Why Are The Bass Eating Almost Everything We Present

[CaptainJoe]

All Winter long, we have read Fishing Report after Fishing Report documenting large shad fish kills. We have discussed, read, and witnessed a significant shad kill all this Winter. The recent FLW broadcast repeatedly reported that Table Rock Lake experienced the worst shad kill in a long time. Bill Babler posted report after report saying that he was seeing dead shad everywhere.

Spring is now here. We are now reading and experiencing large bass catches on a multitude of baits. The majority of these baits catching the most bass are shad-type baits. Why is this occurring? Are the bass shallow and concentrated and easier to catch? Are the bass more aggressive this year then in previous years?

Here is one theory. I believe that the bass are eating our baits because of a lack of forage. The shad are just beginning to spawn and until the shad hatch, the bass will continue to eat just about anything we throw. If you throw shad-type baits, you will catch even more bass.

This is just my theory.....what do you think?

[captmac]

Good thought add in the feed up for and feeding after spawn and that just about sums it uo imho

[ozarksfishin]

There is no lack of forage for the bass this year. There are still millions of shad just off the bank out to 40 ft. of water. We had a hard winter and it killed alot of shad, there are still plenty of them there! Heck I can even see the clouds of them on my X27C Joe, surely you can see them on your HDS 10. And the reason that the fish are biting so well and moving up on the beds is because the water temp shot up in a week. If you remember, last year about this time we were still catching them really good on stickbaits in mid 50 deg. water.

[Jeremy Rasnick]

This is the case every year.

The bass are biting a few different reasons. The water temp is mid 60's to possibly even 70. The metabolism has increased because of water temp. Bass are not only biting our baits to eat, they are biting our baits to move off a bed or keep it from going into a bed out of instinct. After the spawn, they will be biting to eat.

[Guest csfishinfool]

This is the case every year.

The bass are biting a few different reasons. The water temp is mid 60's to possibly even 70. The metabolism has increased because of water temp. Bass are not only biting our baits to eat, they are biting our baits to move off a bed or keep it from going into a bed out of instinct. After the spawn, they will be biting to eat.

Did I forget anyone who made the All American?? ... oh yeah ... that one guy ...who won the regional...lol congrats on that, i got a kick out of that at lake o

[CaptainJoe]

There is no lack of forage for the bass this year. There are still millions of shad just off the bank out to 40 ft. of water. We had a hard winter and it killed alot of shad, there are still plenty of them there! Heck I can even see the clouds of them on my X27C Joe, surely you can see them on your HDS 10. And the reason that the fish are biting so well and moving up on the beds is because the water temp shot up in a week. If you remember, last year about this time we were still catching them really good on stickbaits in mid 50 deg. water.

I haven't been in 40' of water in over a week. I am too busy catching them in 10' or less. And, in 10' all the fish are "giants" on the HDS-10.

[skeeter]

Interesting question.

Going back several years, the Winter of '77-'78 was far worse than '09-'10 with many coves and even some creek arms freezing over for the first time in TR's history. The water was incredibly clear and if a person walked out on an ice-free dock it looked like the bottom was littered with Silver Dollars which were dead Threadfin by the millions.

When that Winter finally broke in late March with a 3" plus warm rain the Bass moved up almost overnight to wherever the warm run-off was entering the Lakes and went Banzai crazy on anything anglers threw that resembled a crawdad. Here and on Bull it was a fish on every cast or you were in the wrong area where the run-off hadn't warmed the water yet. Never saw anything like it and probably never will again.

So, if the current year's Bass are hungry due to depleted numbers of Threadfin why aren't they eating crankbaits resembling crawdads ? Is it because of the huge "Rock snot" bloom this year that we can't fish those baits or ??? Heard some reports of success on Warts but very few. I've been in many areas where we just gave up throwing anything coming even close to the bottom out as deep as 15 feet due to "Rock snot" covering the baits.

Maybe the fish just grew accustomed to being able to easily pick off dying Threadfin and if an angler throws something resembling that, adding in the defense of their bed territory, they just can't resist. Anyway, even for a less-than-good fisherman like myself it sure makes for fun time on the water.