On any body of water its easy to peer over the side of your boat and see some forage fish. Over the course of a day on water I can usually see 2-3 different types of bass food swimming around me, in addition to whatever the bass might regurgitate when I catch it. How do you guys determine what the bass are eating when you know that an area might hold 4 or more types of good forage species? I would love to be able to better tailor my presentation to match the tastes of the fish.

The only way to know for sure is to cut it open and see what is in its stomach.  If you're in to eating bass, you could just take a peep and see what it's been eating.  If that doesn't sound too good, you could always try targeting specific presentations when you fish (to mimic each of the baitfish) and see which one works the best.

Bass tend to target the most easily availble and abundant prey types any given day or night.

Baitfish are the most obvious but remember any fish from 1" to 8" like young of the year catfish, carp, bass, crappie, sunfish, bluegill, Shad, herring, smelt, suckers, sculpin and a wide variety of minnows are all bass prey. Terrestrial animals like mice, rats, lizards, snakes, large insects, frogs, salamanders, worms, crawfish make up a big portion of the basses diet.

Study the lakes, streams, rivers that make up the area you fish to determine what lives where you fish. You can also set out traps to see what colors the prey have when alive and wet.

Bass have a large mouth for a good reason!

Tom

 

5 hours ago, WRB said:

Bass tend to target the most easily availble and abundant prey types any given day or night.

Baitfish are the most obvious but remember any fish from 1" to 8" like young of the year catfish, carp, bass, crappie, sunfish, bluegill, Shad, herring, smelt, suckers, sculpin and a wide variety of minnows are all bass prey. Terrestrial animals like mice, rats, lizards, snakes, large insects, frogs, salamanders, worms, crawfish make up a big portion of the basses diet.

Study the lakes, streams, rivers that make up the area you fish to determine what lives where you fish. You can also set out traps to see what colors the prey have when alive and wet.

Bass have a large mouth for a good reason!

Tom

 

This.