. The lateral line sense enables the bass to track water disturbances caused by its school mates or stirred up by predators or prey. It is the lateral line sensing ability that enables a bass to track down and strike a black lure on a lake bottom on a black night.
Now let’s go to his environmental needs.
First is Oxygen: how many of us own oxygen meters to monitor the amounts of oxygen in the water? What part does oxygen play in a bass life? Well let me explain so we can all understand oxygen and what roll it plays in a bass life.
As with all breathing creatures, a bass requires oxygen to survive. It takes its oxygen from the water through its intricate gill structure (meaning complicated gill structure). I don’t know if we will ever understand how he can pull water through his gills and take the oxygen from it. I guess it was just Gods way to make everything survive. Well let’s get back to oxygen. The oxygen in a lake is present in small amounts, so small that it is measured in parts per million (ppm) of water. Eight to nine ppm is ideal for bass and five ppm are about the minimum amount a bass can handle.
Oxygen comes mainly from photosynthetic algae and bacteria, plus phytoplankton. A small amount comes from visible plants and surface winds. Water with sufficient oxygen will often lie in a stratum called oxycline. Below the oxycline, the water does not contain sufficient oxygen to support any fish.
Next let’s talk about temperature. As humans we like to be comfortable by not being to hot or cold. Well a bass is a lot like us in a sense that when the water temps get below 50 degrees he will get loggy and unresponsive, with a slow metabolism and digestion, and a small appetite. When we have a rise in temperature he will get an increase in both digestion and food consumption. In 60 to 65 degree water a bass is an active feeder; 65 to 70 degrees a bass is found to be a wide range feeder and he will feed very often. In 70 to 75 degrees he is in his most active and desired temperature and is feeding strongest. When the water is 80 plus degrees he will look for cool spots in the shade and he will move into depths of 15 to 30 feet and will often confine his shoreline feeding to 6 to 12 foot ledges. In temps above the eighties he will be very sluggish and not usually hungry.
Here’s another subject that a lot of fisherman speaks of and it is called Thermocline. Thermocline is something we could talk forever about but I’m just going to touch a small portion about it to give you an idea about it.
Depth of water is generally associated with temperature. At a certain depth, the temperature will drop rapidly within a foot or two. This transitional area is called the thermocline layer. It separates the warmer surface waters from the colder deeper waters. There is more oxygen in the upper stratum of this layer. A bass will look for the best combination of temperature and oxygen and can often be found at the upper layer of the thermocline, either suspended over much deeper water or in brush or submerged tree tops that offer shelter.
Feeding Habits, I have mentioned feeding habits before but let’s get into it again because I feel this is something that we all should know and think about when fishing.
Predator fish find their food by one of two methods. They either cruise around or rush their prey, or they lie in wait and pounce on their victims. A bass uses the second method. It is not streamlined like a cruising fish, such as a northern pike or gar fish that we have here nor is he particularly fast over a distance, though he can exceed ten M.P.H. in a spurt. A bass is heavy bodied, muscled and not designed to run down food. By using his eyes and ears and his lateral line he will stalk and strike his victim and end it in a savage attack. Seldom will a bass chase its prey and come from a long distance. By not chasing his prey at long distances it keeps him safe from other predators. He will position himself in a dark area or under a limb. By staying in the darker areas he not only is safe from his predators but he can see well out into the light making it easier for him to see and feed on his prey.
The sensing system of the bass allows it to pinpoint a particular target, even in a school, and to make a concentrated attack on this target. A bass quickly learns to conserve energy and to forage in a most efficient manner because of the way in which energy is supplied to its muscles.
Did you know that unlike a human being, whose blood is approximately 6.5% of body weight, the amount of blood in bass ranges from 1.5% to 2.5% of body weight? A primary function of blood is to carry oxygen in the form of blood sugar. As the bass exerts itself in feeding or fighting against the pull of a line, it burns the blood sugar to get oxygen so as to create muscular energy. As the blood sugar is used, energy is reduced and this is why a bass will loose his strength and roll over on his side or back in a fight which is what makes it easier to land him when he has been pulled up to the boat.
Next is food.The main diet for bass consist of smaller fish, such as shad, minnows, blue gill, and even small bass. It also loves crayfish, night crawlers, small snakes, and bugs, and have been know to relish frogs, mice, and birds, including small ducklings.
Last is Protective Cover!Bass live in and around structure. Generally, structure is any disturbance to the bottom, such as submerged creek beds, sloughs, humps, depressions, or any submerged objects that provide cover and concealment. Bass are seldom caught that are not on structure. One other thing to remember is that you won’t catch bass on all cover for all their surroundings must be agreeable with the fish.
I could go on and on about bass and the different things about them and still not ever tell you everything about them so I will stop for today and leave you a little food for thought. Bass fishing is like going to school, the more you go the more you learn and the more we learn the better we will be. So get out every time you can and put all you have learned to work see if it makes you a better fisherman.
Fishing this month will be one of our better months of the year for bass and crappie. Crappie will kick off their spring spawn as bass will. Bass and crappie are a lot a like; both will spawn in the same areas and pretty much at the same time.
Bass this month can be found in the shallows making beds and laying their eggs. There will be several ways to catch them and here are a few of the things I will do to catch good numbers of bass and along with the numbers I will also catch some really big bass as well.
First I will rig up with some 17lb test Suffix fishing line so that I will have a chance to land the really big bass that I find. Next I will rig up a rod with a Mr. Twister Comida soft plastic worm and another with 430 special spinner bait and another with a bug eyed jig.
I then will begin fishing the shallows with these lures. I will fish slow and cover all of my water very good by making several casts into the same spot so that I know I have given Mrs. Bass every chance to bite. Earlier in my article I mentioned temperature, at this time you will find the surface temps rising from the 50’s to the low 60’s and these temps will be the key to early spawn fishing. Bass will move onto their nest and lock in to lay their eggs and when they do this there will only be one thing to make them leave their nest and that is dropping water. Use the lures I mentioned and fan cast your areas so that you feel you have given the bass every chance you can and you will go home a winner.
Crappie will be up shallow making their spawning beds and the way I will fish them is to cast a 1/16oz. jig out near any grass or brush I can find. I will swim the jig through these areas several times to give the crappie plenty of chances to bite. Remember this when fishing for crappie if you are catching fish and then they just stop biting, normally you can change colors of your jig and they then will start biting again.
Both Lake Palestine and Lake Fork are at full pool so be careful when running the lakes. We have some under water structure that can be hit at this time due to trees falling when the lakes were down. I hope I have given you some info you can use to help you catch more fish on your next fishing trip.
If you need a guide then give me a call at (903)561-7299 or (903)530-2201 or email me at [email protected].
I guide for bass, crappie, sand bass and Hybrids and also catfish. If it swims we can catch it.
Until Next Time
Keep only what you can use and release the rest for another day!By: Ricky Vandergriff
