i was fishing in a creek yesterday. catching small spots on 4''worms with ultralite gear and having a blast. i caught 1 and noticed 2 dead large flying male fireants in his mouth. thought it was odd showed the guys in the boat then threw him back. a few fish later a spot around a 1lb threw up a teaspoon of the same ants in various stages of digestion onto my deck. 

ive never thought of bass keys in on something like swarming ants. very trout like to me

 

 

i wish had had my fly rod and tackle box with my brim ants. wonder how well matching the hatch would have worked. 

and going by our success the zoom worm hatch was on as well 

 

On rivers and creeks, especially smaller ones, i have found that bass are opportunistic feeders much like mountain stream trout.  Pretty much anything that floats by can be a victim.  I have had great days catching bass on the fly rod when using cricket flies and the bass decided they wanted them more than the sunnies.

Smallies can keu on bugs sometimes, would not surprise me if largies do too.

One of the absolute best smallmouth baits is a hellgramite both in the larvae stage and fully winged.