Hello,

could use some help. went out to a lake. we went shallow and decided to test some of the waters there. I put on my glasses and realized we were sitting right on top of about 10 good sized spawning bass!! it was a pretty site...

However, they knew we were there. sad day. nonetheless, we threw everything we had at them. I mostly tried casting pass the beds and dragging a jig with a vicious RT craw trailer on there. they didn't budge, but they also weren't interested in striking the lure...prob cause they knew i was throwing it.  :-[

anyways, in situation like this, are anglers pretty much out of luck on landing these bass? or is there some magic behind getting these bass into the boat?

I have tried a few different tactics in this situation. What seems to work is backing off for a bit maybe fishing another location for a little while, then returning (out of their sight) and pitching a senko past them and slowly twitching it through their bed. I'd say that it works about 75% of the time though, not all the time. Sometimes they just aren't interested at all.

All of my luck in this situation has been with a senko, I think that it presents an incredibly easy meal, that they are inclined to bite. Sometimes they will just pick it up and spit it out just to clear their bed of the lure, which is heartbreaking but what are you gonna do?

Good luck, hope this helps. It's what works for me best.

-Snogle

I agree with backing off and coming back later.

I would throw a bluegill swimbait from different angles and mixing up retrieves.  If there are that many spawning bass in the area, one will come to hit the lure.

Bet on it.

white spinner bait with a red head on it worked well for me here, even better than a senko has on bedding bass this year. but this was in ponds. a pond i fish a lot i believe the bass are coming off the beds now as i saw bunch of what i assume were baby bass swimming yesterday, mustve been 50 or more of them. as there are only bluegill and bass in the pond. dang near everyone i caught had the bloody red tails and fins. a couple weeks prior none of the ones i caught had that, and the bigger ones were biting yesterday and the day before. this is in northern virginia though, dont know about other places. but i was killing them the last two days on spinnerbaits mostly. t-rigged a trigger x frog which were on sale at walmart for $2 a pack and are not top water frogs, quickly caught two bass. the first one knocked the frog up the line, the second one, on the same frog, i saw the bass grab it when i paused and let the frog flutter to the bottom and i think he actually ate the thing because i never saw the bait come off when i set the hook or in the water right along the bank afterwards. but those are two options that could work for you

I don't waste my time on bedding fish, simply watching them will tell you which ones are aggressive and which ones aren't. You can really learn alot by spending 5 minutes and watching what the bass do, how they react to other fish, how they react to baits, how they work as a team, and in my opinion that is a more worthwhile 5 minutes than twitching a worm in it's face and trying to tick it off enough to bite. You will quickly learn that all but the most aggressive fish will not eat what they consider to be a threat, but will either chase it away from the bed or nip at it's tail a little bit. The SECOND your bait moves in a way that is not considered a threat, the fish will forget about it, and look the other way. I use the spawn as a way to learn more about the fish, and it's a great way to learn. Most times of the year, you don't get to really watch the fish like that, in my lake at least.

cool alright thanks guys. this is good information.