Bass Fishing - Best Way to Locate Bass (3/5)

Now after fishing the jig downward through the fifteen to thirty foot level we start hooking some bass at about the thirty foot level, this tells us most of the bass in this area of the lake will be concentrated at or near this depth. Normally I use my depthfinder to meter diving bird schools to see where the baitfish are located, this is the level where you will find most of the bass as shad is their primary food source in the summer on our local lakes.

You will find many of the bass have now left the shoreline for the midlake regions as this is where most of the shad are. Midlake bass are very tough to catch for the inexperienced angler without the proper electronics, so for now we will concentrate on shoreline bass. The bass also know the shad are in the thirty foot depth range so they set up shop near that depth and wait for a school of shad to wander by, then they rush out of their hiding place to grab as many as they can before the shad swim out of range.

Then it's back to their hiding place to wait for the next shad school. These bass are opportunistic feeders and will feed any time a school of shad or other prey come within range. Midlake bass follow shad schools around in schools of ten to fifty individuals and since the food is always near they go on feeding flurries two to three times a day. They hunt in packs ( schools ) so it takes
them less time to eat their fill than the bass whose strategy is to set and wait for their meals to come to them.

So unless you are there when they go on a feeding rampage, you won't catch many. In a later chapter I will tell you my methods for being in the right place at the right time to make some outstanding catches. After we have caught several bass off our "private bank" the fishing will always slow down, thats when I will change colors on my jig or maybe switch to a plastic worm to catch a few more before the bite goes away. If thelake is real crowded I will sit on the same spot all day as other similar spots will have been fished hard by other boaters and the bass just seem to turn off due to heavy fishing pressure and quit biting. When things get slow I usually
rest the spot for an hour or so and have lunch, then I can usually catch a few more fish before they shut down again.

Most fishermen spend the day running up and down the lake quickly fishing one spot after another and at days end have very little to show for their efforts except for empty $3.00 a gallon gas tanks. I ran to my favorite bank and set there all day using zero gallons of gas. It was a relaxing day of fishing and we usually catch quite a few bass by day's end. Sometimes when the fish quit hitting the artificial lures I switch to nightcrawlers fished weightless on a small weedless hook. Just cast it out and let it slowly sink to the bottom, once it gets to the bottom I let it sit for a couple of minutes and wiggle, after a minute or so I slowly reel it back to the boat. It should take about five seconds to turn the reel handle one time. Sometimes you will catch more fish while you are SLOWLY reeling the worm back to the boat, this is why you should always reel the live worm back slow and steady without any extra rod action.

Up next: Why I always carry two anchors with long ropes, this saves the day when the fish just don't seem to want to bite.