Identifying waters that hold bass

[snyper564]

Ok i would just like to pose the question of how do u no that a dam, quarry river has bass in if u cant physically see them. Is there a way of knowing for certain if there is bass some way of telling? Like how do they break the surface of the water will they jump out etc. i have seen carp do this do bass do the same? or do they just surface enough to make slight movement on the water. Or is the only way fishing the water and seeing wat happens

 

[Gapie]

The way that i do it is, i take my fishing rod, hook a lure on it and see if i can pull out a piece of bass. most of the times this doesn't work for me. so if there is a nother way of checking then i also want to know.

 

[HennieS]

Snyper

In my experience the bass only break water for two reasons, when it is feeding or when trying to throw a lure. Obviously the water break is ussually aggressive because it is chasing something, most of the time you will see bait fish scatter. In a lot of dams, Harties comes to mind, you will never see them behave this way because their feeding method is different, so be carefull to judge a piece of water on what you see the fish do. In Witbank for example their staple diet is crabs, they dont need to break water to catch a crab!

The art lure boy's is specialist in identifying fish when they break water, maybe they can help a bit more. Ryan? 

 

[CarloT]

A good way of telling if it bass jumping or not is to check if there are dragonflies close to where they jumped. I recon 50% of bass jumping are cause they trying to chomp dragonflies!

 

[BigBass]

You guys may find this "Bass Splash" article interesting: http://www.bigbass.0catch.com/id2a.htm

Another sure sign of Bass is when you see them smashing into schools of baitfish (or the wild surface disturbance of panic stricken baitfish breaking the surface or "beaching" themselves) ... You probably won't see this too often, but it does happen and it is quite something to experience ...

Also, if you hang around any body of water in the Bass spawning season (Sept - Nov), you should see some big Mommas in shallow water. After the spawn (Dec - February), check out the fry in the shallows - baby Bass are relatively easy to spot. Those with Florida strain genes should have a vertical black "stripe" at the very end of their tailfins ... Another good reason to invest in some good polarised "shades"!

 

 

[Ryan]

In my experince.
Often airborn insects/birds end up falling in the water along with land based animals - maybe the case thay they are well "Trying" to get to the otherside so to speak.

Lets face it Bass are not only predators but they are opportunists and in the case of LM bass ambush hunters.
Hunting something on the surface allows them to get up close to their quarry without being detected much like a croc would do and then launching themselves in a last minute short burst of speed so as to overcome and swallow the prey before they know what has hit them. Bass have a very distinctive gulp and splash sound when they hit something on the surface.

Many fish break the surface to rid themselves of parasites and interesting one can actually Id the different groups with a practised ear. Carp sound like a mini whale breaching (lond slow dull splash). Kurper on the other hand have a fast splash often accompanied by a "prrrttttttt" as there little tails break the surface pulsating at high speed. Barbel on the otherhand tend to slap the water.

On the subject of ariel attacks when I worked on the zambezi I had a few experinces where tigers jumped out the water and nail "spoons" that were inbound -awesome experince.....

 

[Southpaw]

Was lucky enough to see a few schools of blue gill being smashed by bass one day this past december, what a awesome sight.

 

[scuba]

we had bass smashing at RDW at the C4C...

 

[CarloT]

happens all the time at AlbertFalls between Dec and March!

 

[snyper564]

Thanks alot guys for the info it really helps alot

 

[100% African]

[color=#006600]BigBass[/color] wrote:

You guys may find this "Bass Splash" article interesting: http://www.bigbass.0catch.com/id2a.htm

Another sure sign of Bass is when you see them smashing into schools of baitfish (or the wild surface disturbance of panic stricken baitfish breaking the surface or "beaching" themselves) ... You probably won't see this too often, but it does happen and it is quite something to experience ...

Also, if you hang around any body of water in the Bass spawning season (Sept - Nov), you should see some big Mommas in shallow water. After the spawn (Dec - February), check out the fry in the shallows - baby Bass are relatively easy to spot. Those with Florida strain genes should have a vertical black "stripe" at the very end of their tailfins ... Another good reason to invest in some good polarised "shades"!

Read the article, which is interesting, but i've experienced the bass splash many times and most of the time they are not big, by any standard. Once in dec I saw some splashes, which I heard first, and decided to fish the spot. It seemed like the bass were interested in top water bites but I was only equiped with a zoom g tail worm. All other tackle was in the car. I re tied my rig, weight less and retrieved fast with the rod tip held high. No luck... Cast in the same place and just let the worm slowly sink to the bottom and bang... i was on. got about 4 or 5 fish in as many minutes but all were scrappies under 300grams. 


Basically to make a point, i'd say go out there and try for the fish. try everything you can until you get something. I've read most of the articles around and a few books. All just give insight and perspective. If you look hard enough you'll find a story or article to proove anything, which proves that fishing is not an exact science. You have to experiment and see what works for you...

tight lines

 

[Little Green Fish]

[color=#0066cc]Ryan[/color] wrote:

......... and interesting one can actually Id the different groups with a practised ear. Carp sound like a mini whale breaching (lond slow dull splash). Kurper on the other hand have a fast splash often accompanied by a "prrrttttttt" as there little tails break the surface pulsating at high speed. Barbel on the otherhand tend to slap the water.

 

Now all I have to say this Thanx, Ke a leboga, Dankie, Merci, Gracias, Danke Shon for now I am sure I've got the practised ear and it's not those little voices getting too loudalthough the wife might disagree