Just how smart you think a bass is about lures???

[tjm]

1 hour ago, TroutRinger said:

Idk. The only evidence I can offer is are those 10+ year old smallmouth that survive heavily pressured areas. 

I saw (was unable to catch) an easily 15” smallmouth on sinking creek last weekend in an extremely popular area. I’m certain that fish has had lures in front of it at least two to three days per week all summer for the last decade plus. It gave zero interest in my lures while all the 10” bass were all over them. Not a coincidence. 

What kind of lures? I think I have noticed that some flies catch only small bass while some never catch a small bass, don't have a firm pattern yet tho so I'll have to keep fishing for them. Coincidentally it seems the flies that take small small mouths also work better for large mouths than for larger small mouths. 

[fishinwrench]

59 minutes ago, tjm said:

I saw (was unable to catch) an easily 15” smallmouth on sinking creek last weekend in an extremely popular area. I’m certain that fish has had lures in front of it at least two to three days per week all summer for the last decade plus. It gave zero interest in my lures while all the 10” bass were all over them. Not a coincidence. 

And eventually some kid with a Beetle Spin will come along at just the right moment, and it will be caught.

What does that tell you?

[Bushbeater]

I believe Bass are conditioned to not eat on weekends. Try Tuesday evening.

[TroutRinger]

19 hours ago, tjm said:

What kind of lures? I think I have noticed that some flies catch only small bass while some never catch a small bass, don't have a firm pattern yet tho so I'll have to keep fishing for them. Coincidentally it seems the flies that take small small mouths also work better for large mouths than for larger small mouths. 

Tackle HD Craw, Tackle HD Hellgrammite, Zara Spook Puppy, Bitsy Tube, and rebel wee craw over a 20-30 minute period. 

[Old plug]

I can't totally agree with you AL on this point. LOZ has taught me a lot about  what and when bass will bite. there spots when time, place and things such s sun shade time of day all come together. When I meet those conditions I usually catch fish and many times larger ones Some of these spot or only active for a couple hours some less some more. I know that the same spot will not gert me squat outsideof that time and place frame. I have tested it many times by trying to catch fish outside the frame in those spots. I rarely can. If I do It is more than  likelyit to be a dink. Further those times will change.

[Old plug]

16 hours ago, TroutRinger said:

Tackle HD Craw, Tackle HD Hellgrammite, Zara Spook Puppy, Bitsy Tube, and rebel wee craw over a 20-30 minute period. 

Size of lure does matter to some extent. But it certainly is nothing to get hung up on. I caught a 19" bass about 2 weeks ago at close to 25ft of water on a 5" 'wacky worm..  And in LOZ some of the best fishermen I know will fish sometimes fish something larger but they have a great nack to fish a jig that would fit in the palm of your hand religiously.

[Mitch f]

I agree with much of what all of you are saying.

A buddy of mine on this forum owns property on an extremely clear stream. When I first got there with him, I walked up to a spot up on his bank that was the beginning of a big hole with a nice set of logs...my guess was around 6-7 feet deep. I chucked a WTD bait across the river and kind of worked it very splashy and very snappy...trying to draw a reaction strike. As the bait got close to the logs, which was no more than a few feet from where I was standing, I saw a big smallmouth right under it deciding whether to strike. He was literally 6 inches from my bait. I called my buddy over and he wasn’t able to see it. I told him this was a 20” fish, because I got a really good long look at it.

One week later, my buddy had a Stream Team event or water quality event in that same spot. One of the stream team guys cast a Beetle Spin out and caught a 21” Smallmouth right next to the spot where I raised that fish. Just goes to show that with different conditions and or different size lures, that a skittish fish can still be caught.

[fishinwrench]

1 minute ago, Mitch f said:

One week later, my buddy had a Stream Team event or water quality event in that same spot. One of the stream team guys cast a Beetle Spin out and caught a 21” Smallmouth right next to the spot where I raised that fish. Just goes to show that with different conditions and or different size lures, that a skittish fish can still be caught

I see this happen all the time.  The Spring Branch in Gravois is a place where numerous people pull over and make a few casts on a daily basis, and there's a spring inflow so there's always some fish hanging around there and alot of times they are larger than average.   

Guys that are exceptional fishermen will work it over diligently with a variety of baits, and blank.....then someone with a busted up spincast rig that can barely even cast, will walk right up behind them, throw some stupid rusty hooked plug 15 feet from NOTHING.... and hook a TOAD.  

Literally happens all the time.  

[tjm]

1 hour ago, fishinwrench said:

Literally happens all the time.  

And that makes one wonder just how smart (or exceptional) those bass fishermen are.

 

3 hours ago, Old plug said:

spots when time, place and things such s sun shade time of day all come together.

Ten minutes either way and I'm just getting my exercise in.  One of my favorite spots sees a gang of fishermen every week and >98% of them will catch hand size or smaller fish, but the few that hit it at the right moment can really bend a rod. I imagine that in other spots the fish have to work harder to get enough to eat and so are feeding at all times of day.

[Old plug]

On 8/3/2019 at 12:30 AM, Bushbeater said:

I believe Bass are conditioned to not eat on weekends. Try Tuesday evening.

Well that might be handicapping yourself. I live just off a point a mile or so down the Gravois from Coconuts Bar Restaurant complex.  Let me tell you the boats running up and down the Gravois  make tremendous wave action. Docks bouncing around so bad you cannot stand on them safely. On a few docks around my place. I could catch a some real nice bass in the middle of the hot days  buy wrapping my arm around roof support post to reel and letting the lure down in the dock with the other arm. Catching fish was almost virtually assured.  IF you were on the right docks between 1 and 3PM in the afternoon. That pattern disappeared about a week or so ago when we had that really hot weather.