bass swiming with bait fish

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BASSED

New member
Now what?in my mind i'm told bass will be attacking anything that looks like bait fish.

Yesterday I had a short stop off at boskop,trying from the bank only,i was met with tons of small bait fish and a few larger kurper,but on closer looking found ,two or three good size bass mixing with the shoals of fish -they were not attacking them at all they were merly just swimming around in between them.I was on the nature reserve side trying to fish holes or cannels in the reeds.there was no chance of using any form of lures,to much grass/reeds .

 I tried frogs,fukes(shad) brush hogs small grubs all to no effect.Was it just my off day or what would you have tried?
 
H

HennieS

Senior Member
Bassed

I saw the same behaviour this weekend, the baitfish you saw a Boskop is more than likely Kurper. When I saw the bass cruising amongs the baitfish I kept a close eye on them and saw them take a swipe at the baitfish every now and again. It also took me a while to figure them out but I managed to get them in two ways. Very light line and a Jnr Fluke weightless (6Lb Line) almost dead sticking. Got 2 fish on this.

The second method was to use something that looks completely different to anything that the bass is looking at. I used a creature bait (Brush Hog) again with light line and the smallest texas weight, I got 3 fish on this.

I must admit I was a little suprised by the behaviour of the bass this weekend and I was struggling to find the logic in their behaviour. Needless to say I was relieved when I saw your post, it means I am not going mad! 
 
H

HennieS

Senior Member
Fishton

Thanks for the link, I wasn't suprised so much by the fact that they swim together I was more surprised by the amount of effort it took to catch these fish. Bass in the area of baitfish = hungry bass, which was not the case. Ussually it is fairly easy to catch the bass that feed.

The only way I could get a bite was to cast about 2-3 foot in front of the baitfish (To the deeper side of the water as I was on a boat) and deadstick the bait. Also the bite was not your typical feeding bite. It was more like a winter bite VERY subtle and I just felt the line get heavy. The other thing that surprised me was the fact that not one of the bass was spitting baitfish, ussually if they feed they will spit once caught.

I could not catch any bass in the shallow water, had to go a bit deeper and look for baitfish hanging around structure and fish the structure in about 3 - 5 feet water. I even got out the boat and walked the side and there was massive shoals of baitfish between 3 - 5 mm in size.

You know what they say if you don't learn on the water it is a waisted day's fishing!
 
B

BASSED

New member
thanks Hennies

at least i got some assurance ,great tips but hard to use from the bank with all the grass.what is the rest of the dam like,does it also have grass patches in the middel?
 
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HennieS

Senior Member
Yep it does, it is a Private dam close to RDW. I tried deeper +-10 - 15Ft but no joy caught some decent fish though average abuot 1.8kg. Biggest was 2.4Kg.
 
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