Bait Fish Everywhere and Not a Bass to Bite

[Bob La Londe]

We have had scattered thunderstorms the last week,a nd the river is pretty muddy. Saturday I fished a Desert Bass Tournament. I headed for back waters to try and find some water that didn't look like chocolate milk. The first place I went was better than the main river, but it was muddier than I have seen it in the past. Still had visibility of a little over a foot. <br /><br />The rough part was we saw schools of bait fish distrubing the surface everywhere. I was really excited, but an hour and a half later with no bites I was getting concerned. We threw topwater near the schools, Crank baits under the schools, and tossed senkos to shoreline cover and standing trees in open water near the cruising schools of bait fish. Nothing.<br /><br />It was a tough decision, but I left the area. <br /><br />Did the darker than normal water just turn off bass in the area? There was a lot of baitfish. I saw as many as 20 small schools of bait fish rippling the surface and 2 or 3 large schools almost the whole time. <br /><br />I did get three hits from the same fish near a point, but he was buried up in the brush, and came out after the bait. He wasn't chasing minnows.

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Bait Fish Everywhere and Not a Bass to Bite

This time of year is a mess anyway, the bass have all the food they want and dont have to chase much. With the rain they may have been really shallow, I mean "REALLY" shallow, like in about a foot of water right on the bank. Did you try a spinnerbait shallow?

 

[Ron G]

Re: Bait Fish Everywhere and Not a Bass to Bite

our lakes have so many shad to,you can almost walk across the lake on them,hind site is all the part of fishing,but if a fish came out of the bush 3 times next time try flipping a jig in the bush.bushes, shallow water maybe a pattern was there.

 

[gonefishie]

Re: Bait Fish Everywhere and Not a Bass to Bite

same thing happened here on the Ohio river, one of the creek we fish on was pretty clear the week before and the shad was thick, my buddy caught his fish on crank bait and spinner bait. I fished the next weekend after some heavy rain during the week. The creek got muddy up, shad was still thick but I could get bit on any fast moving bait like crank and spinner. I had to soak my soft plastic, caught one deep and one next to the bank. Finished six out of 91 boats, man river fish are SKINNY!

 

[rayjay]

Re: Bait Fish Everywhere and Not a Bass to Bite

We currently have 'wolfpacks' of spotted bass prowling our marina. Nothing more exciting than walking along the raised walks and seeing 3 to 6lb spotted bass cruising along the banks .<br /><br />They can be hard to catch. I have been using a #3 Sabiki rig to catch blueback herring and then using them on the spots. I have been feeling crappy a lot as of late and haven't been able to devote enough time to the fish in the shallows. Mostly fishing in my slip in 26' of water.

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Bait Fish Everywhere and Not a Bass to Bite

Something else I may intergect:<br /><br />If the Bass wont hit anything moving around or under a bunch of feeding fish, you might try a small wieghtless worm or other plastic bait and cast into the feeding fish and just let it fall through them slowly. If there are feeding Bass there they may think that its an injured baitfish and hit it. This isnt the time of year for ripping a lipless crankbait, we need to be slow, slow, slow, and then slow down some more.

 

[Ron G]

Re: Bait Fish Everywhere and Not a Bass to Bite

also try a spoon on a slack line that works here at times,it looks like dying shad.good luck