cruising bass questions

[oldfella1962]

Okay here is the scenario with specifics just to keep things focused: I'm talking about a five acre pond with a maximum depth of about seven feet with clear water, some shoreline weeds and coon tail weeds with a typical bass/bluegill/shellcracker population and light fishing pressure in October near Augusta GA not involving a sudden cold front. I am fishing from the shore. Internet searches get into the "fall turnover"/deeper water/spawning thing when you type in cruising bass.

Anyway a pond I fish has schools of bass (about a half dozen of them generally) cruising around near shore all day and until dark - night fishing isn't allowed.
Some are decent sized, up to about three pounds or so. They don't seem spooked when you cast to them, they just meander off and often return in a few minutes or might never leave the area at all. But they are not hitting on anything in my tackle box. I'm using light line and trying different retrieves and depths but they show no aggression or interest.

I did some research on using nightcrawlers and sometimes this does the trick. But I'd like some advice from anyone here on the GON forum who has encountered this situation. Of course the big issue the articles mention is bluegills and other fish attacking the nightcrawlers but again the water is clear and I am very much "sight fishing" like I would be if they were spawning for example. So I would think that no bluegills are venturing into an entire school of bass to pick at a nightcrawler.
The only bluegills I see are feeding off bugs landing/hatching on the water quite a ways off shore.

Bottom line are these bass catchable and if so, would live nightcrawlers be a sensible technique for catching them?

 

[Batjack]

Okay here is the scenario with specifics just to keep things focused: I'm talking about a five acre pond with a maximum depth of about seven feet with clear water, some shoreline weeds and coon tail weeds with a typical bass/bluegill/shellcracker population and light fishing pressure in October near Augusta GA not involving a sudden cold front. I am fishing from the shore. Internet searches get into the "fall turnover"/deeper water/spawning thing when you type in cruising bass.

Anyway a pond I fish has schools of bass (about a half dozen of them generally) cruising around near shore all day and until dark - night fishing isn't allowed.
Some are decent sized, up to about three pounds or so. They don't seem spooked when you cast to them, they just meander off and often return in a few minutes or might never leave the area at all. But they are not hitting on anything in my tackle box. I'm using light line and trying different retrieves and depths but they show no aggression or interest.

I did some research on using nightcrawlers and sometimes this does the trick. But I'd like some advice from anyone here on the GON forum who has encountered this situation. Of course the big issue the articles mention is bluegills and other fish attacking the nightcrawlers but again the water is clear and I am very much "sight fishing" like I would be if they were spawning for example. So I would think that no bluegills are venturing into an entire school of bass to pick at a nightcrawler.
The only bluegills I see are feeding off bugs landing/hatching on the water quite a ways off shore.

Bottom line are these bass catchable and if so, would live nightcrawlers be a sensible technique for catching them?

I've had the same problem on the 2 acre pond behind my house for many years, call them "wolf packs". Best I can say is.. fish EARLY as is allowed or on overcast days, once the sun hits the water your done for the day (they can see the lightest of lines then). Wear camo and keep a broken background behind you.... if you can see them... they CAN SEE YOU. All else fails, hard head (crappie) or medium bass minnows either flat lined or a slip sinker above a 2 foot long leader. Good luck.

 

[oldfella1962]

I've had the same problem on the 2 acre pond behind my house for many years, call them "wolf packs". Best I can say is.. fish EARLY as is allowed or on overcast days, once the sun hits the water your done for the day (they can see the lightest of lines then). Wear camo and keep a broken background behind you.... if you can see them... they CAN SEE YOU. All else fails, hard head (crappie) or medium bass minnows either flat lined or a slip sinker above a 2 foot long leader. Good luck.

Thanks for the advice. Yes I was being very stealthy so when they didn't scatter for deeper water I figured I must not have spooked them. But hanging around and actually taking a lure are two different things obviously!

One weird thing happened - one of the bigger bass swam out from under a submerged log (about 18 inches under the water) right near shore and opened his mouth as wide as it went for about two seconds then closed it and slowly swam away. As far as I know it didn't eat anything. I hope there was nothing wrong with it.

 

[across the river]

Yes, they are catchable. Sometime bass get so honed in on what they are eating they won’t really pay much attention to anything else, especially if the place gets fished a lot. They best way to catch one is to fish with what they are eating, or if you an artificial purist, some that looks as close to what they are eating as you can get. If they are eating small bream from the pond, get a minnow trap or a small hook with worms and catch some, and fish with them. If they are eating
Mosquito minnows, shad, etc….., net some and do the same. You will catch some on live bait. If you don’t want to use live bait, fish with something that looks as close to the above as you can, especially in size.

 

[Dustin Pate]

I run into similar situations in some ponds I fish. A wacky rigged finese worm (usually a very natural color) will often get them to bite.

 

[hopper]

Senko no weight works pretty good. Super Flukes work good. Slither down near the water and cast as far as possible 6 to 12ft parallel from the shore. Alot of times in those small ponds once the see you it's over.
I use to catch small sun (2-3 inches)fish in the same pond I was fishing and tail hook em so they swim away from you, when that little fish hit the water it would take off and would trigger alot of bites even if the bass was looking right at me.

 

[oldfella1962]

Yes, they are catchable. Sometime bass get so honed in on what they are eating they won’t really pay much attention to anything else, especially if the place gets fished a lot. They best way to catch one is to fish with what they are eating, or if you an artificial purist, some that looks as close to what they are eating as you can get. If they are eating small bream from the pond, get a minnow trap or a small hook with worms and catch some, and fish with them. If they are eating
Mosquito minnows, shad, etc….., net some and do the same. You will catch some on live bait. If you don’t want to use live bait, fish with something that looks as close to the above as you can, especially in size.

No the lake doesn't get seriously fished all that much. As far as I know the bass eat small bluegills and shell crackers. Today I went there with small red worms targeting shellcrackers and bluegill and ignored the gazillion schools of bass. For some reason some of them were fascinated with my bobber. The worm below the bobber was ignored. Not a big deal, that first & biggest shell cracker on 4# test line on spinning tackle was about as much fun as a man can legally have! Now I need to find a way to locate concentrations of big shell crackers. The pond has some big ones because I've seen guys loading up a stringer with them in the spring. Most people have no idea the pond even has them in there.

But catching the smallest bluegills I can for bait makes a lot of sense. I've done that before at different lakes for bass and pickerel in the past.

 

[Batjack]

No the lake doesn't get seriously fished all that much. As far as I know the bass eat small bluegills and shell crackers. Today I went there with small red worms targeting shellcrackers and bluegill and ignored the gazillion schools of bass. For some reason some of them were fascinated with my bobber. The worm below the bobber was ignored. Not a big deal, that first & biggest shell cracker on 4# test line on spinning tackle was about as much fun as a man can legally have! Now I need to find a way to locate concentrations of big shell crackers. The pond has some big ones because I've seen guys loading up a stringer with them in the spring. Most people have no idea the pond even has them in there.

But catching the smallest bluegills I can for bait makes a lot of sense. I've done that before at different lakes for bass and pickerel in the past.

Big shell crackers love pink worms... IF you can find them, haven't been any around here since last year.

 

[Semi-Pro]

Catch a small to hand sized bream, hook it on the back above the spine behind the dorsal fin about 1/4 inch in. Put a cork about 4 ft. Up the line and chunk it out there. Give it a tug every now and then to make him start swimming.

 

[WaltL1]

The only way Ive got bass to bite under those same circumstances is to drag my lure in front of their face so many times that they finally got ticked off enough to bite it.
They werent "feeding", just trying to kill this thing that keeps bumping them in the face.

 

[hopper]

The only way Ive got bass to bite under those same circumstances is to drag my lure in front of their face so many times that they finally got ticked off enough to bite it.
They werent "feeding", just trying to kill this thing that keeps bumping them in the face.

? "The Old Irritation Method" time consuming but effective.

 

[sleepr71]

I have found that a Top Water Frog…twitched over them…will eventually cause one to explode on it. Time consuming,but exciting ?

 

[WaltL1]

? "The Old Irritation Method" time consuming but effective.

Exactly!

 

[Studawg170]

Throw a buzzbait parallel to the bank.....Long casts

 

[Beagler]

When I run into that situation, I’ve down sized to crappie size lures, small jigs and snd small crank baits. Sometimes it works and sometimes it don’t. It’s saved my day on a few occasions.

 

[Hillbilly stalker]

Cruising bass have always been the hardest to catch for me. Clear water would make it that much tougher I'm sure. One thing I learned about pond bass....they are spookey. I learned to never walk straight around the bank, that seems to alert the fish ahead of you. I walk back and loop around a little, tippy toeing the hole way. They seem to be sensitive to ground vibrations I figure. Traditionally a blue worm is best for clearer water. I would try the Berkley Power bait worms in natural or water melon seed color. Berkley is made of real proteins and have a smell all of their own.

I bought a handful of the Berkley power bait one summer at Wal mart for 50 cents a pack. I fished pretty hard back then. It was during the dog days of summer when its was just blistering hot, catfish have got the sore mouth and the bass just nose up to the bank and just sit there. I wasn't catching anything and getting very few bites, so I had to get creative. I put a weight less Power bait on a light spinning real and started throwing it up on the bank and easing it off into the water right in front of them. I would give it a little twitch every now and again. I started catching bass, and quiet a few . As I was leaving I met a dude at the mouth of the creek, he was pre fishing the river for a Bass tournament the next week. Big fancy boat, ZZ Top beard and all. We got to talking and he wasn't catching squat, so I told him what I was doing to catch fish and threw him 3 or 4 packs of the Berkley Powerbait. I left but saw the guy again later in the summer. He told me he had came in 2 or 3rd in the tournament and that was the only way he could catch the bass at that time. Point being you might have to get creative but keep it subtle. Might have to get a croaker sack full of walnuts

 

[oldfella1962]

Throw a buzzbait parallel to the bank.....Long casts

I tried long casts parallel to shore (I generally do that anyway) with a variety of lures of different sizes. I think I'll go with tiny small bluegills for live bait on light line on a cloudy day early in the morning. That should cover all the bases I think. I'm not waiting until spring when I have hammered them in past years, but that's pretty much a given for bass in general wherever you fish.